Unlike Garmin’s Fenix 3, Suunto’s Traverse does not try to be all things to all people.

Rather than a myriad of settings depending on the user’s activity – multisport, hiking, trail running, road cycling – the Traverse has just one, and it’s perfect for those who tramp or climb and want to record their trips, monitor the weather, mark waypoints, follow routes, know how long they took and how much ascent was involved. They can then check it all out later on their smartphone or computer – whether in Suunto’s Movescount app or downloaded to view in their own mapping software.

The Traverse supports both GPS and the the Russian GLONASS system, allowing for very quick satellite location and  highly accurate positioning. It’s so accurate, that I found even slight deviations of a few metres from the track were recorded. When viewing my recorded tramps on my Topo50 mapping software, it overlaid the marked routes precisely. Not bad for an 80g watch.

I found operating the Traverse simple, though memorising the functions of each button (there are five) required practise. The instructions are bare bones – just enough to get you started – so some fiddling and experimenting is required. Once sorted, you can start recording a route in two button presses, mark waypoints by holding down the bottom left button for a couple of seconds, pause and save your route by pressing the top right. Stats such as ascent, altitude and time taken can all be viewed by scrolling through the screens with the middle right button. Too easy.

I uploaded a few routes to the watch and after accessing these, I could follow the route – a squiggly line with a triangle pointing in the direction of travel.

The Traverse has a 14-day battery life in time mode and 10, 15 or 100-hour battery life while recording trips – the time dependent on the GPS fix interval (1, 5 or 60-seconds). The longer the interval, the less accurate the recording.

The Traverse is a fantastic outdoor navigation tool. It is highly accurate, easy to use and for those looking for a GPS device, worth every cent.