Some much more interresting screens from main default clock screen when we pressing the middle button

[Mister PYC]

Hello I’m a mountaineer from Annecy in the alps (both summer and winter)

I have a SUUNTO 9 BARO which is awesome already but on which I still would like to propose you few improvement that I considere easy wins (I’m also an IT guy btw :-))

Today :
From main clock screen, when we press the middle button we arrive to a very useless screen where we can see again some information already accessible in main one (even if far too small) and just aimed to see notification
We are looking a very easy way to access in a fast manner very interesting mountain oriented screens.

Proposal of Improvement:
Instead of this useless screen that could remain but put totally to the end (also notification are too small and too difficult to read … if I was wishing to buy a such watch I will have bought an apple watch but not a sport one)
What about if we can do the following

1. With a simple touch on the screen, we arrive to a new screen allowing us immediately to see and manage the alarm.
   Many advantages here : much easy to access it, alarm is displayed in a bigger and more visible font, by just one press on button 3 (bottom) we can activate or deactivate it, by one click on button 1 (top) we can switch to a setting mode
   Where button 1 and 3 allow to get up or down and button 2 (middle) allow to save

2. With a press on the button 2 (middle) we can see now much more interesting screens
   a. The altimeter
   b. The compass
   c. This wonderful new SUUNTO PLUS weather screen
   The automatic back been set to 10 second (today 6 is a little bit too short)
   Having that make this watch a real professional one for all mountaineers and it is precisely what they are immediately looking into : where I’m, where I want to go, what are the conditions ?

Last but not least if you see I’m proposing a new watch face
To be honest the 2 last ones I do not like them at all, they are useless gadgets and for the one with pressure and all this stuff it is completely unreadable although it consume half of the scree,
So let’s make it more practical, my best choice will then be

• The time in super big … and if you see correctly you will realize that I do not center the time, so that I can gain more space on the below part and hence put bigger font for the date
• The date
• A small progress bar showing the level of battery with a proposal of 3 color : red if it remains less than one day of classical use (may be 15% battery ???), yellow If it is less than 3 days and otherwise green

Of course some people may object they did not bought this watch for mountain activities … in such case why have they chosen a 9 BARO ? but let’s be open minded …
The luxury will then be that through the SUUNTO Android/apple application, people may choose other 3 screens than the ALTIMETER, COMPASS and SUUNTO PLUS Weather ….
So everybody will be happy …

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@pierre-yves-colle I need to collect all your posts and transfer the feedback. Thanks so much for your time.

[Mister PYC]

@dimitrios-kanellopoulos
Hello dimitrios

I have a list of ideas which are very simple (I’m an IT engineer so I will always challenge myself before to submit an idea and think like this : If I was in the development team, with what is currently developped could I do and improved version but with exactly the same, so not with something complex and irrealistic)

Are you working for SUUNTO ?
If yes, then we can be in touch, I will pass you all my ideas … for free …
just the pleasure to may be have them one day and even more like my watch (which is already the case) .
I’m putting all my ideas into a single powerpoint document, so I can pass it to you

One of the idea I’m currently working on is on improving the screen for people like me who are now > 50 years old and stard to be visualy unpait … in many screen the fonts are far too small which in fact make them such unreadable that being displayed or not is the same … no … it is even worth to display them because it consume space that could have been given to information in a larger font so much better visible.

This watch is not only for 20 years old trailers but for old ancient experienced mountain or ski touring guys (> 40 years now) like I’m

[freeheeler]

@pierre-yves-colle
very nice presentation, thumbs up for your inputs

[Mister PYC]

@freeheeler
THANKS A LOT !!!

I like this watch so much and I dream that the dev teams could get some of my ideas to make it just reaching the absolute perfection … which is doable … they have all in their hands and are just at few meters of what is missing me.
I have some others posts you can see and tell me if it brings some interests also or not.

[surfboomerang]

@pierre-yves-colle Keep in mind that your idea of perfection can differ from other people’s perspective.
A challenge that Suunto devs are facing every day.

[Mister PYC]

@surfboomerang
Hello You are totally right.

However there are also some screens developed recently which are of a poor interrests, not bad ideas at beginning but really something done too fast, marketing oriented and not so usable … .

for example the 2 last watch faces

The one with with barometric info … super beautiful on paper … totally unreadable in reality … only the famous Maverick TOP GUN pilot (well tom cruise) can read the information which is written on the top part of this screen

the last one …
Was a very good start but finally a deception as you may have the feeling of an empty clock … where some crucial information for a activity orirented watch are lost (altitude, second time slot, alarm, )

My apologize if I may have hurt some people.

