What is the Wetronome?

The Wetronome provides an audible tone at a steady rhythm to improve performance in sports with repetitive actions, such as swimming. The device is worn during training under a swimcap or attached to goggles and is approximately 33 x 55 mm. Atamo patented the innovative combination of low power circuitry in a completely waterproof casing. Programming is done via an inexpensive magnetic wand, included with the product.

How did Atamo come up with this idea?

Atamo is always seeking good ideas to commercialise, but this one came from personal experience, with director Andrew Holmes and his family involved in competitive swimming at the national and international levels. There are a few similar devices on the market, but they failed when they were opened poolside, to either change the battery or inadvertently. They were also overly complex for the task at hand, with their designers feeling compelled to add features on the liquid crystal displays. The Wetronome has no display, programming is confirmed audibly and with an LED.

When did Atamo commit to the product?

We could see early on, once we had run the numbers, that there were a number of side benefits to creating the product. One of them was that we could use it as a showcase for our approach, effectively employing all of our services from idea to profitability. Atamo launched the product in the first week of May 2004 at CeBIT in Sydney and at the ASCTA national swim coach convention on the Gold Coast.

What was the "Atamo approach" that was applied?

Atamo chooses to be market-driven, not technology-driven. We believe this is becoming more relevant as technology continues to proliferate and combinations of components are not fully exploited. We therefore started by asking:

1. Is there a market? Is it big enough to justify creating, selling, and maintaining a product?
2. Do we have a way to get to the market?

The smartest technology in the world will not be adopted unless these questions can be answered with "Yes".

In the case of the Wetronome, Andrew knows some of the coaches in the Australian swimming community, and they are receptive to the product and willing to tell others. A positive aspect of the product is relatively low overheads, thus low risk. Still, we investigated the number of swimming clubs in Australia and the number of competitive swimmers in each club.

There is a lot to be said for a demand in the market met with a simple product. All possible changes to the product would have added some complexity. We now have an international distribution network with monthly sales overseas.

Sounds great, where can I get one?

See the Wetronome website on how to do so!