The Coros Vertix 2 can tell you everything you need to know about your climbing session – without you even wearing it

I went bouldering with the Coros Vertix 2 smart climbing watch

Features By Matt Evans published 27 October 2024

The Coros Vertix 2 isn’t the first time I tested a Coros device. I think Coros makes some of the top running and adventure watches in the business, and we rated the Coros Pace 3 as the best cheap running watch available right now. The Coros Vertix 2 is, however, my first adventure watch with such an emphasis on climbing.

Its climbing modes are packed to the gills with information I didn’t even know I needed, and serious adventurers and sport climbers will find the Vertix 2 very useful. It even comes with its own climbing accessory, the Coros Vertix 2 carabiner.

The carabiner is a neat invention, although pricey at $79 / £69 / AU$129, on top of the $599 / £599 / AU$899 adventure watch. The body of the watch is a little bulky as premium adventure watches tend to be. This means it might get in the way during intense or difficult climbs when there's no time to remove or adjust the watch while hanging from sheer rock.

So, Coros gives you the option to remove the watch straps and slide the body into the carabiner. You can leave it hanging on your belt or the strap of a chalk bag and it’ll still pick up loads of GPS information about your climb. Ta-daa: comprehensive information about your climbing session recorded in the moment, and you don’t even have to wear the watch on-wrist to do it.

The Vertix 2 speaks to five satellite networks (GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, Beidou and Galileo) to accurately position itself vertically and horizontally, calculating elevation very effectively. It supports global offline maps, allowing you to upload and sync to the Coros app beforehand. When I tested some of its climbing features at my indoor bouldering gym, I used its “bouldering” workout profile and got a simpler interface.

In the same way that you can divide a workout into segments using one of the best Apple Watches, the lower button on the Vertix 2 allows you to record route attempts, interspersed with rest periods. Once a route attempt is finished, the watch (having already recorded your elevation status during the run) gives you several options for labeling the route correctly. First, it allows you to record the difficulty level of the route using your classification of choice. I used the “V-grade” scale that I’m used to, climbing a couple of V1s, V2s and V3s for the purpose of testing.

Then it asks you to label it with one of several climbing terms, such as “onsight” (completing a route first time, with no “beta” knowledge of how to get up), “flash” (completing a route first time, with prior beta) or “redpoint” (completing a route with practice, having succeeded or failed at the route prior).

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