Suunto triathlon watches compared: which one to choose?

Among Suunto's models, the Suunto 5 and Suunto 9 are particularly well suited to triathlon and its activities. These watches are true multi-sport watches that can handle multiple activities without interrupting the recording. They both offer a dedicated triathlon profile.

Here's a quick overview and comparison of these 2 sports cardio GPS watches to help you choose the one that best suits your goals.

Suunto 5: a compact triathlon watch with everything you need to train

Released in 2019 and replacing the Spartan Trainer, the Suunto 5 is a mid-range multi-sport and triathlon watch with great battery life, offering multiple sports functions for training and daily monitoring.

It's sleek and rugged, with GPS, an optical heart rate monitor on the wrist and powerful navigation features. It offers over 80 sports profiles and everything you need to analyse and track your progress. Most importantly, it offers a personalised training plan that updates as you progress.

Its other advantage is that it offers intelligent battery management (like the Suunto 9) with a display of the remaining battery life and the possibility of changing the battery mode while under way.

It should appeal to sportsmen and women who are looking for a watch that is beautiful to wear, relatively light and has the essential functions for GPS navigation, tracking and training.

Suunto 9: a multi-sport and triathlon watch with great autonomy designed for competitors and demanding athletes

Suunto 9 is a multi-sport and triathlon watch with a colour touchscreen display, long battery life (up to 170 hours in power save mode) and high accuracy thanks to FusedTrack. FusedTrack is a function that combines GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope and compass to refine the GPS track when the signal is weak or when the power saving mode is activated, provided it is used for slow sports such as cycling, walking or running. The watch also offers intelligent battery management, which evaluates the remaining battery life and allows you to change the battery mode on the move. So no more worries about low battery!

The "Baro" model also includes a thermometer and an altimeter. With these sensors, the watch offers weather functions (pressure, temperature, storm alarm) and accurate measurements of elevation gain and climb rate. The Suunto 9 also displays sunrise/sunset times, an altitude graph and other functions of interest to explorers. It is also available in a lighter version with a titanium bezel.

With more than 80 sports profiles, advanced GPS navigation, weather functions, impressive battery life and high measurement accuracy, Suunto 9 is perfect for competition, intensive training, ultra-deep sea racing (ultratrail, ultra-marathon, etc.), outdoor and exploration. Demanding athletes will appreciate it.

The main differences between Suunto 5 and Suunto 9

Features	Suunto 5	Suunto 9	Suunto 9 Titanium

Price	330 €	480 €	600 €
Sports profiles	80+	80+	80+
True multi-sports	•	•	•
Autonomy	++	++++	++++
GPS	GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS	GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS	GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS, BEIDOU
Wrist cardio	•	•	•
Customizable training	•	X	X
Interval training	•	•	•
Evaluates recovery	•	•	•
Fitness and stress monitoring	•	•	•
24/7 activity monitoring	•	•	•
Waterproofing	50 m	100 m	100 m
GPS Navigation	•	•	•
Barometric altimeter	X	•	•
mp3 player	X	X	X
Payment function	X	X	X

Design and technical features

Suunto offers two robust watches with a metal bezel. The glass of the Suunto 9 is made of sapphire crystal, a very shock-resistant material.

The new Suunto 9 Baro Titanium is particularly popular, with a titanium bezel that makes the watch as light as the Suunto 5 (66 g). The standard version weighs more than 80 g, which is noticeable on slim wrists.

Suunto's strength, compared to Garmin and its rather sporty looking Forerunner series, is that it offers watches with a relatively elegant design that can be worn for sports as well as for going out or working. The colours of the bezel and the choice of straps (silicone, leather, fabric) make these models more attractive than in the past. The Suunto 9 has a light and stylish nylon braided strap.

Each model comes with a colour display. The Suunto 9's display is touch-sensitive and high resolution. These watches are rather large, especially the Suunto 9 with its 50mm diameter case, almost the size of a Fenix 6X, and a thickness of 1.8mm (1.6mm for the Fenix 6X).

