Suunto Oy is a Finnish company that manufactures and markets sports watches, dive computers, compasses and precision instruments. Headquartered in Vantaa, Finland, Suunto employs more than 300 people worldwide, and its products are sold in over 100 countries.

Compass products

Suunto makes a wide variety of magnetic compasses, including the A and M series for general navigation, the Arrow series of compasses for competitive orienteering and KB (KäsiBussoli, engl. hand bearing compass), MB (=MatchBox) and MC (=Mirror Compass) lines for those requiring a professional-quality hand bearing compass. Suunto also produces the Recta lines of compasses, including DT baseplate series based on Suunto designs, the DS series of mirror sighting compasses, the Recta Clipper micro compasses, and the famous DP ‘matchbox’ series of military compasses invented by Recta in 1941. In 2009, Suunto discontinued the Swiss-made Recta DO series, moving all remaining production of Recta compasses from Biel, Switzerland to its production facility in Vantaa, Finland.

Since 1967, successors of M-40 have been offered as KB line, which consists of high-quality hand-bearing surveying compasses and inclinometers that are accurate to fractions of a degree. Traditionally made of a solid block of machined aluminum, each KB compass contains a magnetized dial with calibration markings printed along its outer edge. A magnifying lens (KB-14) or prismatic sight (KB-77) is mounted at one end of the instrument with a crosshair providing a view of the disc, containing both forward and reciprocal bearings. In operation, the user divides his or her field of vision with the instrument, using the device’s lens or prism to precisely measure the bearing of the object in view. Suunto has since discontinued production of the KB-77. A newer model, the KB-20, utilizes a housing composed of high-impact plastic to allow the compass to float if dropped into water.