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In Finland, during the 1930s, an inventor named Tuomas Vohlonen was struggling with a very practical problem: the compasses of the time could not handle the Nordic cold. As soon as the mercury dropped, they lost accuracy, sometimes at the worst possible moment, deep in the forest or on a frozen lake. Vohlonen eventually developed a liquid-filled compass capable of enduring the cold, humidity, and the most hostile terrain. He likely didn't know it yet, but he had just laid the foundation for Suunto, now one of the most respected brands in the outdoor and diving worlds.
Ninety years later, in 2026, the Finnish brand is celebrating this milestone with a full year of initiatives: a traveling exhibition, a highly anticipated limited-edition watch, and a campaign that looks back on nine decades of innovation and design.
Suunto was officially founded in 1936. However, the company owes as much to its founder as it does to his wife, Elli Vohlonen. After Tuomas's untimely passing in 1939, she took the helm and guided the young company through its difficult early years. The commitment to precision and respect for extreme field conditions, inherited from those beginnings, remain the backbone of the brand to this day.
The following decades saw Suunto achieve a series of technological breakthroughs, with almost no downtime:
1965: the brand discovered almost by accident that its compass worked just as well underwater. This led to the development of the first dedicated diving compass.
1997 : the Suunto Spyder became the first watch-sized dive computer.
1998: the Suunto Vector essentially invented a category, that of "ABC" watches (altimeter, barometer, compass), a model that remains a benchmark for the brand today, both aesthetically and technically.
Early 2000s: Suunto pioneered onboard GPS with the X9 and G9 models, then launched SuuntoSports.com in 2002—an activity-sharing platform that anticipated today's sports networks by several years.
2004: the T6 introduced real-time training load analysis based on heart rate variability.
2024: ZoneSense takes it a step further with real-time intensity guidance that eliminates the need for laboratory testing.
To embody this brand heritage, Suunto didn't want a nostalgic retrospective. Instead, the exhibition is presented as an "open archive," designed to show how a specific vision of Finnish design—essential, functional, and focused on real-world use—has shaped the instruments of explorers, divers, mountaineers, and runners for nearly a century.
The exhibition is divided into two parts:
"Suunto Then," dedicated to the origins: liquid-filled compasses, depth measurement instruments, and early navigation solutions.
"Suunto Now," which showcases the brand's contemporary evolution through its materials, software, and latest outdoor technologies. Highlights include the Suunto Race 2 (coral) and Suunto Vertical 2 (black titanium) on public display.
The exhibition made a symbolic stop in Chamonix during the UTMB before concluding its tour where it all began: in Helsinki, on September 3 and 4, 2026, at Kasino Vintage & 2nd Hand.
The commercial highlight of this anniversary is the launch of the Suunto Vertical 2 Titanium Limited Edition on March 10, 2026. The number is no coincidence: only 1,936 units were produced, a direct nod to the brand's founding year. Priced at €799, this special edition adopts the aesthetic language of the original compass while paying tribute to the iconic yellow and black of the 1998 Suunto Vector.
Suunto is also reaffirming its environmental commitment: carbon emissions related to the lifecycle of each anniversary watch are offset through verified carbon units as part of a mangrove restoration project in Southern Africa.
This is the message Suunto has chosen to convey for its 90th anniversary. Adventure is not limited to extreme feats; it resides primarily in a state of mind—the desire to go a little further, climb higher, dive deeper, or simply step outside to discover something new.
Throughout this anniversary year, the brand promises a series of pop-up exhibitions, community meetups, panel discussions, and adventure challenges in major cities around the world. The goal is to highlight the instruments that have defined its history, as well as the adventurers who, both yesterday and today, have shaped the brand's identity.
From a compass designed to withstand the Finnish cold to a smartwatch capable of analyzing an athlete's recovery in real time, Suunto celebrates its 90th anniversary by claiming something quite rare in the outdoor industry: continuity. A legacy of precision and design crafted, generation after generation, for those who choose to go off the beaten path.
In Finland, during the 1930s, an inventor named Tuomas Vohlonen was struggling with a very practical problem: the compasses of the time could not handle the Nordic cold. As soon as the mercury dropped, they lost accuracy, sometimes at the worst possible moment, deep in the forest or on a frozen lake. Vohlonen eventually developed a liquid-filled compass capable of enduring the cold, humidity, and the most hostile terrain. He likely didn't know it yet, but he had just laid the foundation for Suunto, now one of the most respected brands in the outdoor and diving worlds.
Ninety years later, in 2026, the Finnish brand is celebrating this milestone with a full year of initiatives: a traveling exhibition, a highly anticipated limited-edition watch, and a campaign that looks back on nine decades of innovation and design.
Suunto was officially founded in 1936. However, the company owes as much to its founder as it does to his wife, Elli Vohlonen. After Tuomas's untimely passing in 1939, she took the helm and guided the young company through its difficult early years. The commitment to precision and respect for extreme field conditions, inherited from those beginnings, remain the backbone of the brand to this day.
The following decades saw Suunto achieve a series of technological breakthroughs, with almost no downtime:
1965: the brand discovered almost by accident that its compass worked just as well underwater. This led to the development of the first dedicated diving compass.
1997 : the Suunto Spyder became the first watch-sized dive computer.
1998: the Suunto Vector essentially invented a category, that of "ABC" watches (altimeter, barometer, compass), a model that remains a benchmark for the brand today, both aesthetically and technically.
Early 2000s: Suunto pioneered onboard GPS with the X9 and G9 models, then launched SuuntoSports.com in 2002—an activity-sharing platform that anticipated today's sports networks by several years.
2004: the T6 introduced real-time training load analysis based on heart rate variability.
2024: ZoneSense takes it a step further with real-time intensity guidance that eliminates the need for laboratory testing.
To embody this brand heritage, Suunto didn't want a nostalgic retrospective. Instead, the exhibition is presented as an "open archive," designed to show how a specific vision of Finnish design—essential, functional, and focused on real-world use—has shaped the instruments of explorers, divers, mountaineers, and runners for nearly a century.
The exhibition is divided into two parts:
"Suunto Then," dedicated to the origins: liquid-filled compasses, depth measurement instruments, and early navigation solutions.
"Suunto Now," which showcases the brand's contemporary evolution through its materials, software, and latest outdoor technologies. Highlights include the Suunto Race 2 (coral) and Suunto Vertical 2 (black titanium) on public display.
The exhibition made a symbolic stop in Chamonix during the UTMB before concluding its tour where it all began: in Helsinki, on September 3 and 4, 2026, at Kasino Vintage & 2nd Hand.
The commercial highlight of this anniversary is the launch of the Suunto Vertical 2 Titanium Limited Edition on March 10, 2026. The number is no coincidence: only 1,936 units were produced, a direct nod to the brand's founding year. Priced at €799, this special edition adopts the aesthetic language of the original compass while paying tribute to the iconic yellow and black of the 1998 Suunto Vector.
Suunto is also reaffirming its environmental commitment: carbon emissions related to the lifecycle of each anniversary watch are offset through verified carbon units as part of a mangrove restoration project in Southern Africa.
This is the message Suunto has chosen to convey for its 90th anniversary. Adventure is not limited to extreme feats; it resides primarily in a state of mind—the desire to go a little further, climb higher, dive deeper, or simply step outside to discover something new.
Throughout this anniversary year, the brand promises a series of pop-up exhibitions, community meetups, panel discussions, and adventure challenges in major cities around the world. The goal is to highlight the instruments that have defined its history, as well as the adventurers who, both yesterday and today, have shaped the brand's identity.
From a compass designed to withstand the Finnish cold to a smartwatch capable of analyzing an athlete's recovery in real time, Suunto celebrates its 90th anniversary by claiming something quite rare in the outdoor industry: continuity. A legacy of precision and design crafted, generation after generation, for those who choose to go off the beaten path.
In Finland, during the 1930s, an inventor named Tuomas Vohlonen was struggling with a very practical problem: the compasses of the time could not handle the Nordic cold. As soon as the mercury dropped, they lost accuracy, sometimes at the worst possible moment, deep in the forest or on a frozen lake. Vohlonen eventually developed a liquid-filled compass capable of enduring the cold, humidity, and the most hostile terrain. He likely didn't know it yet, but he had just laid the foundation for Suunto, now one of the most respected brands in the outdoor and diving worlds.
Ninety years later, in 2026, the Finnish brand is celebrating this milestone with a full year of initiatives: a traveling exhibition, a highly anticipated limited-edition watch, and a campaign that looks back on nine decades of innovation and design.
Suunto was officially founded in 1936. However, the company owes as much to its founder as it does to his wife, Elli Vohlonen. After Tuomas's untimely passing in 1939, she took the helm and guided the young company through its difficult early years. The commitment to precision and respect for extreme field conditions, inherited from those beginnings, remain the backbone of the brand to this day.
The following decades saw Suunto achieve a series of technological breakthroughs, with almost no downtime:
1965: the brand discovered almost by accident that its compass worked just as well underwater. This led to the development of the first dedicated diving compass.
1997 : the Suunto Spyder became the first watch-sized dive computer.
1998: the Suunto Vector essentially invented a category, that of "ABC" watches (altimeter, barometer, compass), a model that remains a benchmark for the brand today, both aesthetically and technically.
Early 2000s: Suunto pioneered onboard GPS with the X9 and G9 models, then launched SuuntoSports.com in 2002—an activity-sharing platform that anticipated today's sports networks by several years.
2004: the T6 introduced real-time training load analysis based on heart rate variability.
2024: ZoneSense takes it a step further with real-time intensity guidance that eliminates the need for laboratory testing.
To embody this brand heritage, Suunto didn't want a nostalgic retrospective. Instead, the exhibition is presented as an "open archive," designed to show how a specific vision of Finnish design—essential, functional, and focused on real-world use—has shaped the instruments of explorers, divers, mountaineers, and runners for nearly a century.
The exhibition is divided into two parts:
"Suunto Then," dedicated to the origins: liquid-filled compasses, depth measurement instruments, and early navigation solutions.
"Suunto Now," which showcases the brand's contemporary evolution through its materials, software, and latest outdoor technologies. Highlights include the Suunto Race 2 (coral) and Suunto Vertical 2 (black titanium) on public display.
The exhibition made a symbolic stop in Chamonix during the UTMB before concluding its tour where it all began: in Helsinki, on September 3 and 4, 2026, at Kasino Vintage & 2nd Hand.
The commercial highlight of this anniversary is the launch of the Suunto Vertical 2 Titanium Limited Edition on March 10, 2026. The number is no coincidence: only 1,936 units were produced, a direct nod to the brand's founding year. Priced at €799, this special edition adopts the aesthetic language of the original compass while paying tribute to the iconic yellow and black of the 1998 Suunto Vector.
Suunto is also reaffirming its environmental commitment: carbon emissions related to the lifecycle of each anniversary watch are offset through verified carbon units as part of a mangrove restoration project in Southern Africa.
This is the message Suunto has chosen to convey for its 90th anniversary. Adventure is not limited to extreme feats; it resides primarily in a state of mind—the desire to go a little further, climb higher, dive deeper, or simply step outside to discover something new.
Throughout this anniversary year, the brand promises a series of pop-up exhibitions, community meetups, panel discussions, and adventure challenges in major cities around the world. The goal is to highlight the instruments that have defined its history, as well as the adventurers who, both yesterday and today, have shaped the brand's identity.
From a compass designed to withstand the Finnish cold to a smartwatch capable of analyzing an athlete's recovery in real time, Suunto celebrates its 90th anniversary by claiming something quite rare in the outdoor industry: continuity. A legacy of precision and design crafted, generation after generation, for those who choose to go off the beaten path.