Features	Suunto 5	Suunto 9	Suunto 9 Titanium

Case diameter	46 mm	50 mm	50 mm
Thickness	14.6 mm	16.8 mm	16,8 mm
Weight	66 g	81 g	66 g
Screen resolution (px)	218 x 218	320 x 300	320 x 300
Touch screen	X	•	•
Colour screen	•	•	•
Bazel	Stainless Steel	Stainless Steel	Titane Grade 5
Glass	Mineral crystal	Sapphire crystal	Cristal de saphir
Waterproofing	50 m	100 m	100 m
Bracelet size	22 mm	24 mm	24 mm
Bracelet interchangeable without tools	X	•	•
Wristband material	•	•	•

Autonomy

The battery life is a key parameter in the choice of your triathlon watch, especially if you plan to do long rides (ultrafond, ironman, etc.) while preserving the accuracy of the measurements. Suunto is constantly improving the battery life of its models. The Suunto 9 is the model to choose if you are looking for record-breaking battery life. And if that's not enough for you, turn to Garmin and its new Garmin Enduro, a triathlon watch with record autonomy (80 h in GPS mode and up to 300 h in Ultra mode thanks to solar charging!)

Manufacturers are playing with the Ultra and Economy modes to offer longer battery life but at the expense of accuracy (less frequent recordings) and/or by disabling certain sensors and features that are a little too power-hungry.

At Suunto, they go further. The Finnish company had the idea of combining the energy saving mode with an ingenious system that improves the accuracy of measurements despite the reduced number of readings. This is the FusedTrack system. It combines data from the GPS, accelerometer, gyroscope and digital compass to extrapolate missing data. This ensures correct accuracy in UltraTrac mode or when the GPS signal is weak. This innovation on the Suunto 9 is therefore very interesting and a definite advantage over the competition.

In addition to FusedTrack, Suunto offers intelligent battery management on the Suunto 5 and Suunto 9. The function analyses activities to better estimate the watch's usage. It estimates the remaining battery level and issues alerts when battery life is low or insufficient for the planned run. The user can then change modes, for example from Performance mode (recording every second) to a more economical mode.

Model	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
Watch mode	14 days	14 days
Watch mode + 24/7 monitoring + mobile notifications	7 days	7 days
GPS mode	20 h / 40 h	25 h / 50 h / 120 h / 170 h
Intelligent charge reminders	218 x 218	320 x 300
FusedTrack	X	•

Sensors

Both watches are equipped with an All-GNSS compatible GPS chip (GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS and BEIDU) and an optical heart rate monitor on the wrist.

They have all the instruments needed for most sports activities. The more comprehensive Suunto 9 offers everything you need for outdoor activities such as hiking and trail running: barometric altimeter for reliable elevation and rate-of-climb measurements, barometer, thermometer, compass.

These watches can be coupled with external sensors (cadence, speed, power) for running and cycling. A gyroscope also allows the Suunto 9 to improve the accuracy of GPS readings (FusedTrack mode described above).

Features	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
GPS	GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS	GPS, GLONASS, GALILEO, QZSS
FC at wrist	•	•
Accelerometer	•	•
Compass	X	•
GPS Altitude	•	•
Barometric altimeter	X	•
Gyroscope	X	•
Thermometer	X	•
Suunto Smart Sensor Belt Compatible	•	•
Stryd power sensor compatible (running)	•	•
Rate sensor & running speed	•	•
Cycling speed sensor & cycling speed	•	•
Bicycle power sensor	•	•

Sports features

These functions provide valuable assistance to the athlete in training and performance monitoring.

Training functions

The two Suunto triathlon watches compared offer the basic tools for training but few tools to help the athlete. This is the big difference with Garmin watches (Forerunner series for example). On the other hand, at Garmin, triathlon watches are rare, whereas at Suunto, almost all models have this profile.

Suunto 5 offers adaptive personal training, a useful feature for athletes who need guidance in their training. The watch assesses your physical condition and takes into account the goals you have set to propose a 7-day training plan. All you have to do is respect the number of outings, the duration and the intensity of the exercises proposed.

Features	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
GPS speed and distance	•	•
Customizable sports modes and displays	•	•
Interval training	•	•
Personalized training	X	X
Adaptive training	•	X
Running Dynamics	X	X
Training load	•	•
Race time predictor	X	X
Audio instructions	•	•
Strava, TrainingPeaks, Endomodo compatible	•	•

Physiological measurements

Although Suunto uses Firstbeat data, the physiological measurements are few and far between but the main thing is there.

