Exclusive interview:
Omata founder - Julian Bleecker

Words: Will Date
Images: OMATA

Analogue soul

We live in a world driven by data, with almost every quantifiable part of our lives available for capture and analysis. Cycling is no different, and today for even the casual rider there are wealth of computers, sensors and apps on the market offering a level of data that would once have been the preserve of the professionals.

But, as we seek to gather ever-increasing insights into our ride, are we losing sight of the impulse that gets outside and onto the saddle in the first place? As our work and leisure lives become increasingly dominated by screens – even more so in the age of lockdown and quarantine – does riding with a handlebar-mounted screen only serve to disconnect us from a fundamental part of the ride itself - the road?

This is the perception that led product designer-engineer Julian Bleecker to devise Omata – a digital-analogue hybrid computer, designed to satisfy the need to capture ride data, without the “restraints” of a typical digital computer. The sleek-looking circular device has more in common aesthetically with a precision timepiece than a typical ride computer. The device offers the rider a live read-out of speed and distance through its main dial, as well as ascent and ride time in two smaller dials. Stripping it down to what actually matters, in Julian’s words.

As you would expect from a cycling computer, Omata captures data through GPS – all of which can be recorded and shared via a dedicated app. Aside from its stylized exterior, you might wonder how this differs from any run-of-the-mill digital device. According to Julian, Omata’s simplicity is what makes it unique. You have the information you need, easy to access in front of you, but instead of watching the numbers tick over while you work through the miles, Omata leaves you free to experience the ride itself, not the data. 

The marriage of style and functionality is no surprise, given that Julian has made a career out of blurring the lines between science, art and technology. Holder of a PhD in the History of Consciousness from the University of California – “basically the history of ideas and culture” – Julian’s career has seen him work for household names such as Nokia, where he was creative technology lead in the tech firm’s Advanced Design Studio. Based in Venice, in the heart of California’s ‘Silicon Beach’ – so-called for its burgeoning tech startup scene - Julian is the driving force behind Omata the brand. Along with a small team, Julian has brought the device from conception to market, and is now striving to build the brand into something bigger.

“At a top level, this just feels consistent with the kinds of things I want to be doing,” Julian explains, detailing how he went from a steady paycheck to engineering a high-concept cycling computer with a skeleton team. “The fact that it happens to be a bicycle speedometer is almost parenthetical to the fact that it is something that is unanticipated. It is unique in a very particular way - meaning that it is the kind of thing that some people will double take, and others may not understand it.”

The lightbulb moment for Omata came, as you would expect, in the saddle. Julian was training for an endurance ride – and in the process became frustrated by the distracting tick of the digital dial in front of him as he built up the miles.

“I had a Garmin on my hammer bar, and being an engineer I thought it would be cool to be able to track my data, to look at it and analyse it, make maps out of it, whatever. The Garmin is counting the time. When it tells you that you’re on a six-hour ride and you have got five hours and 58 minutes left, it is really not helping. I remember loosening it and flipping it the other way, because I still wanted it to capture data, but I didn't want to see this maddening thing.”

This led Julian to consider whether it is possible to represent the fundamental aspects of cycling in a computer, in a way that is more in tune with the spirit of the sport. “…Without implying data capture - without implying all of the things that a digital screen suggests,” he recalls.

That was the beginning of an 18-month process that led to the painstaking development of Omata. Working with a research and development company in Finland to bring the concept to life, Julian sourced funding – through a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign – and crafted the brand that exists today. “Very deliberately, the brand sensibility is to strip down to what actually matters,” he says. “In this instance it is speed, distance, assent and time.”

A common criticism of Omata is the cost. The device retails at close to £500, putting it at the higher end of the price range for a cycling computer. This, coupled with the more limited data output than some of its more established competitors, has seen Omata dismissed as “hipster jewelry” in some quarters.

For Julian, this criticism misses the point. “I like things that are descriptive and set apart, that don't feel like they are commodity and product or experience that anyone can get, that has a little bit of a discerning character to them,” he says. “I never set out deliberately to create a luxury product, I knew that this would be an expensive, high-end thing, mostly because of the way that I wanted to make it. I didn't want it to just be made as cheaply as possible, and I think people value the level of consideration that goes in to making something.”

If detailed performance metrics are what you are looking for, Omata may not be the device for you. The concept itself is slightly counterintuitive to what a cycling computer is and does. But, for those who identify with the philosophy behind Omata, the device elicits a response that a simple GPS computer never could.  Julian sums up this reaction in an encounter with a friend – an experienced cyclist – who effused about her experience with Omata. “She says it has totally changed the way that she rides,” he says, demonstrably awed by the reaction. “I could never have expected that someone could have taken that away, that actually in an existential way it has changed their experience of riding a bike. That to me is: wow.” 

From a personal point of view, Julain says that Omata has allowed him to ride in what he feels is a “more authentic way” – prioritising the experience, rather than the soulless process of capturing data for the sake of it. “I am going to ride as hard as I want to, as opposed to as hard as I feel like Strava is expecting me to because of where I am in the leaderboard,” Julian explains. “I am going to do the things that I find most enjoyable about being out on a nice long ride.”

So what more can we expect from Omata the company? As well as experimenting with new colourways for Omata, Julian is currently amidst a concerted fundraising effort to finance further development of the business, which, true to his ideals, will be as much about the ‘why’ as the ‘what’.

Whether the future involves cycling tech, or not, is an open question. In terms of the development pipeline, Julian says he has eyes on “something on a wrist”, but adds that he will always love cycling, and is “curious about what the opportunities are and where it goes”. 

“The thing that I imagine, that I want to build and to be a part of, is a facility that is very much driven by design and technology in a material way, so that we are actually creating things and doing that first level of exploration of new kinds of products and services that are designed, in the same spirit of Omata, to imbue these kinds of values about the transformative aspects of unmediated experiences.”