The design team behind Wattz, which has launched with the goal of revolutionising farm machinery lighting, shares what makes its products unique
The high-powered lights offered by Wattz are designed to give farmers an edge by providing additional versatility over factory-fitted options.
Additional brightness and improved light distribution are just two of the areas where the range of products excel compared to standard options, but this only tells part of the story.
Providing model-specific lights for a wide variety of the world’s most popular tractors, while also not changing the machine’s overall look, has been a process of continual refinement and development that also involves Wattz’s European partner Crawer.
Wattz founder and Victorian farmer Andre Meyer spent a year working on a farm in Europe and had his first touch points with the Crawer lights and brand while doing so.
It was this experience that made Meyer realise these lights would be an ideal fit for the Australian market – and so began the story of Wattz, which officially launched last month.
Tailor made
Adding Wattz lights to a tractor – or other agricultural machine such as a harvester or sprayer – provides a more powerful option than the manufacturer’s standard offering.
By extension, this enables farmers to work safely for more hours of the day, potentially getting a crucial job completed early in the morning or once the sun has already set.
The positive impact on operations can be significant, but with the lights being easy to install and not changing the cosmetic look of the machine – there is no need for complicated changes or technical work to experience these benefits.
Providing a greater light output and varying the distribution options for individual needs is the essence of Wattz’s product range, and where the research and development undertaken by Meyer and the team at Crawer allows for this to become reality.
“What we always try to do is find areas where we can make the lights better than our competition,” Meyer says.
“My heart and soul is with farming and in my opinion this also gives different insights in how you want to have the light output or light distribution.
“For instance, all headlights used by tractor manufacturers originate from trucks or cars. While driving a tractor, you are much further away from your headlights compared to a car or a truck.
“This means the width of the low beam pattern is sufficient for a car but it’s often not wide enough for driving a tractor because if you want to make a turn then you can’t see where you’re going, but this is something we can change.”
Each set of lights available through Wattz has been designed specifically for that machine, with a 3D configurator on the company’s website allowing users to enter their tractor brand and model to see which product is best suited.
These products have been continually developed, with each design update also increase the number of light angles available within it.
Both Meyer and the development team’s agricultural backgrounds mean they are well aware of the scope of jobs which a farmer undertakes and that different light distribution is required for different types of farmers depending on their individual priorities.
“We offer more beam angle options so the customer can customise their own light package that best suits their needs,” Meyer says.
“If you are mowing at 20km/h then you want to see further away and if you have a smaller beam angle, it means the light can travel a greater distance and therefore you do see further away.
“If you have an articulated tractor with a really wide planter, you want to see the edges as well, and see beyond the edges.
“If you have a powerful light but with a huge beam angle like 60 or 90 degrees, it means the light will stay within a couple of metres around the tractor and therefore you have the most perfect visibility.”
Shining bright
These light angles and distribution are about giving farmers a subtle edge, but the other point of difference is the sheer power which they offer.
Meyer compares the standard options offered on a major manufacturer’s newer tractors with the lights which Wattz sells, which already provide double the light output with plans to increase this further to be triple what is available as a default.
He cites an example of the tractor manufacturer’s standard light offering, which is an LED version that does 2,300 measured lumens.
“Since 2018, Crawer has had a version that does a measured lumens of 5,200 lumens but we think that it’s outdated, so we are currently updating it and pushed it around 7,000 lumens,” Meyer says.
While the increased output of these lights does use more energy than the manufacturer’s standard offering, Meyer believes the greater visibility they provide – and the resulting increases to daily productivity on farm – are a greater priority to farmers.
“Tractor manufacturers try to save energy by lowering the power of the work light and therefore the average work light that you see on some tractors is around 30 watts,” he says.
“What we do is go around 55 watts because if you have more power, you have more light – and that’s something that people like to have.
“Our packages bring much more light than the original LED package of a tractor manufacturer and while we use more power, it’s just about where your priorities are.
“I think as a farmer, you want to have more light and that’s one of the main priorities.”
Clever design
The raw numbers and versatility show the quality of lights Wattz can offer to Australian farmers, however it is not simply a case of making the biggest and most powerful lights imaginable simply for the sake of it.
Meyer admits the lights could be manufactured to offer even more power than they currently do, however he believes they have found the ideal balance between offering superior light output without compromising either affordability or the factory look.
“We can easily make the lights even better if we want to – we can do another 10 or 20 per cent more light,” he says.
“We can push it further, but it pushes the price higher and then you are at a balance of what would be best because it also has to be affordable.
“It also has to look good on the tractor as well. We put a lot of effort into aesthetics as well, so it looks like it could have come from the factory and that’s something we think is still important.”
This effort into aesthetics is not something which is taken lightly.
Crawer’s European design team tests every potential new light package in real world conditions and on the exact model of tractor it is intended for, while they also work proactively to make design adjustments based on feedback from customers actively using the lights.
“In the Netherlands, the team at Crawer has a workshop and while developing the light, if we are quite certain about the design and also the size then we will make a 3D printed version of it,” Meyer says.
“We’ll get the tractor to our workshop and we mount the lights ourselves.
“Sometimes you see that you need an adapter bracket to have it fit better or you need an adapter cable to fit the original wiring, so then we develop that as well.”
All of this means that while Wattz may be a new player in the Australian market, it is backed by products which have been tested and refined over many years to ensure their suitability.
This development will continue thanks to Meyer’s involvement in product development. with future products to be designed exclusively for the Australian market and tailored solutions based on the country’s unique agricultural needs.
As a result, Meyer says he founded Wattz knowing the lights he can offer will make a difference to local farmers.
“You don’t realise all the effort and the development and thought behind it from ease of installation to the looks and everything in between – there’s a lot that goes into each light,” he says.
“We cater for all the big brands and for the price and what you get, I think it’s tremendous value.”