The BassWatch runs on an internal rechargeable battery and charges over USB-C. This article covers how it charges, how it manages power to stretch battery life, and the settings that control dimming, sleep, and wake behavior.
Charging
Charge the BassWatch with the included USB-C cable and any standard USB power source.
- The watch begins charging as soon as it is connected, and shows a charging symbol next to the battery indicator.
- Until the watch has charged to full once, it shows no battery number while plugged in. You see only the charging symbol. The number appears when the battery is full.
- After that, the number on the watch face rises as it charges. It reads 100% when the battery is full.
- You can wear and use the watch while it charges.
- A full charge from empty typically takes a couple of hours, depending on the power source.
If a fully drained watch will not wake, connect it to power and wait a few minutes. It powers back on once the battery has a small charge.
The Battery Indicator
The current charge level is shown in these places:
- On the watch face, as a battery icon (with a charging symbol when plugged in).
- On the monitoring top bar, alongside the voltage, temperature, and volume glances.
- On the Battery screen in the main menu. See The Battery Screen below.
- On the Battery row of System Info. It reads Charging while the watch is plugged in. Until the watch has charged to full, it may read N/A there instead.
The percentage and charging state come from the watch's own battery gauge. This is separate from the system voltage shown in the Volts view, which is your vehicle's voltage as measured by the WVC base station. The battery indicator is the watch; the Volts view is your car.
The Battery Screen
Open the menu (long-press the screen or press the side button), then select Battery. It shows:
- The charge level as a large number. While the watch is plugged in, it reads Charging instead.
- The battery voltage, with a charging symbol while plugged in.
- A graph of the battery voltage over recent time.
Tap Back, or swipe right, to return to the menu.
How the BassWatch Saves Battery
Because the AMOLED screen is the biggest power draw, the BassWatch steps down through power states as it sits idle:
- Active: the screen is at your set brightness and fully interactive.
- Dimmed: after a short period without touch, the screen dims to save power while staying readable.
- Screen off: after a longer period, the screen turns off entirely. On battery, the watch also drops its wireless link to the base station at this point, since the radio is the next biggest draw after the screen. It re-establishes the link when you wake it, which takes a second or two before live readings fill in. While the watch is plugged in, the link stays up instead.
- Deep sleep: about 20 seconds after the screen turns off, the watch drops into a deeper low-power state. This saves the most battery. It is on by default. You can turn Deep Sleep off in Settings. It only applies on battery: a plugged-in watch does not enter deep sleep.
To wake the watch, tap the screen or press the power button. If Tilt to Wake is on, raising your wrist wakes it too.
The side button and connecting a charger wake the watch only before deep sleep starts. In deep sleep, they do not wake it. Tap the screen or press the power button instead.
The first tap on a dark screen only wakes the watch to the watch face; it does not also count as a tap on whatever was underneath. Tap again to open monitoring.
If your WVC base station uses Competition Mode, the watch dropping its link on battery can make your system mute or turn down. See Competition Mode for how to keep it playing.
When you are on the watch face rather than actively monitoring, the BassWatch tells the base station to stop sending heavy audio analysis (FFT, oscilloscope, waterfall). This keeps both the wireless link and the battery light. Analysis resumes the moment you open one of those views.
Power and Wake Settings
The menu gives you control over the dim and sleep timers and the wake sources. Open the menu (long-press the screen or press the side button), then Settings.
| Setting | What It Does |
|---|---|
| Brightness | Screen brightness, 10-100%. Lower brightness uses less battery. |
| Dim After | How long the watch waits without touch before dimming the screen (15-180 seconds). |
| Sleep | Master switch for the inactivity sleep. When off, the screen never turns off on its own and the wireless link stays up. Dimming still works. |
| Sleep After | How long without touch before the screen turns off (30-240 seconds). Appears only when Sleep is on. |
| Tilt to Wake | When on, raising or turning your wrist wakes the screen. When off, you wake it with a tap or the power button. |
| Deep Sleep | On by default. When on, the watch enters a deeper low-power state after the screen has been off a while, to save the most battery. When off, the screen still turns off, just less deeply, and the watch wakes faster. |
See Menus and Settings for the full settings reference.
Getting the Most Run Time
Run time depends heavily on how much the screen is lit. With the display on and fully lit, expect roughly an hour and a half of continuous use; left to sleep between glances, a charge lasts about a day. These figures are approximate and vary with brightness, how often you wake it, and how much heavy audio analysis you view. To stretch it:
- Lower the brightness. The screen is the dominant power draw; a lower brightness meaningfully extends run time.
- Use shorter Dim After and Sleep After times. Letting the screen turn off sooner saves battery between glances.
- Leave Deep Sleep on if you only check the watch occasionally and do not mind waiting a moment for it to reconnect.
- Stay on the watch face when you are not actively studying the audio views, so the base station is not streaming analysis frames.
Leaving Sleep off keeps the screen on and the wireless link up indefinitely, which is the heaviest way to run the watch. Use it while you are actively working on a system, not as an everyday setting.
The Screen Turns Off Even While Charging
The BassWatch dims and turns its screen off on the same schedule whether it is on battery or plugged in. This is deliberate: it protects the AMOLED panel from burn-in, which a static clock face left lit for hours would otherwise cause. Plugging it in wakes the screen, unless the watch is in deep sleep. The normal dim and sleep timers then take it dark again.
What charging does change is what happens underneath: a plugged-in watch keeps its wireless link to the base station up while the screen is dark, and does not enter deep sleep. Only the battery benefits from dropping the radio, so it stays up when there is nothing to save.
Battery Care
- The watch charges to a healthy full level and stops; leaving it on the charger does not overcharge it.
- For long-term storage, charge it partway rather than storing it empty, and top it up every few months.
- Charge at normal room temperature when you can. Very hot or very cold environments slow charging and are hard on any lithium battery.