The Body Resource function, which is also found on the Garmin Forerunner series, is designed to prevent overtraining. It helps the athlete to find the right balance between training time and recovery time. To do this, the watch estimates the level of recovery by taking into account physical activity, rest time, stress level and sleep quality. It is thus able to tell whether or not it is wise to go training.

Both watches estimate the recovery time after an effort, i.e. the number of hours it will take for the body to recover after a ride.

Features	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
Calories expended	•	•
VO2max	•	•
Body resource	•	X
Stress and recovery assessment	•	•
Recovery time depending on training	•	•

Heart rate

Both watches can measure heart rate directly from the wrist except underwater where a Suunto Smart cardio belt must be worn. To date, only the Suunto 7's sensor works underwater.

Features	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
Hear rate zones	•	•
Real-time HR graph	•	•
Real time average HR	•	•
Calories expended	•	•
Registers HR while swimming	•	•

Sports and outdoor functions

Unlike Garmin and its Forerunner series, which are more geared towards running (with the exception of the Forerunner 945 which is designed for almost any sport), Suunto offers versatile watches. They are suitable for a large number of sports (70 to 80 registered profiles), especially endurance sports (running, trail, cycling, swimming, triathlon, cross-country skiing, cardio, rowing, etc.).

The advantage of the Suunto 9 over the Suunto 5 is that it offers the instruments needed for mountain outings (trail, hiking, climbing, trekking, etc.), exploration, or extreme sports (paragliding, diving, mountaineering, etc.). This model has a barometric altimeter, a compass and a thermometer. The watch can detect changes in the weather and alert its user to the risk of a storm.

Function	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
Sports profiles	80+	80+
Display	1 to 7 fields	1 to 7 fields
Running
Interval training assistance	•	•
Race pace	•	•
Stroke power	•	•
Tour comparison	•	•
Average speed, max. per lap in real time	•	•
Speed and cadence sensor support	•	•
Bike
Speed	•	•
Average real time speed	•	•
Power Sensor Compatibility	•	•
Average and maximum cycling power	•	•
Revolutions and maximum power per revolution	•	•
Real-time laps with average HR, average power and average speed	•	•
Support for fractional training with power, speed and CF	•	•
Swimming
HR measurement and monitoring	•	•
Swimming rhythm in pool and distance	•	•
Open water swimming rhythm and distance	•	•
Swimming type detection	•	•
Swimming efficiency (SWOLF)	•	•
Swimming time per length (pool), laps, total	•	•
Cadence and number of movements	•	•
Automatic intervals	•	•
Interval training tours	•	•
Interval training training assistance	•	•
Outdoor
Route registration	•	•
Real-time trace (\"Thumbnail\")	•	•
Navigating to a POI	•	•
ETA (estimated time of arrival)	•	•
Recording and viewing GPS track	•	•
GPS track analysis	•	•
Zoom levels in navigation	•	•
Heat maps	•	•
Heat maps on the watch	X	X
Route planning with altitude profile	X	X
Route planning with heat maps	•	•
Vertical speed	•	•
GPS Altitude	•	•
Total ascent/descent	•	•
FusedAlti (combined GPS and barometric altitudes)	X	•
Temperature	X	•
Sunrise/Sunset Herbs	•	•
Storm alarm	X	•
Sea level pressure	X	•

GPS navigation

The Suunto 5 and 9 watches offer powerful GPS navigation functions to find your way around and get anywhere without getting lost (track, navigate to a point of interest, follow a programmed route, etc.). Suunto does not offer mapping on these models (only the Suunto 7 offers it).

Function	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
Route registration	•	•
Real-time trace (\"Thumbnail\")	•	•
Mapping	X	X
Navigating to a POI	•	•
ETA (estimated time of arrival)	•	•
Zoom levels in navigation	•	•
Heat maps	•	•
Heat maps on the watch	X	X
Route planning with altitude profile	X	X
Route planning with heat maps	•	•

Activity monitoring

Like most sports watches today, the two Suunto watches compared have a 24/7 activity tracking function including detailed sleep analysis.

