Suunto Updates Vertical Watch

Suunto updates their flagship product, the Vertical 2, just in time for the holidays.

A few quick observations:

• The Vertical, when first launched, was produced in Finland, and that was a special selling point. Production has since moved to China – like all their other watches – and any other tech product on the market. (Reminder: Suunto, while started in Finland is now owned by Chinese Liesheng – not much is known about the company in the west, beyond their ownership of Suunto).
• The Vertical 2, just like the Race 2 now finally ships with a charging cable that is UBC-C. There’s still no USB-C cable to purchase for the rest of their products.
• Suunto upgraded/refreshed almost their entire product line over the last few years – this is a welcome sight.
• Suunto removed the solar charging feature compared to the Vertical. This reduces battery life in some functions by almost half.

When the Vertical line was first announced I was really excited about it, but Suunto soon followed up with their even more stellar – and cheaper Race, which I bought and has been a rock solid product (outside a couple charging hiccups due to their absolute abysmal charging cable). For trail runners the Race is probably the best choice, the Vertical 2 is aimed at “adventurers” looking for backcountry navigation features and other “serious things” in their watch.