Fitbit is recalling over a million of its Ionic smartwatches following incidents where overheating batteries had caused burn injuries.
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Burn Reports
The U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said that Fitbit had received at least 115 such reports in the United States and 59 from overseas and asked consumers to immediately stop using them.
In 78 cases, the owner suffered burns from the defect, 4 suffered second-degree burns, and 2 got third-degree burns from wearing the watch.
Fitbit said that the CPSC announcement represented less than 0.01% of the units sold, meaning that the incidents are very rare.
Watches Sold Abroad As Well
It added that the voluntary recall does not impact other Fitbit smartwatches or trackers.
Of the recalled smartwatches, about 1 million were sold in the United States and around 693,000 were sold internationally.
The Ionic is priced at $299 and tracks activity, heart rate and sleep.
Its production was stopped in 2020.
Customers To Get Refund And Discount
They were sold at stores operated by companies such as Kohl’s and Target and online on Amazon and Fitbit’s own website from September 2017 through December 2021.
The CPSC said that affected consumers will receive a refund and 40% off on new watches from Fitbit on returning the product.
Fitbit gained popularity due to its “wearable” devices which would track activities from sleep to running.
Google Acquisition
However, it began to lose ground to Apple, Xiaomi, Samsung and Huawei over the years.
Google bought the company in January 2021 in a deal valued at $2.1 billion.
It will soon release a Pixel smartwatch designed to sync with Android-powered smartphones.
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