The challenge
The Flite x Marc Newson range is a one-time release limited to 999 full configurations. Newson redesigned the award-winning Flite Controller to feel analogue and organic: a large colour display with animated real-time feedback, wave mode logging and displaying wave data across a session, and a wireless inductive charging dock.
Delivering that feel meant electronics that could drive a large, bright display at very low power, inside a sealed handset that spends its working life in salt water. It also meant the design team needed to know early what was actually buildable.
The work
Where the circular display came from
Tekt had been experts in circular AMOLED integration and pioneering MIPI DSI embedded target development well before this product existed, with those displays already in development kits and prototype systems. Working with Catapult Design, we proposed and recommended the display solution that became the finished product's circular form factor.
That recommendation fed into the creative process Marc Newson and Fliteboard founder David Trewern worked from to invent a concept unlike previous generations. The distinctiveness — the high design concept that became a real-world object — is owned by Newson and the Flite team. What Tekt provided was the technical capability to execute the vision, and the constraints the design team worked within to make it realisable.
Electronics, firmware and electromechanical integration
We delivered all electronics design and firmware, plus tight electromechanical integration: IP67-rated sensing systems, magnetic angular sensing so no mechanical shaft penetrates the seal, advanced Bluetooth connectivity, the AMOLED ultra-low-power high-brightness display, wireless charging subsystems and battery control systems. We also designed the wireless charging base electronics and firmware, so cradle and handset were engineered as a matched pair.
Prototypes, manufacture and recognition
Tekt prototyped and built thirty prototypes across two rounds of development. Manufacture then transferred to Fliteboard's partners during the company's transition to its acquirer, Brunswick Corporation.
The range has taken Australian Good Design Gold and Best in Class 2024, Red Dot 2025, iF Design 2025 for the MN60 Wave, and an IDEA Silver.
About the client
Fliteboard builds electric hydrofoil boards, founded by David Trewern and since acquired by Brunswick Corporation. For this range the company worked with the designer Marc Newson, of Marc Newson Ltd, with Catapult Design as industrial design partner on the program.
