From Depths to Heights: Suunto’s 90-Year Archive Exhibition Lands in Helsinki
Most brands celebrate 90 years by looking back through their archives. Suunto is doing that too, but the more interesting part is how fresh the archive still feels. From Depths to Heights isn’t just a neat clean of old products. It shows how the Finnish brand has shaped outdoor culture, design, sports, technology, and daily life for nearly a century, all while staying true to what made it important from the start: function.
No unnecessary extras or complicated explanations. These are simply tools for people who need to know where they are, where they’re headed, and what conditions they’ll face.
Suunto founder Tuomas Vohlonen
Suunto’s story began in 1936 with Finnish inventor Tuomas Vohlonen.
Vohlonen made a more accurate and stable liquid-filled compass for tough Nordic conditions. While this might seem like a small detail in engineering history, it actually sums up the brand. Suunto didn’t start as a lifestyle brand. It became one because its tools served a real purpose — and that original idea still runs through the archive: reliable tools that help people understand and navigate their surroundings.
After the first compass, Suunto spent decades making instruments for people in challenging environments: oceans, mountains, forests, snow, open water, endurance races, weekend hikes, dive trips, ski tracks, and more. The archive shows the evolution from precision compasses to dive computers, mountaineering watches, GPS wearables, and today’s adventure technology. The materials and designs have changed, but the core idea remains the same: Help people move better.
Curated and designed by Werneri Vanhanen and the Garbadura collective, From Depths to Heights gathers a thoughtful selection of Suunto instruments, photos, catalogs, campaign materials, historical documents, and never-before-seen footage. It feels less like a product showroom and more like a cultural archive — a place where the objects tell their own stories.
This is where the exhibition gets interesting. From Depths to Heights is more than just a timeline of products. It explores the people, environments, and communities connected to them. The equipment is seen as cultural material, carrying stories from underwater adventures, mountain expeditions, endurance sports, and everyday outdoor life.
A compass becomes more than just a tool when it guides someone through unknown terrain. A dive computer is more than a device when it’s used in underwater exploration. A mountain watch is more than a watch when it’s worn in places where weather, altitude, and direction truly matter. Outdoor gear has always had its own style, even if people don’t always notice it. Sometimes it’s about color, sometimes shape, and sometimes the patina and marks left by use; scratches, straps, faded packaging, old catalogs, unusual product names, and design choices that made sense at the time. The Suunto archive includes all of these details.
One key piece in the story is the Vector, launched in 1998.
The Vector became one of those products that crossed over from pure outdoor function into something wider. It was built as an ABC watch, combining altimeter, barometer, and compass, but visually it also became one of the most recognizable outdoor watches of its time. With its large case, bold colors, and clear interface, it was a tool first, but also a design statement.
Vector, launched in 1998
That’s likely why the archive fits so well with Helsinki Design Week.
People often discuss Finnish design in terms of chairs, glassware, buildings, and interiors, but the same approach is found in objects made for weather, movement, and survival. Clarity, durability, and purpose —these are things that work well and look good because of their function.
From Depths to Heights also brings that design context into the exhibition space itself. Artek stools designed by Alvar Aalto appear with Suunto-red seats, arranged in the shape of the brand’s triangle. Yrjö Kukkapuro chairs have been reworked in Suunto colorways. Helinox outdoor furniture brings the functional outdoor side directly into the room. It is a smart mix: Finnish design heritage, outdoor utility and archive culture speaking the same language.
And then there is the community side. Suunto’s products have never existed in isolation. Divers, climbers, skiers, runners, hikers, athletes, explorers, and anyone who enjoys the outdoors have used them. The exhibition understands that. It treats equipment as cultural objects, not just technical achievements. These items matter because of the experiences people have had with them.
That is also what makes Suunto feel very relevant in 2026. Outdoor culture is no longer just about extreme expeditions or specialist gear. It is also city people going for a run after work, taking a cold swim, cycling through winter, hiking on the weekend, or choosing objects that feel useful, durable and honest. The line between performance, design and lifestyle has become much softer. Suunto has been sitting somewhere in that overlap for a long time.
From Depths to Heights brings that story to Helsinki during Helsinki Design Week, including a community event on Thursday, September 3 bringing together Suunto, Garbadura, and the local design and outdoor communities to celebrate the archive and 90 years of outdoor culture. The exhibition is open to the public on Thursday, September 3 from 13:00 to 18:00, and Friday, September 4 from 13:00 to 19:00 at Kasino Vintage & 2nd hand, Katariinankatu 1, 00170 Helsinki.
If you are into Finnish design, outdoor culture, vintage items, archive pieces, or just brands with a real story behind them, this is worth marking on the calendar. See you at the exhibition!