Our new partners, Personal Alarm Watch, will donate to call companions with every watch sold through our network.

We’re delighted to announce our new partnership with social enterprise, Personal Alarm Watch, which makes high quality personal alarms.

Like Re-engage, the company’s young founders, Adi and Ewan, are passionate about helping older people to be more independent, confident and free.

The duo have been designing award-winning technology for social good for over eight years and even won the coveted Forbes 30 under 30 award for their work building technology that older people love.

After experiencing first-hand how much people dislike pendant alarms, they set out to find out why. They ran design workshops, group sessions and interviews all over the UK with older people, their friends, families, carers and healthcare professionals.

They even took on work experience in monitoring centres where they sat in on calls and went out to install the old kit!

What they discovered is that older people don’t want to wear something that makes them look ‘old and vulnerable’. Ironically, they also found that, as most alarms only work in the home, they can actually make people feel too scared to go out.

Their research told them older people want an alarm that's:

• discreet and doesn't scream 'I have an alarm!'
• works anywhere - at home, in the garden or out, without limitation
• has a speaker and microphone built-in, so you aren’t reliant on a box in another room
• doesn't need someone to come in and set it up.

So, after years of prototyping and testing different designs, in 2019, they came up with their Personal Alarm Watch.

The level of detail that has gone into this watch is impressive. For example, the alarm button has been placed on the front because, according to the occupational therapists they spoke to, this means you can still activate the SOS during a stroke.

Once activated, you speak to an experienced 24/7 monitoring team through the watch who then send help. The watch also counts steps and measures vitals to motivate people to stay active.

Already the highest rated alarm service in the UK, Adi and Ewan approached us to help spread the word further. They will donate to Re-engage every time an older person chooses to buy their watch.

Just like all pendant and other watch alarms, the Personal Alarm Watch has an upfront cost and monthly fee and they have deliberately priced it in the middle of the range of prices for alarms like this.

As this is a social enterprise that so clearly shares our values and ethos, we’re more than happy to share their story. So, if you do end up purchasing their personal alarm watch, don’t forget to tell them you heard about it here first.