[A Former User]

@pierre-yves-colle said in Some much more interresting screens from main default clock screen when we pressing the middle button:

@surfboomerang
Hello You are totally right.

However there are also some screens developed recently which are of a poor interrests, not bad ideas at beginning but really something done too fast, marketing oriented and not so usable … .

for example the 2 last watch faces

The one with with barometric info … super beautiful on paper … totally unreadable in reality … only the famous Maverick TOP GUN pilot (well tom cruise) can read the information which is written on the top part of this screen

the last one …
Was a very good start but finally a deception as you may have the feeling of an empty clock … where some crucial information for a activity orirented watch are lost (altitude, second time slot, alarm, )

My apologize if I may have hurt some people.

Although I understand your point, I share the same as @surfboomerang
What for you is a “need” may be tottally not worth for the people that in fact buy the watch (not only the ones that are on this forum).
For good and bad, I would say that maybe 70% or more of the market of sports watchs are more interested in steps, calories, etc than barometric pressure/trend/dual time.
I would say the best bet is like garmin does, where you can customize which data field you can have on watchface.
But maybe it is complicated or battery draining (don’t know, just a guess).
But proposition are always welcome

[isazi]

@pierre-yves-colle sorry but I totally disagree, especially if you use the word useless. The new outdoor watch face is great on the S9, in fact is probably one of the most used. And I have no issues reading it. Now, it is actually less nice on the Peak (IMHO), so I don’t use it there.

The point is, everyone has a different opinion, and what may be bad to you may be super good for others, and what may be great for you may be useless for others.

[Mister PYC]

@isazi

You are totally right
I was provocative just to see if some react and wrote it is wonderful.

Still, we are many here who looked at it together and who faced this difficulty to read the screen, in reverse the new SUUNTO PLUS Weather screen which show you the sunset, the time remainign before it and also a barometric evolution is by far easier to read.

By the way another big doubt I have on the barometric information.
when I climbed sunday I observed that the baromter graph was doing down in the same time I was going up … you will tell me it is normal as it is the atmospheric pressure and it is decreasing more you go up … .
however …
is it so normal ???
it should be the atmospheric pressure at the level of sea which is displayed so normally the watch should have compensated with an algorithm my climing progression and showed me a constant atmospheric pressure.

I have a double because weather was also changing and it is true that we get a small rain 40 minutes later … but still … strange to see this drop
I will test this more.

What do you think here ?

[surfboomerang]

@surfboomerang said in Some much more interresting screens from main default clock screen when we pressing the middle button:

@pierre-yves-colle Keep in mind that your idea of perfection can differ from other people’s perspective.

@pierre-yves-colle said in Some much more interresting screens from main default clock screen when we pressing the middle button:

The one with with barometric info … super beautiful on paper … totally unreadable in reality

This is exactly what I mean.
I like the Outdoor watchface very much. For me the dial is clearly readable, but I can imagine it can be really hard to read for other people.
If you make the font larger or change the design, other people will have comments about it.

I did a suggestion in another post when the watchface just came out because it would make sense to me, but maybe other people have other ideas. At the end it’s up to Suunto if, and how, they implement it.

https://forum.suunto.com/topic/5087/software-update-2-12-30-staged-release-for-s3-s5-s9/225?_=1624895832731

I think it’s really hard (if not, impossible) for Suunto to design a “one size fits all” watch and compromises will always be made. Not only on Suunto’s side, but also on the customer side.
So eventhough Suunto still hasn’t implemented my suggestion, I still love the watchface.

[Mister PYC]

Just to illustrate what I see with my poor eyes

Here honestly I see a big green plate on the top but cannto catch anythign
I still confirm I can see the time

Here … well well well you may tell me that I should not see more …
not exactly …
In fact I see more !!! and I can catch better the sun course …
why ?
As is it just a part of a circle line and a point, I can see this green point which shows the current sun rise position …
BTW I appreciate this a lot, some times I’m even myself surprised when the race is just at its middle and there is still so many day light time remaining.

After that … I practically can see the 2 times written … in fact … NO …
It is too small … so I cannot tell precisely that it started at 5:48 and ends at 21:30
… too too small written and I’m obliged to do an effort of reading, moving the watch like this like that to try to better see …

Hence I had preferred to have the TIME displayed not centered on the screen but more on the top part of it, which have given a bigger space below to put information with bigger fonts.

