A tech firm based in Edinburgh has launched a new GPS sports watch specifically designed to be repaired and modified by its owners.
UNA Watch aims to challenge industry giants such as Apple and Garmin by offering an alternative to sealed hardware and regular replacement cycles.
Backed by Techstart Ventures and SFC Capital, the company provides an open software platform that allows users to programme their own applications.
The device is assembled using replaceable components, meaning owners can change parts including the battery and display instead of discarding the entire watch.
Independent developers are already producing sport-specific applications for the device, creating tools for mapping, sleep tracking, and a version of the mobile game Snake.
The company initially released elements of its hardware design under a Creative Commons licence, before user demand led to the creation of the open software platform.
Founder Lewis Allison, an electronics engineer who spent a decade developing wearable technology, said: “Apple and Garmin have enormous teams and resources, so trying to beat them by copying their closed model would make no sense.
“We have taken the opposite approach by giving people the tools to repair, adapt and programme the product they own.”
Lewis added: “Your watch should belong to you – that should not be a radical idea, yet people can spend hundreds of pounds on a device and still have remarkably little control over it.
“The hardware is often sealed, the software is restricted and the battery can be difficult or impossible to replace. If one relatively inexpensive component fails, the accepted answer is frequently to discard the entire product and buy another.”
Following a crowdfunding campaign that attracted 1,200 supporters, UNA has moved into full commercial launch, delivering watches to customers in 32 countries.
The watch features USB-C charging and offers a battery life of seven to 10 days, or approximately 20 hours of continuous GPS tracking.
Lewis said: “It costs slightly more to build and we may sell somebody a replacement battery instead of an entirely new watch, but it is the right thing to do. We want UNA Watches to become familiar objects that people keep, rather than disposable accessories.”
He noted the potential for artificial intelligence to help users without coding experience generate applications for the watch.
He said: “In the past, providing a software development kit gave professional developers more freedom. In the age of AI, it has the potential to give almost everyone more freedom.
“Existing GPS watches are limited by the imagination and priorities of their internal development teams. UNA can draw upon the imagination of everyone who uses it.”
The UNA Watch is priced at £179 and is available in the UK, US, Canada, the EU, Norway and Switzerland.
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