Intel Corp. has issued a safety recall of its Basis Peak fitness watch after it was discovered that it could burn the person wearing it.

The recall follows attempts by the company to update software on the watch to address the overheating issue.

“We are issuing this safety recall of the Basis Peak watch because the watch can overheat, which could result in burns or blisters on the skin surface,” Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, New Technology Group Josh Walden said in a statement. “It is important that you stop using your watch immediately and return it.”

According to PC World the recall impacts Basis Peak watches manufactured from August 2014 to July 2015, which were sold from November 2014 until June 2016, basically all Basis watches ever made except the original B1 which was discontinued several years ago.

The problem is being attributed to the fact that the Peak continually monitors heart rate using an active LED on the back of the device versus other smartwatches that only monitor heart rate occasionally; it’s the LED that appears to be overheating be it that incidents of them causing burns have only be reported in 0.2 percent of watches sold.

In addition, Intel said it was stopping support for the Basis Peak immediately and was giving users until December 31 to access their data until all services are turned off.

Disaster

The decision to pull the product is a disaster for Intel’s push into wearables and will leave the company with no products to sell in the space despite identifying the market as one it wants to be in.

As well as leaving the Intel wearables push dead the failure of the Basis watch has also been a costly one: Intel acquired Basis Science for between $100 to $150 million in 2014 but with no products on the market today and perhaps even no future ahead it was money particularly poorly spent.

If you have a Basis watch visit https://support.mybasis.com for details.

Image credit: Basis Science.