UNA Watch announces commercial launch of its repairable wearable
A venture‑backed wearable challenger is taking aim at the dominance of Apple and Garmin with a repairable sports watch built around modular components and open software. UNA Watch, which has moved from crowdfunding into full commercial launch, says its device is designed to be kept, customised and repaired, not discarded.
The company has released what it calls the world’s first modular GPS sports watch, assembled from replaceable parts rather than sealed hardware. Owners can swap out components including the battery and display, with spares sold directly by UNA. Elements of the hardware design have also been published under a Creative Commons licence, allowing users and third‑party makers to understand, adapt and build accessories for the device.
UNA’s approach has attracted more than 1,200 early supporters, with watches now shipped to customers in 32 countries. Backed by Techstart Ventures and SFC Capital, the startup argues that repairability must be built in from the outset, even if it increases manufacturing costs and reduces future replacement sales.
Founder Lewis Allison, an electronics engineer who previously spent more than a decade developing golf‑industry wearables, said the company’s open model is a deliberate contrast to the closed ecosystems of major consumer‑tech brands.
“Trying to beat Apple and Garmin by copying their model would make no sense,” he said. “We’ve taken the opposite approach by giving people the tools to repair, adapt and programme the product they own.”
Demand from users to programme the watch themselves has led UNA to create an open software platform and release a software development kit. Independent developers are now producing sport‑specific and activity‑specific apps at a faster rate than UNA’s internal team, including tools for mapping, yoga, OS grid references, sleep tracking, parkrun and even a recreation of the classic mobile game Snake.
Allison believes this community‑driven development gives UNA a credible route to competing with companies many times its size. “The technology giants decide which features receive attention and when customers need to buy another device,” he said. “UNA gives its community a meaningful role in deciding what the watch becomes.”
The rise of AI‑assisted coding could further expand that community. UNA says users can increasingly describe the function they want in plain English and use AI tools to generate code, diagnose errors and refine applications, lowering the barrier for non‑programmers.
The watch uses USB‑C rather than a proprietary charger and offers a claimed battery life of seven to ten days, or around 20 hours of continuous GPS tracking. It is available in the UK, US, Canada, the EU, Norway and Switzerland, priced at £179 in the UK and $199 in the US.
Allison argues that giving customers more control over their devices will build long‑term trust. “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,” he said. “We want UNA Watches to become familiar objects that people keep, rather than disposable accessories waiting for the next annual upgrade.”
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