DCRainmaker on the New Suunto Race 3S

Ray Maker took the new watch through its paces:

Suunto has just announced the new Suunto Race 3S, a small-form-factor watch that believes it needs a big-form-factor price increase.

Suunto releases the titanium watch first and hasn’t announce a cheaper steel modal alongside it. This is something they’d done in the past and I wouldn’t be surprised if the cheaper steel model will follow in short order. So Ray’s price increase comment here seems a bit of a stretch as the previous Race S Titanium was $449.

The price of the Race S Titanium went from $449 to the new $599, not the $349 he mentioned. Given the overall RAM and shortage due to the AI datacenter hype this seems like a price increase in line with the rest of the market.

I do agree with Ray that the watch seems expensive compared to the rest of the lineup. It now sits in an odd place with the Vertical 2 being $599 (Steel) and $699 (Titanium) and the Race 2 being $499 (Steel) and $599 (Titanium).

Their entry level watch, the Run 2 already has seen a big price increase from the first iteration to the second. One can assume when Suunto will upgrade the Vertical and Race from 2 to 3 models we will see the price increases bring their product back in line. This might be good time to pickup one of these 2 models right now before that happens.