Where are Suunto Watches Made?
Suunto is headquartered in Finland. It used to be owned by Amer Sports, but after a drawn-out process, it ended up owned by the Chinese company Dongguan Liesheng Electronic in 2022. It predominantly makes and sells sports watches and accessories, with a particular strength in selling to the European markets. But where are they made?
Some Suunto staff were made redundant in 2024, with many assuming this was the death knell of European production of its watches.
Whilst some of the company’s watches are certainly made in China, it’s unclear if all products are. As you can see from this image, Suunto Vertical (2023) was made in Finland. However, the newer Race (2023) from the same year was made in China, but the latest Race S (2024) was again made in Finland, although I understand that there is also production i nchina (confirmed by comments below).
Effect of Trump’s Tariffs on Suunto
The President’s extremely high tariff levels on China-origin goods slightly favour companies that make watches in Asian countries other than China. As we saw when looking at Coros, the current tariffs combined with Coros’ unique position will soon bankrupt the company unless something changes (which it will!).
It’s not quite the same for Suunto.
Suunto’s pedigree is European, and the company likely only has 20-25% of its sales to the USA, perhaps the least of the longstanding sports watch companies. However, that may have increased in recent years (2023) as the company has increased its focus there. Suunto likely still has production capability in Finland and thus could still produce European-labelled watches if needed.
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Well that is cool. Also the Ocean which is most comparable to a fenix 8 or Descent Mk3i is also made in Finland.
Both Race S and Ocean would be price competitive against Garmin even with additional tariffs, although both brands presumably would become more expensive.
> Suunto HQ and factory, where Suunto Ocean is made, are located in Vantaa, Finland. Here we use 100% renewable, carbon neutral energy in all our operations. Using carbon neutral energy at the factory is an important enabler of Suunto Ocean’s small carbon footprint of 11.63 kg CO2e emissions produced during its full lifespan.
If Europe is anything like Canada there will be a “don’t buy American” boycott movement which could hurt Garmin sales in the EU to the benefit of Suunto.
I know, let’s buy from our real enemy instead. What could possibly go wrong?
Exactly, let’s continue to buy from the one that has been waging a trade war for decades.
Suunto is a great watch for people who are back country adventurers and trail runners. The GPS is arguably the best I have used and using maps on their watches is amazing. I know this website does cater to the trip crowd and this might be where the watches fall short. I am a runner/cycler/backpacker. It was like these watches were made for me.
I used Fenix 5, 6, 7x, and 8 momentarily and I think I still prefer my Vertical. I watched a YouTube video yesterday that really made me double down on my “don’t let your watch tell you how to feel” thing. The video was about whether Whoop or Oura were better for athletes. At one point in the video the guy said that he did not like Whoop because sometimes it was slow to upload his sleep data to the app and this was really bad because without this data he could not plan his training for the day. I was flabbergasted. If you are like me and want to train by feel and learn to understand your body using inputs like HRV, RHR or sleep data sprinkled in then Suunto could be a great pick.
Oh and I know someone will say it, but you have to have a good HRM if you go with Suunto. Yeah, their optical is not good for many. Below is a list of why I chose Suunto.
1. Direct sales are amazing. They are super fast to ship from Finland. While I do kind of wish that the watches were all made in Finland, we can’t say that Garmin, Coros or even Polar are not made in Asia. My understanding is that they just can’t keep up since the Race S took off.
2. Spot on GPS and great turn by turn. Sure they do not have street names or rerouting, but TBH in the backcountry I will put out my iPhone if I am wanting to reroute.
3. TrainingPeaks Metrics: As a long time user of TP, I love that they are using the same metrics. Super easy to understand and I find them useful.
4. Lots of updates and they all trickle down to their older tech.
5. Great Pricing on the Race and Race S.
6. No fluffy pseudoscience metrics that are trying to compete with Apple.
yes some of the suunto’s have market-leading gps accuracy.
whoop – yes whoop is a bit slow in the morning. but …. 🙂
If I understand it right, then Suunto is owned by a Chinese company, and Polar by a Finish company that’s private held.
So from a EU perspective, Polar is the Company to support, then Garmin as a US company, and lastly Suunto as a Chinese company.
you are free to support who you want.
Polar is made in China.
Interestingly I happen to have just bought a Suunto Race S and mine says “Designed in Finland. Made in China” on the rear.
At the moment, I’d prefer (as not American) to buy a Suunto as it is neither headquartered nor made in the US; in fact, that was one of the reasons why I chose a Suunto over a Coros (another being no Coros / MapMyRun integration)…
noted above, ty