The other day there was news that the Galaxy Ring 2 is delayed and as I read our story on it and looked at the plain metal band in the image atop the page, I flashed back to a tech show that was well over a decade ago when glittering wearables of all kinds were on display.
A world of possibilities for wearables stretched ahead, and while some products were clunkily cobbled together and others were an idea in search of a purpose, I thought I would witness an evolution that would lead to wild places. And yet as technology has enabled sleek, streamlined wearables and adoption is at an all-time high, there is a pervasive predictability that depresses me.
A sea of sameness
Every wearable now fits a mimetic model. Smartwatches look like regular watches, smart rings look like standard men’s wedding bands, and smart glasses all look like the thick plastic frames that are prevalent whether they’re imbued with AI or not.
What happened to personality? What happened to innovation? What happened to fun?
Remembrance of technologies past
Some of what I saw back then escapes not only my memory, but the internet’s as well. (To quote a post I saw the other day: “The internet is forever unless you wrote an article for a website in 2015.”) There are some standouts though.
In a sea of Oura-alikes, I miss Ringly, a product that had a short life on the market. Instead of a plain band, a Ringly ring was a cocktail ring composed of a stone in a metal setting, with a variety of colors and finishes. It had haptic and color-coded alerts that let you know when you were getting a call on your phone, if your Uber was pulling up, and if someone swiped right on your Tinder profile.
Cuff made wearable tech that would not look out of place at Coachella, but could perform various functions like alerting family members if an elderly relative had a fall or letting a woman in one press send out a distress signal and location to emergency contacts if she was in an unsafe situation.
And while its work is not nearly as polished looking, I wish a company like Cynaps had found its fashion footing. It started well over a decade ago and is seemingly still around, making one product, a baseball cap with a built-in bone conduction module so that you can take calls or listen to music without wearing headphones. The execution in both the tech and the design falls short, but it’s a solid idea that is a couple of partnerships away from creating its own category.
A far more interesting future
One company that against all odds has existed for 20 years is CuteCircuit, a maker of somewhat gimmicky but headline-grabbing fashion tech. Every few years it manages to make a product that gets broad coverage, like the Mirror handbag, an LED clutch that can showcase tweets; the HugShirt that lets you haptically feel hugs sent via an app; and the SoundShirt that transmits the feeling of music to skin.
When it comes to imagining something new, even kitsch is better than quiet luxury.
There is plenty of room to fit in some tech among trends. An entire bag charm movement happened and the only bit of technology I could find among it were fruit-shaped pouches that hold AirTags.
I want more than that. Give me a headband that plays podcasts. Or a chunky, tacky ring with the I ❤️ NY logo and NFC-based OMNY card functionality built inside so I can wave at a subway turnstile to pay. Just anything but another plain band.
