Sleek new Suunto 9 Peak is slimmer, lighter and goes longer

Suunto has launched the Suunto 9 Peak, its thinnest and lightest endurance sports watch.

It’s 37% thinner and 36% lighter than the Suunto 9 Baro, and it’s designed to be more comfortable for everyday wear and slide under sleeves and clothing more easily.

You still get 170 hours of GPS tracking in Tour mode, which reduces the amount of satellite pings (and thus accuracy) but you will get 25 hours of full “best” GPS tracking too. What’s more, it will fully charge in one hour.

There are two versions, and the titanium weighs in at just 52g and costs $699. You can save money and get the steel version for $599, although that weighs 62g.

Both versions wrap around a 43mm case, which shouldn’t trouble even small wrists, helping it be more unisex. That houses a basic 1.2-inch transflective LCD display, which is more akin to the likes of the Fenix 6 than a full AMOLED like the Apple Watch Series 6.

The Peak moniker reveals it’s loosely aimed at trekking and climbers, so there’s an SpO2 sensor built in to monitor blood oxygen – something that people that spend time at altitude can certainly make use of. This has been implemented via one-off readings, which would be best used for spot checks as you ascend – or acclimatize at basecamps. However, you won’t get the continuous night-time or day time monitoring you’ll find on the likes of Apple Watch, Garmin Venu 2 or Fitbit Sense.

But there are more than 80 sport modes, with all the usual suspects present, including swimming. And naturally there’s an optical heart rate monitor built in, too.

There’s not too much for hardcore runners – but the heatmaps feature has made it across from the Suunto 7.

Trekkers can benefit from on-watch breadcrumb navigation by importing GPX files into the Suunto app or using services such as Komoot. However, it stops short of the mapping you’ll find on the Fenix 6.

The Suunto 9 Peak will be available to buy from 17 June.