Watteam has announced that its premier product, the PowerBeat, has become the industry’s first power meter to use a rechargeable battery.
Watteam unveiled the PowerBeat last September during the Interbike Show in Las Vegas. Positioned as ‘the new generation of power meters’, the PowerBeat is an add-on device that offers ‘today’s most advanced technology at an affordable price’.
Over the next few days, the final PowerBeat design will move into an intense beta testing session around the world, with its rechargeable battery preinstalled. By May 2015, the PowerBeat will be ready for media reviews.
Eli David, Watteam’s COO, explains the move to a more ecological battery… “The PowerBeat technology has already conquered several frontiers. It allows the rider to have right and left balance without the need to double anything. As a lightweight add on, it can be used at all times, letting cyclists stay with their own bikes and crank arms. It provides the ability to work with both carbon and aluminium crank arms, and gives high accuracy and consistency, all for a very fair price. But we’re not done, we want to keep pushing forward, to change this industry forever. The rechargeable battery allows us to grow as a green company and to live up to our identity and values.”
The new battery is also lighter than the former AAA one and offers increased waterproof protection, as there are no buttons on the comp unit and no battery case that needs to be opened up. It will need to be recharged only every 120 hours, and the PowerBeat kit will come equipped with a charger, so that the cyclist simply unplugs the left and right connectors from the comp unit, and in their place plugs in the 2 connectors from the charger. The other end of the charger will have a micro USB to USB cable that Watteam provides, enabling users to charge the PowerBeat by PC or electrical outlet.
Ofir Gal On, Watteam CEO, says “As cyclists, we know the community and we’ve always strived to deliver a power meter that would meet the exact needs of the market. We are all used to charging our electronic equipment, whether laptops, smart phones or tablets, so charging our power meters should be no different.”
Following the release of the first PowerBeat units for testing, Watteam will announce its distribution plan. Gal On states “The number of companies and cyclists approaching us to become distributors or simply customers has been overwhelming. With such huge interest, we have some serious thinking to do. Once we decide on the correct way to hand out our device to the cycling community, we’ll publish our decision.”
Founded in 2011, Watteam is led by experts in the fields of cycling, operations, software development and business. Together, their goal is to ‘develop cycling accessories that enable riders to train in the most advanced physiological way possible’.
