This is the Suunto KB-14 Hand Bearing Compass, it’s one of the best quality hand compasses money can buy, with an anodized aluminum housing designed to last a lifetime or more.
The Suunto KB-14 is known for its high accuracy, down to 1/3rd of a degree. It has a sapphire bearing, a shatterproof acrylic crystal, and a liquid filled capsule for reliable operation in any environment.
The Suunto KB-14 Hand Bearing Compass has a tough anodized aluminum housing designed to last a lifetime or more.
Suunto is a Finnish company founded in 1936 by engineer and orienteer Tuomas Vohlonen, who invented a groundbreaking method to mass-produce liquid-filled compasses.
This innovation vastly improved the accuracy and stability of compasses, helping to quickly establish Suunto as a leader in pre-WWII navigational technology. Initially, the company specialized exclusively in precision compasses and navigation equipment, selling them to explorers, foresters, surveyors, engineers, cartographers, geologists, miners, architects, the military, and general outdoor enthusiasts.
Over the decades that followed, Suunto expanded its product line beyond compasses to include sports instruments, scuba diving computers, and adventure watches. In the 1980s, the company launched its first dive computer, revolutionizing the industry and helping to considerably improve diving safety.
By the late 1990s and early 2000s, Suunto was firmly established in the sports watch and outdoor fitness market, introducing GPS-enabled devices, heart-rate monitors, and altitude-tracking watches. The company continues operations from its headquarters in Vantaa, Finland, and still manufacturers many of its products in Finland.
The Suunto KB-14 was developed to be the last hand bearing compass you’ll ever need to buy, unless you lose it of course. Rather than the cheap plastic casing used by almost all modern hand-held compasses, the KB-14 has an anodized aluminum alloy casing designed to last decades.
The compass weighs in at just 93 grams or 3.28 oz, and fits neatly into your pocket or backpack until it’s needed.
The compass has a graduation interval of 0.5°, an adjustable diopter, and it measures in at 77 x 52 x 15 mm or 3.03 x 2.05 x 0.59 ” with a weight of 93 grams or 3.28 oz. Each comes with a two year warranty a lanyard, and a nylon pouch with belt-loop.
If you’d like to read more or get your own you can visit the official Suunto Amazon store here.
Images courtesy of Suunto
Articles that Ben has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.