Words: Jakob Schiller
Suunto Ambit2 S Watch
Unless you booked a ticket to Chile or live in Alaska, ski season is over. It was a good one, but it’s time to move on. Stop lusting after Dynafit’s Beast 16s and start thinking about your summer gear needs. How are you going to get some color back in those legs? What’s it going to take to burn off the summer beer calories?
One of my favorite new summer accessories is Suunto’s Ambit2 S watch. It’s like a computer on your arm that helps you maximize workouts so you’re in top form when the snow starts falling again next winter.
We could spend pages trying to explain all the features packed into the watch, but here’s what you really need to know. It uses GPS so it can track things like speed, pace, distance, and route when you’re running, hiking, biking or in the pool.
Paired with ANT+ technology the Ambit2 S can measure things like bike power and heart rate. There’s also a GPS altimeter and 3D compass. For the true fitness geeks, Suunto built software that allows you to synch the watch with your computer and keep an eye on your progress over time.
As with your smartphone, there are more than a thousand apps you can download onto the Ambti2 S. Many of the apps are built for summer sports, but there are also several that are skier specific, like the ones that track how fast you’re skiing or how many runs you’ve done at the resort.
You might ask why someone would drop $400 on a watch when your iPhone can do a lot of the same stuff. We had the same question and here’s our answer: ease of use and durability. It’s easier to check a watch than a phone when you’re out exercising, which is why many people expect Apple to pump a watch out down the road. And when you fall off your mountain bike going Mach 2, or tumble off a cliff in the Wasatch backcountry, the watch has a better chance of surviving.