Weret smartwatch review: A stylish analog surf watch that puts local tidal, swell and weather data on your wrist

Weret Surf watch review in a sentence: this Swiss-made surf watch makes it easy to keep an eye on the waves at all times, so you never miss a good session again. 

This is the first hybrid (analog/digital) smartwatch completely dedicated to surfing that we have come across. If you’re a keen surfer then there’s a good chance you’ll check the swell direction and wind speed about as often as you do the time of day. It makes sense to keep all that information in the one place, and that's what Weret does. 

There’s no shortage of surf watches out there, and whether they’re from specialist tech companies like Garmin, or surf brands like RipCurl. Many of the best outdoor watches (and even a few of the best running watches) have dipped a toe – ho ho – in sea-faring activities before as well. They’re generally pretty good at tide information or tracking your activity in the surf. But there’s only one or two that are capable of telling you what the conditions are accurately enough to know whether or not it’s worth getting out for a paddle. 

Weret is a collaboration between a Swedish design house, a Swiss watchmaker and the British weather aggregator Magicseaweed – and its pitch is simple: to tell you everything you need to know about your local waves and whether or not it’s time to get wet.

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Weret smartwatch review: price and availability

The Weret smartwatch was released in June 2020 and is available through Weret’s online store for £475, US$595 or AU$795.

The smartwatches come with free international shipping and can be purchased with Fahrenheit or Celsius temperature scales. There's a range of colour options, and a choice of canvas, silicon and leather bands – the price is the same for all models.

Weret smartwatch review: build quality and aesthetics

To the uninitiated, the Weret smartwatch looks like a classic analog dive watch with a rugged, metal frame. The analog watch face has a minimalist layout and the choice of a silicone, canvas, leather or croc band gives you the option to dress up this traditional looking timepiece. There are also a selection of simple chrome, black bronze or white watch faces to choose from, so there should be something to suit anyone. 

The watch is built from surgical-grade steel and anti-scratch non-reflective sapphire glass to keep everything clear and easy to read, no matter what you throw at it. It’s also been built to withstand 10ATM (100m/330ft) of water pressure, which is an important point of difference to many waterproof smartwatches currently available, as big surf can cause localised pressure swings large enough to overcome the usual 5ATM waterproofing you see on a lot of today's smartwatches. 

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Weret smartwatch review: Interface

While the overall look is simple, there’s actually quite a bit of information on hand. In addition to the usual watch hands and markers for the time, you’ve also got a swell height, swell direction and tide gauge in the centre of the watch. Around the edges, Weret includes barometric pressure numbers and a temperature scale that the hands swap to when you push a button on the crown. 

For the most part the interface works exceptionally well, but the watch does need to have an active Bluetooth connection with your smartphone to swap from the time to the tide display. So, if you forget to check the tide until you're out in the water, you can’t actually access it until you’ve reconnected back on the beach.

As a stopgap to getting some kind of mechanical timer to pick up the tide timing when you lose the Bluetooth connection, it would be handy to have the last tide reading it received from the app available. Generally it won't have been too long since you disconnected, and it's not a big deal to do a bit of estimation based on the last readings. 

Weret smartwatch review: Themes

If you’re more into kite surfing, windsurfing or sailing, you can actually change the theme of the watch to give you wind speed and direction instead of swell size and orientation. 

While we initially expected that swell information would be on the primary watch face – and that these dials would swap to wind info when initiating the alternate watch-face – this is unfortunately not the case, alas. Both wind and swell information is critical for surfers, so we’re hoping that Weret will be opening this up in a future software update. 

Weret review: Magicseaweed swell and wind data

All the swell, tide, wind, air pressure and water temperature information is pushed to the watch via a Bluetooth connection to an app on your Android or iPhone. The smartphone app is easy to navigate and maintains a good connection with the device, but the success of this watch hinges on the accuracy of the information it's portraying, as much as it does on how well it displays it.

Magicseaweed is one of the longest running swell forecasting sites on the internet, with specific swell info on more than 3,000 beaches in 180 different countries, so the simplified weather data you're getting on your watch is as reliable as anything you can find on your smartphone or PC. 

In addition to reliable information, there's a wide range of popular surf breaks available to set as your local in both the US and Australia, and since the company was founded in England there’s no shortage of spots in the UK and Europe either. 

Even if you live in remote parts of Alaska, or you’re on a surf trip to Easter Island, chances are if people surfed there, Magicseaweed will have it clocked – which will be handy if we're ever able to travel again.  

Weret smartwatch review: Verdict

The Weret smartwatch is a refined device that does everything it sets out to do in a precise and intentional manner. We couldn’t think of a better partner than Magicseaweed for sourcing the most accurate current swell information, and the simple and focused interface means you’ll get the information you want, without much effort or too many distractions. 

We would like to see both swell and wind information made available on later updates, and hope that the developers can work out a way to upload local tide patterns (or at least store the last reading) for off-grid tide information. 

That said, what is currently on offer is an exceptionally well crafted and unique device that will appeal to people who always have one eye on the water.

• Choose your next smartwatch on the Weret online store.