Suunto 5 also offers a Body Resource function (see above) and Physiological Age estimation (another way of representing VO2max, i.e. fitness, by comparing the user's VO2max with that of other people and indicating the average age of people with the same value). These functions are interesting for monitoring progress, measuring the impact of training and adapting training.

Function	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
Number of steps	•	•
Physical activity goals (steps, calories)	•	•
Calories burned	•	•
History of activities	•	•
Detailed sleep analysis	•	•
Physical age	•	X
Body resource	•	X
Stress level measurement	•	•

Connectivity

Both watches display smartphone notifications (SMS, incoming call, email). They are compatible with the Suunto application and with the most popular online sports communities: Strava, Endomondo, TrainingPeaks, etc.

Suunto offers a sports community where you can create your own sports diary, share your activities, create or find routes, download training plans and customise your watch. The manufacturer offers millions of moves (routes recorded by the Suunto community of users) and heat maps showing the paths most frequented by the community. It is possible to plan your outing using the topographic maps, by creating a new route or searching for a route already completed by a member, and then downloading the route to your watch.

This is a far cry from the connected functions offered by Garmin on its sports watches or those offered by the Suunto 7 which, thanks to Wear OS, has unlimited possibilities.

Function	Suunto 5	Suunto 9
Smart notifications	•	•
Weather functions	X	•
Smartphone Music Control	X	X
Embedded mp3 player	X	X

Our opinion: Suunto 5 or Suunto 9: which one to choose?

These two multi-sport watches offer a comprehensive profile and functions for triathlon. The top-of-the-range model, the Suunto 9, is more comprehensive and will be more suitable for athletes who aim to use it for more than just triathlon and its activities, including outdoor sports.

If you are looking for a watch that is only suitable for triathlon and its activities and occasionally for other sports, the Suunto 5 is more than sufficient. It is cheaper than the Suunto 9, smaller and lighter. Its adaptive training will delight athletes who need support to train and progress. It is the best value for money model that also meets the needs of the majority of regular athletes.

If you are looking for a more versatile model, especially for sports where altitude measurement is important (trail running, climbing, etc.) or for extreme sports, then the Suunto 9 is better placed thanks to its barometric altimeter (much more accurate than a GPS for altitude differences) and its weather functions. If budget allows, opt for the lighter Titanium version, which is more suitable for triathlon, competition and endurance sports. The Suunto 9 also benefits from longer battery life and reliable measurements even in Ultra mode thanks to FusedAlti. These features make the watch suitable for very long-distance running. Its screen is also more comfortable and robust.

In order to help you make your choice, we offer you the following summary table.

Features	Suunto 5	Suunto 9	Suunto 9 Titanium

Price	$$	$$$	$$$$
Assets	Price, height and weight, adaptive training	More instruments, more suitable for outdoor use	A lighter Suunto 9 Baro
Recommended sports	Triathlon, running, cycling, swimming, outdoor, many other sports	Triathlon, running, cycling, swimming, outdoor, hiking, trail, many other sports	Triathlon, running, cycling, swimming, outdoor, hiking, trail, many other sports
Comfort (weight, size, elegance)	+++	++	+++
Autonomy	++	++++	++++
Useful functions	Body resource, GPS navigation	Weather, altimetry, GPS navigation functions	Weather, altimetry, GPS navigation functions
Training and analysis	Customized adaptive drives, power measurement (running, cycling)	Power measurement (running, cycling)	Power measurement (running, cycling)
Sensors	GPS Wrist HR Accelerometer	Wrist HR Accelerometer Compass Gyroscope Thermometer Barometric altimeter	Wrist HR Accelerometer Compass Gyroscope Thermometer Barometric altimeter
External sensors	Smart Sensor, cadence / speed / running and cycling power	Smart Sensor, cadence / speed /running and cycling power	Smart Sensor, cadence / speed /running and cycling power
Suitable for running	+++	+++	+++
Adapted to the mountain	+	+++	+++
Suitable for swimming	+++	+++	+++
Suitable for cycling	+++	+++	+++
Suitable for outdoor use	+	+++	+++
Suitable for triathlon	+++	+++	+++

Price and availability

You can find these watches on the Internet (see below) or in specialist shops. Sport Passion and its partners offer you discount coupons.