Thus we could be presented with a dilemma. Buy Suunto for its no beef service, or avoid because of reliability issues.

I've never had anything but terrible service from them! Perhaps, they've been listening !!!

Could be an issue with their local service centres.

As I said earlier, I called the factory in Finland direct and received terrific service, with a 7-day turn-around at no cost. I knew that attempting to talk with the British retailor would involve me in a world of pain.

I know that some of you have had condensation issues. I've never experienced these. I suspect that this may be connected with not replacing the battery seal with the factory unit when changing batteries. It's only an additional £2.00. I still reckon they're the best!

Fascinating. You had to speak to Helsinki to get such service!

I did indeed have condensation problems with two watches that were brand new — so no problem with seals there (or there shouldn't have been). Cotswold told me they had seen a lot of problems. And on another occasion the plastic strap perished after 198 months.

My last problem was the worst. A new watch with condensation. I took it back to Cotswold who I bought it from. Suunto told them I couldn't possibly have bought it when I did as it was far too old. They, at first refused to have anything to do with my watch despite me having a receipt and credit card proof of purchase.

Cotswold literally had to hassle them to get them to respond properly. We made some progress when I suggested I might publicise this story all over the internet with a great deal of energy!

Cotswold were brilliant and were somewhat gobsmacked at Suunto's reactions.

I've used their products for well over a decade. When they work they are great. But I suspect potential purchasers need to be prepared to speak direct to Helsinki!

Whatever people do, buy these products from a decent store!

I hate to be be this negative but Suunto but they have consistently given me the worst customer service ever and on three occasions have sold me products that 'misted' straight from purchase !!!

Ha! Andy, I think you've flagged up what may well be one of the issues. And it could be to do with the production date of the item. I bought the unit that failed from Sports Direct, via Amazon. After reading yr post I compared the serial numbers of the original and the replacement. And there's a massive difference. The Vector was first introduced in 1998, and by extrapolating the numbers it could well be that my failed unit that shipped to the UK retailor was manufactured some seven or eight years ago.

Whilst this would have nothing to do with the mechanical fault that I experienced, a long storage time under unknown conditions might have caused the condensation you encountered? When Suunto spoke with Cotswold and said "I couldn't possibly have bought it when I did as it was far too old." then I guess this goes some way to validating my theory. Possibly they bought in a quantity in the last century (keep up at the back there . . . )

I had an Altimax - bought in Benasque in '99 - with absolutely no probs, Rock steady.

A plastic strap perishing after 198 months - 16.5 years - is OK in my book. Only kidding . . .

And, as you all can see, I have nothing better to do whilst waiting on the draw than write this nonsense! Good luck to all entrants! I understand that the Koor-In8-OR is building an extension to store vast quantities of Ardbeg as we speak. The security code I had to type in to send this was "AGE8" which is about right, I guess.