[ChrisA]

@pierre-yves-colle I am becoming an „older“ guy too with 51 and my eyesight is deteriorating, making it difficult to read small numbers and letters - so I am with you, when it comes to readability! Would be great to have some „bigger“ digits AND additional data.
AND I really love your ideas and how you present them! I am not into IT, but teach, and how you transport information is really great! You would have become a good teacher too!
BUT for me - I don’t want to have 10.000 features, from watchfaces to barometric screens to snow calculating screens …🤪. I love the certain „simplicity“ Suunto offer and that’s what makes me enjoying the watch because I can concentrate on what I am doing with it. I had a Fenix 6 Pro which had way more features than a S9 but I did not really enjoy running or hiking with it as much as I do with the Suuntos. It somehow felt like „working“ and in the end the data I got wasn’t even as good and readable and evaluating it again felt more like work and not recreation. So at least for me it’s ok that Suunto is relatively sensible when it comes to implementing new features.

[Mister PYC]

@chrisa
Hello Chris, first of all, thanks a lot for the very kind words.
Let me precise few things.
I’m exactly liek you. I do not want a “gadget” watch but totally in reverse a watch for mountainer … I should even say professional mountainers … so something hyper practical.
Of course everybody is different and what I judge as superficial might be in reverse the best feature that someone else might want to have.
If it was me to had the magic stick to add or remove feature … I will have removed these ones in order to put some other that are more of use in mountain (summer or winter) … but that’s only my choices and some other will chose some others features and are also very rights in their demands.
for me are gadgets :

• the notification screen, in any case the text being too small I cannot read them easily
• the screen that tells me that I’m stressed … it stress me even more
• the advise screen indicating me my level of health
  …
  Of course someone more oriented on trails, running activities or just heatlh care will feel these screen are important.
  This is why I also understand that Suunto has to do some compromise.

Having said that … having a sort of “bigger font” option for visually impaired people should be somethign that SUUNTO should think … many people I know who are less “mountain” oriented than me do not like this watch when I show them because they say it is not readable … and they prefer a much bright one even if the battery will be consumed far more faster.

So somehow … SUUNTO is restricting by themself their potential market …

[Tomas5]

My apologize if I may have hurt some people.

I like this watch face. Circle is really redundant but at least I have Calories, Steps and Resources on one screen. I miss only battery percentage on this screen.

I have Suunto 5 I don’t have HW for compass or baro so this screen displays almost all data possible for watch face. And information about alarm is accesible by middle button press. So it is not an issue. Don’t see any reason to display alarm on main screen since it is almost “static” information.

Just my thoughts.

[Durri]

@pierre-yves-colle
Hi, I agree … we’re getting older and our eyesight is getting worse. I use a standard screen (as in the picture on the box from the watch) and I have trouble seeing a small date of the day. I have been using glasses for about a year and I am 44 years old…

[sartoric]

@durri said in Some much more interresting screens from main default clock screen when we pressing the middle button:

I have been using glasses for about a year and I am 44 years old

Maybe you started too late

[Mister PYC]

@durri
Good to see I’m not alone who has difficulties to read
I was feeling a poor lonseome mountainer
The paradox of this watch is that it depends a lot of the conditions around to be able or not to read.
For exemple, I have less problems in these 2 situations : either in complete dark where the light of the information is very bright and allow a good reading, or when it is super sunny, I realized that SUUNTO did a beautiful miracle as the sun beans are increasing a lot the contrast and the watch is becoming easier to read.
However …
Most of the time I’m neither in the first nor in the second situation and in a cloudy day or early in morning or late in the evening the constrast is no more here and then the small things are super difficult even impossiple to read … .and then come my bad thoughs … …I’m asking myself … .why so many black empty space, why these so small informations … why this beautiful green or gray for buttons background but with a characters in white make them not easy to read …
If I could have access to this to change …
with the clock information a little bit on the up side of the watch, I gain a lot below (by the way I’m inventing nothing … THEY DID IT in the last watch face !!!) then I can write bigger the secondary information, I can put a progress bar to show the % of battery … let’s make it super pro with a different color depending on what’s remain … only 2 days => red, only 7 days => yellow, other green (of course 2 and 7 are approximative measure of percentage … but it could a valuable alertt hat you should refuel your watch…
…
A option in configuration “Improved visibility” which is very positive and that will have allowed all of this will have been fantastic.

[Mister PYC]

@sartoric
Bad guy

I started with glasses when I was a kid … not able to see far object
then at my 35 I got a surgery operation of the eyese and now I’m no more wearing glasses and have almost a 12/10 view on far objects which is awesome for a mountainer … I can see so well the mountains and enjoy it so much …
however … becoming a old 53y man … my near view is becoming worth and worth …

Just to say … if you wear glasses for far distance and you do not like this… the laser surgery makes fantastic results …

PS : nothing asked to SUUNTO folks to do with their watch here

[sartoric]

The new suunto partnership for a new product line … coming soon