History of Watch Technologies

Jack Goldwasser and his team formed Watch Technologies (formerly Watch Enterprises) in 2005 after 30 years of successful telemetry system installation and operations work in-house and as a contractor/consultant. 

Jack established Watch Technologies (WT) as a separate enterprise from Mountain Energy, Inc., (the firm Jack established in 1978 to develop and own hydroelectric generation facilities), to more accurately reflect his primary business focus: data collection equipment, monitoring, and SCADA control systems for the water conservation, water management and waste water control, agricultural, marine, and hydroelectric industries -- the work Mountain Energy (MEI) primarily did since the early 1990’s.  Watch Technologies helps organizations increase the effectiveness and efficiency of their operations through modernizing and automation, saving time and money, as well as achieving water conservation.

History of innovating cost-effective technologies for field problems

Looking for solutions to field problems is the engine that drove MEI, Watch Enterprises, and now Watch Technologies through the last three decades. Stream-flow studies required to evaluate the potential of a site to generate sufficient power to warrant development required Jack and his team to install equipment to accurately measure and record surface water in very difficult situations. In many cases, designing systems to do this meant looking for or creating cost-effective technologies to do the job for gathering accurate data and getting it back to where decision makers could evaluate it. These projects caused Jack to innovate from the beginning.

Solving the three big problems in SCADA: keeping data collection cost-effective, getting accurate data, and getting the data “home,” is the cumulative history of Watch Technologies, particularly since 2004. It has led to a series of innovations over a short amount of time, and there will be more to come. Examples of solutions recently brought to market by Watch Technologies include low-cost integrated radio-based RTUs in a broad-based array of I/O options, off-the-shelf monitoring stations deployable by non-professional staff, user-friendly accessible SCADA HMI software that anyone with basic computer operations skills can maintain, automation retrofit equipment for agricultural gates manageable by the average farmer, rancher, or Irrigation District staff member, dual-action “smart” gates that can control surface conditions and dump flow or sediment as required in an emergency or on a schedule, and easily maintained internet interfaced HMI software.

Jack has patented numerous data logging equipment (1997-2000) and electronic contact manufacturing assignments (2000-present) of our own.

Evolving from hydroelectric to maritime, agriculture and water control

To better reflect the company's expertise in the field and manufacturing equipment, and focus on data collection equipment, monitoring and control systems, and SCADA, Jack established Watch Enterprises as a separate company in 2004. In 2009, the name of the company was changed to Watch Technologies to better communicate the technologically advanced products and services that Jack and his team provide for water conservation.

Field data collection is a critical requirement of hydroelectric development. Starting in 1978, Jack and his team at MEI, acting as consultants on various hydroelectric projects in Alaska, the Western US, and Central America, became skilled in the design, installation, and maintenance of very remote data collection systems needed for hydroelectric reconnaissance studies, licensing, and financing.

By the mid-1980’s, Jack was being awarded contracts with federal, state, and commercial entities to do what MEI had done in the hydroelectric market -- data collection and telemetry systems -- but on a much larger scale, for example, drainage-wide ALERT Flood Warning systems, integrated weather station systems, and process and environmental monitoring at fish hatcheries.

In 1995, Jack won a contract with the US Navy Inactive Fleet to supply four of its fleets (160 vessels and four Base Stations in Bremerton, Pearl Harbor, Norfolk, and Philadelphia) with radio-based monitoring and alarm systems. The project was a major success and remains in operation today. It also propelled MEI into marine telemetry applications (1995-present) culminating in the Beaumont Reserve Fleet and USDOT – MARAD Central Region adopting MEI’s VesselWatch Marine Telemetry System for general use within its jurisdiction by 2004. In the western U.S., Beaumont’s sister fleet, the Suisun Bay Reserve Fleet (SBRF) in Benicia, California, started a four year program to install a similar system in 2008.

Jack has found that solutions that work in the hydroelectric and maritime industries can be applied with great success in agriculture/irrigation, water management, waste water and water reclamation, and cathodic protection. He continues to deliver innovative solutions that save time and money to these industries.

 

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