Suunto SHRM2 heart rate monitor — not the Whoop rival we hoped for

Gadgets and Wearables spotted a Suunto product with the model code SHRM2, described as a Bluetooth heart rate monitor. A good find. Here is what else can be pieced together with some more research.

The SHRM2 appears alongside a second Suunto filing for the Core 2 outdoor watch, a coin-cell-powered Fenix-class device. Two unconventional Suunto launches in the same window is itself worth noting.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is not the same as the Sports Tracker HRM2 already on Suunto’s website. That product is a legacy chest strap from the early 2010s, built to pair with the Sports Tracker phone app.

The clues

A Nordic Semiconductor developer thread from several months ago points to firmware work on the SHRM2, built around a current-generation Bluetooth chip that fits anything from a chest strap to a smart ring. The chip has extensive capabilities, including precision finding and smart home interoperability. Suunto will use this chip.

Separately, the EU radio equipment law changed on 1 August 2025. Any new heart rate monitor sold in Europe now requires authenticated pairing, secure boot and signed firmware. The existing Suunto Smart Heart Rate Belt would not clear that bar today, so SHRM2 is being re-engineered from the ground up.

What SHRM2 actually is

Intel suggests that SHRM2 is a chest strap rather than an armband. One feature is three concurrent Bluetooth connections, allowing the strap to broadcast simultaneously to a watch, a bike computer and a phone or third device.

• Pros: brings Suunto to competitive parity at the top of the strap category, removes the need to use a watch as a heart rate relay for pairing a strap with a head unit, and strengthens the Suunto Coach ecosystem.
• Cons: three-channel BLE is solid but not category-leading, with Garmin HRM 600, Wahoo TRACKR and Polar H10 already supporting multi-device pairing. Still chasing Garmin. The target audience continues to shrink.

The Whoop competitor that wasn’t

The more interesting product would have been an optical arm band. That category is held by Polar Verity Sense, Wahoo TICKR FIT, and increasingly Whoop, Polar LOOP 2, Amazfit Helio Strap, and the rumoured Garmin CIRQA.

• Pros: reaches athletes who refuse a chest strap, opens continuous wear and recovery data, fits naturally with Find My or Find Hub, and brings non-watch customers into the Suunto app.
• Cons: new category, strong incumbents, optical accuracy is hard, marketing alongside wrist HR claims is delicate.

Maybe that will come later?

The verdict

The arm band and continuous wear segment is where Whoop has built a subscription business from nothing, where Polar has held a quiet share for years, and where Suunto remains conspicuously absent. SHRM2 as a Whoop competitor would have been worth the effort. A three-channel chest strap, while welcome, is not.

The arm-band category is also where Garmin’s Q1 2026 earnings call signalled a new-category product, with CIRQA the leading candidate. Garmin and Whoop targeting the same form factor in the same window leaves Suunto on the sidelines of the most contested wearable category of 2026.

Even so, SHRM2 is the first new Suunto heart rate strap in over a decade. Paired with the coin-cell Core 2, Suunto is bringing two distinctive products to market in a single window. The Core 2 analysis is here: Suunto Core 2: A Garmin Fenix With a 2-Year Battery?

More: Gadgets & Wearables

Last Updated on 26 May 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID