Suunto’s New Summer 2026 Features Updates!

Suunto has just announced a pile of new features as part of their Q2 update, which includes both firmware updates for watches, as well as platform updates for their app/platform.

Diving into the hardware side first, this is only for the Suunto Race 2 & Suunto Vertical 2. This is definitely a bit of a shift from updates of recent years that have been more widely supported with older models, whereas the Race 2 & Vertical 2 came out less than a year ago. It’s unclear if this is a clear trend going forward for Suunto (probably), or just a one-off thing. This would be more in line with how Garmin handles things, and more recently Wahoo as well. While COROS tends to support things further back (such as their recent June 2026 firmware update going back to previous generation units).

In any case, here’s what’s new on the watch firmware:

– Maps get easier water feature labels
– Maps get mountain peak labels
– Maps get layer selection option (including layers for contour lines, place names, street labels, and POI listings)
– Expanded route storage, from 15 routes to 200 routes (#@$@# finally!)
– Adds new vertical gain training target (ascent target in vertical meters)
– Adds tides forecast feature
– Adds QR code pairing option
– Increases syncing speed of new SuuntoPlus apps by compressing them

Above, in the header photo, you can see an example of the new layers option to toggle on/off various tidbits on the map. Meanwhile, down below is the ascent target for vertical gain from within a given workout.

Meanwhile, for the tidal forecast, this comes from the Suunto app and syncs to the device. Some companies have a tidal database that’s kept locally, whereas others sync it from an app. This does require the app nearby. I do wish it was a wee bit more specific in the Tides header as to which exact city it was pulling from. Obviously, the tides for where I am in Mallorca (in Spain) are vastly different from the ones in the Basque Country up north. In this case, I know these are my local tides, but if I actually cared about the tides (and thus, most likely on a boat), I’d want to know they were for my exact location, not yesterday’s location far away.

Next, from an app standpoint, there are a few new things there:

– Added new shading option in 3D maps (e.g. seeing steep sections)
– Added new map type (City Map), making buildings with a 3d styling
– New sharing overlays and backgrounds for sharing completed activities to friends (e.g. power/distance/etc)
– Updated layout in profile details to show badges and personal records

Here’s an example of the new shading & city maps:

Finally, last week there were some updates for the Suunto Ocean, from a dive standpoint:

– Added CCR mode (like in EON’s)
– Added multiple tank pod support
– Added New TTS values
– Added heart rate belt support
– Bug fixes to map

Now, as with past Suunto releases, one of the program managers have put together a video that walks through all these features, step by step.

Got all that? Good.

As always, it’s good to see Suunto has maintained their quarterly release cadence, following the most recent one back in April. We’ve seen most companies in this space join that pattern over the last year or two, albeit at different intensity levels. In this case, Suunto has left off both the Suunto Race 1 & Suunto Race S, which did get the April updates (the Vertical 1 did not get the April updates, but got the January updates). Undoubtedly, that’s going to give some people a bit of pause for thought going forward. Unfortunately, it’s just too soon to know if ‘this model year only’ will become the new norm for software updates.

In the meantime, if you’ve got a Suunto Race 2 or Vertical 2, go forth and get it updated! The updates were released today, but as always, it may take a short bit of time before all watches receive the update.

With that, thanks for reading!