Suunto Elementum Terra comes in a pleasant, hefty, painted cardboard box, which is properly lined. Inside the package is a manual, a plastic material warranty card, along with a polishing/cleaning fabric.

My very first impression was that the watch was weightier, but smaller than my Suunto Vector and Suunto Core. It does feel a tad thicker however. It's a really wonderful, formal watch. After getting it on, it does not seem too weighty. Its got a good weight to it.

Case and Crystal: The case is made of stainless steel, having a matte/satin finish to it. It appears quite nicely made, and incredibly sturdy. You can find three buttons on the right hand side, that all move very good. Firm, but with no click. The top button is a scroll wheel, for scrolling through menus and making changes. I wish my Suunto Core had one. The scroller also goes easily, with confirmation clicks.The case is water-resistant to 100m (~300 feet) and based on the manual, the buttons May be pushed underwater.The Terra face is a flat, sapphire crystal, that also comes with an anti-glare coating on it.The buttons seem to stand out a lttle bit, but in practice they do not get in the way, or pressed unintentionally.

Strap: It come with a number of different bands, leather, stainless, or rubber. Mine had a nice black leather band. It's some white sewing across the edge of it, which actually sets it off beautifully. The band is very thick and strong, but is still comfortable.

Display: The Terra I managed to get has a positive display, which i like Additionally it is provided with a negative display, for individuals who like that better.It uses a more traditional segment display for numbers, just like the Suunto Vector. Thus, it won't plot out any charts/graphs of the elevation or air pressure like the Suunto Core does. The backlight is incredibly bright. A lot better than I've ever seen on any other Suunto watch.

Functions: Suunto has of course kept the features to a minimum amount. I am pretty sure that's because it's actually intended to be a luxury dress watch. It's actually something to wear to the office or a gathering, but will still function out in the wild, albeit not as well as the Core. The Terra only has two modes, Time/Altimeter and Compass. The primary display of the Terra displays a lot of information. In the top row, you receive the present height, the center row gives you the time, and also the bottom row gives the day. Near the top of the display, you receive the pressure trend arrows, and around the perimeter you get the sea-level barometric pressure. The face of the Terra doesn't have a rotatable bezel such as the Vector or Core. Rather, a circular chart is present for reading the Sea-Level barometric pressure.

Steve Burgenson is a long time watch collector and knows few things about them, particularly the outside/activity kinds. So his opnion on Suunto Elementum and especially his favorite Suunto Elementum Ventus might be taken into account before buying one. For more info: http://suuntoelementum.com/

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In comparison to Swiss design, the Finnish have made quite a competitive watch. The case of the Suunto Elementum Ventus is world class having a "carved not stamped" experience to it. I value the sapphire crystal, but I am frustrated that it must be nor glare-proofed or domed. Thus in a pinch, you should use it as a mirror to fix your hair.

The pushers perform very well, even though much lauded "spinning A pusher" appears just a little less than "swiss rugged" if you ask me.

The display.... alright, after many years of Swiss timepieces that perfectly performed legible negative displays, I do not "get it" with this particular watch. Why can't Suunto make a negative display with enough quality and contrast to contend with the likes of a Breitling, TAG or RADO? Through my limited knowledge of LCD technology, the gap between a positive and a negative display is the polarizing filter. There isn't much else into it. So I'm puzzled why this is so difficult to read.

I'm pleased with the function of the watch. Suunto seems to have sought to make this particular watch as uncomplicated as possible! You'll find basically four modes.The actual main time display which could show either barometric pressure numerically or, in the same spot, display the dat. The barometric log, which can be utilized by rotating the A pusher counter clockwise and scrolls the baro graph by hour increment. The compass, accessible via the C pusher in all modes except when the "race timer" is going; and also the race timer itself.

The count down chronograph is quite... difficult. It resets to zero by holding the C pusher after it has been ended by pushing the A pusher. When zeroed, it takes on 5 mins as the start time, though you are able to rotate the A pusher to modify this by minute steps. If set to zero, it works as a modest chronograph. Why modest? It counts 10ths of seconds until 1 minute, after that changes to minutes and seconds, after which to minutes only. As for the last mode, it's impossible to detect it is still running without catching a digit change. In contrast to the "regular" convention of flashing the ":" to show a going chronograph, the ":" is static. Furthermore regrettable is the fact that, whenever ended, the timepiece will never display the greater precise readings. Compare this to an Aerospace Watch, where once the chronograph is ceased, the timepiece alternates between showing the minutes and the seconds, to enable you to at least access the level of accuracy stored in the watch.

Mario Bosemon is a long time watch collector and knows few things about them, specially the outdoor/activity ones. So his opnion on Suunto Elementum and especially his favorite Suunto Elementum Aqua may be considered before buying one. To find out more: http://suuntoelementum.com/

Posted under Watches