Back on My Wrist: A 20-Year-Old Suunto X6M

Every now and then, while cleaning up, you come across something you completely forgot you owned. That’s exactly what happened to me. At the bottom of a drawer, I found my old Suunto X6M. I had completely forgotten I even owned them.

Considering when this model was manufactured, they’re probably around 20 years old—or even older. Back then, the Suunto X6M was a remarkably advanced outdoor watch, packed with features like an altimeter, barometer, and compass.

Time hadn’t been entirely kind to them, though. The watch itself was in surprisingly good condition, but the original strap had completely deteriorated. I ordered a replacement from AliExpress, but unfortunately, I couldn’t find anything that resembled the original strap with its faux leather texture. These days, they’re all just plain plastic or silicone.

Fortunately, bringing them back to life didn’t take much. A new strap, a fresh battery, and that was it—they powered up immediately.

To my surprise, they look almost brand new.

What impressed me even more, however, was their user interface. Today we’d simply call it the UI, and I had completely forgotten just how well designed it is. It’s clean, intuitive, responsive, and focused. No animations, no touch screen, no notifications—just the information you actually need, presented exactly where you’d expect it.

The Suunto X6M also has a serial interface for communicating with a computer. Fortunantely, I even managed to find the original cable in the same drawer. That opened up another fun little project: with a bit of help from AI, I’m planning to write a utility in Julia to communicate with the watch over its serial connection. Partly because I want to experiment with the protocol and julia language, and partly because it’s simply too interesting a piece of hardware to leave unconnected.

It even made me wonder if I should start wearing them again instead of my Apple Watch Ultra. Sure, I’d lose all the smart features, but I’d gain something that’s becoming increasingly rare: simplicity, excellent design, and a device that does exactly what it was built to do.

I’m just not sure whether they’re genuinely retro… or simply old enough to be considered embarrassing.

Thankfully, I have a reliable source for these kinds of questions. My 12-year-old son took one look at them and said:

“Dad, that’s actually cool.”

I’ll take that as a good sign.