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It's designed to help relieve the '27 hours' caregivers dedicate every week

The brains behind Fitbit are back with a brand new wearable — and this time, it's not about counting your steps or morning jog.

James Park and Eric Friedman, who co-founded Fitbit before selling it to Google for $2.1 billion six years ago, have unveiled a device called Luffu Link.

It's a slim, screenless band that sits on your wrist and is designed to keep an eye on older family members, without making them feel like they're being watched. Mr Park and Mr Friedman launched their brand-new company, Luffu, six months ago but already have the new hardware ready to go.

According to the pair, the project grew out of their own personal experiences caring for ageing parents. Mr Park told TechCrunch: "When you become a family caregiver, or the CEO of the family, these people are spending an enormous amount of time doing it.

"Research shows over 27 hours a week on average, which is a crazy amount of time...I think technology can play a big role in helping reduce this load, but as we found out, the tools to help them are pretty fragmented."

On the health tracking side, Luffu Link is designed to monitor your heart rate, heart-rate variability, breathing rate, sleep, activity levels, and calories burned — all the things you'd expect from a modern fitness band like the recent Fitbit Air or Garmin Cirqa Smart Band.

However, this device stands out with a built-in GPS, a microphone, a speaker, and its own mobile connection. That means it works completely independently, so there's no need to have a smartphone nearby like other wearables.

A mobile will only be needed to check out the data on the Luffu app. You can press a button and record voice notes about medications, symptoms, meals, or how you're feeling, and the companion app organises everything automatically.

Battery life runs up to five days. It's also water-resistant to 50 metres, and works with both iPhones and Android phones.

And unlike a typical fitness tracker that throws graphs and charts at you, Luffu Link is designed to simplify the data it collects — similar to the Oura Ring 4.

"It's looking for patterns, so maybe your activity has been unusually low," Mr Park explained. "Maybe your sleep patterns have changed. Maybe that change happened after a new medication."

It's essentially made to answer three key questions — what changed, does it matter, and does somebody need to know?

The location-sharing feature is also ideal for peace of mind. Trusted contacts can see where you are, where you've been, and get alerts when you arrive at or leave certain places. A quick double press of the button sends a check-in to family members — no call or text needed.

If something goes wrong, you can hold the button and speak. You might say something like, "I fell and hurt my wrist. Can someone come get me?" The device then fires off that voice message to pre-selected contacts, along with your GPS location, current heart rate, recent activity data, and even the band's battery level.

However, if it's a true emergency, the band won't call emergency services like the Google Pixel Watch 5.

Since it runs on its own cellular connection, all of the band's features are meant to work even if there's no phone anywhere in sight.

Luffu Link is up for pre-order now at $250 (£183), though the full retail price will be $300 (£220) once it officially launches. Shipping is expected to kick off in early 2027, with US customers first in line. There has been no confirmation date for a UK rollout.

There's also a monthly subscription of $19.99 (£14) to keep everything running, which covers the built-in cell data service — so no need to sort out a separate mobile plan or contract. Everything will stay in one spot.

It comes in three colours — halo gold, onyx black, and sterling blue.

And Park and Friedman aren't stopping with this launch, either. The company has teased that a home device is in the works, which would extend Luffu's care system beyond the wrist and into the house — the next piece of what they're calling an intelligent family care platform.