Always a constant struggle to find a HRM that looks good enough to wear as an everyday watch. Suunto has the style part, hands down. IMHO, it looks better, is slimmer than the Ironman watches and Polar watches out there. I also use a Garmin 405 but that's a little too big to wear every day and has to be charged. The Suunto feels good, is well made and does what it advertises well. It functions well as a HRM, but is very counter intuitive in menu structure. I still press the wrong buttons constantly. But for the most part, the stopwatch for doing intervals in the pool and the HRM work well. Like many watches in this category, it's face scratches far too easily. If they made this exact watch with a crystal face, I'd be all over it. The more expensive T6 has such a face, but it does not look as good to my eye.

Suunto can accomodate a footpod and a GPS pod, but I have not tried, so I cannot comment. I have a friend who has returned like 4 of these because his watches have leaked. I have experienced no leaking, and wear it routinely in the pool and at races. This year 2008, they introduced the T3c which is the same watch with a much more comfortable heart rate strap (similar to the polar). Just ordered a strap, kinda pricey at $69 but it's coded.

I tried them all, and Suunto does mostly what I need. I never feel like a complete dork wearing it every day because it looks so much better.

Beware of the black watch with the black face. While it looks great, it's a little hard to read (and if you wear polarized lenses, forget it). Ended up returning that for the black with regular face.

Also, beware of the strap that has the clasp (the shiny black band). You have to cut it, take out some links to make it fit to size. If you're handy fine, but I like the regular plastic strap better.

I was using the Polar AXN 300 before I bought this Suunto T3. The T3 is a little more practical for training because of it's size. The Polar AXN 300 was just to big and clunky. I use my T3 religiously in my training. I like all the features especially the TE(Training Effect) one. Ever since I started using this, I haven't been over-training like I used to before. What also drew me to this model was the ability to change batteries in both the HRM strap and watch. I've had no major problem with this model. The only thing I didn't like was that the watch face scratches easily, since it's plastic. Maybe, Suunto will make the newer models with crystal faces. Other than that, this watch was good purchase. I would recommend it to any multisport athlete or gym-rat.