2024 in wearables: the year of the smart ring

When you say “wearables,” people generally think of smartwatches. But 2024 was a relatively quiet year for smartwatches, during which iterative updates reigned supreme. That happens in a maturing category. In exchange for polished products, you lose out on the weird frenetic energy — and sometimes ludicrously bad ideas — found when people are trying to figure out how to make a nascent gadget category work. Thankfully, it seems that energy is starting to bubble up with smart rings.

Smart rings are not new, but in 2024, there was a sort of renaissance for the category. I had an inkling that might be the case back in January, when several smart rings littered the CES show floor. And then Samsung kicked the door wide open in February by announcing the long-rumored Galaxy Ring. Samsung is a major player in the smartwatch space. For them to branch out into an entirely new wearable category? That’s big. It propels what’s thus far been a niche form factor into the mainstream.

This newer crop of smart rings — of which I tested several — is exciting because there are some funky ideas in the mix. The Galaxy Ring, for instance, can work in tandem with Samsung’s Galaxy Watches to optimize battery life and sensor accuracy. When paired with a Z Fold 6 or a Z Flip 6, it can recognize a pinching gesture to control the phone’s camera. A part of me hates that this can be viewed as a way to lock Samsung users into its ecosystem, but you have to admit: these are not use cases we’ve seen from smart rings yet. 

It’s not just Samsung that is coming up with innovations. I absolutely didn’t enjoy my time with the Circular Slim, but I’ll give the company credit for thinking big. That ring lets you set silent haptic alarms and attempt an in-app AI chatbot. Movano’s Evie Ring also caught my eye for incorporating a distinctive open-gap design while ambitiously pursuing FDA clearance for its metrics. Even Casio is getting in on the fun with its take on a more retro low-tech smart ring. 

It’s especially refreshing to see new ideas when you consider that Oura has pretty much dominated this space for the past decade. Oura primarily focuses on sleep tracking and recovery. (It’s very good at it, too.) That means that, up until recently, we’ve only really thought of smart rings as health trackers. Plus, if this past year is any indication, competition is good for Oura. The company has been launching new features at a steady clip and exploring new integrations with continuous glucose monitors, and it just released a fourth-gen ring. 

Smart rings aren’t going to be on every finger in 2025. They’re expensive, and when compared to similarly priced smartwatches, they don’t do quite as much. They’re also challenging to make precisely because they’re so small — and require even smaller components. And let’s not forget fit. Watch straps adjust easily to different sized wrists. With smart rings, the manufacturer has to make 10–12 different sizes to encompass a much wider range of finger sizes — as well as account for seasonal swelling. Any way you slice it, smart rings are trickier to get right than smartwatches or fitness bands. 

For all these reasons, I’m not sure how smart rings will fare in the year ahead. We don’t yet know how Samsung’s Galaxy Ring is doing in terms of sales. But if it does well, especially as an accessory to other gadgets, you can bet it’ll pique the interest of Google and Apple. (Even though Oura CEO Tom Hale is adamant that Apple won’t dip its toes into the smart ring space. Never mind all those rumors.) It’s also hard to tell how committed Samsung is to the Galaxy Ring if it doesn’t immediately succeed. 

What I do know is that, during my summer of wearing six smart rings, I fielded a ton of questions from curious friends, family, colleagues, and acquaintances. Some of them were just sick of smartwatches and wanted to return to a good ol’ Casio. Others wanted something beautiful and discreet. A few were extremely into sleepmaxxing — a viral trend where people try to optimize their sleep quality — and thus heavily invested in something comfortable and long-lasting to track their sleep. 

The interest is there. The question is whether this renaissance will continue or we’ll go back to Oura being the only game in town.