State of the art

Smaller and subtler than smartwatches, these nifty innovations can offer fulsome health advice – here we slip on three leading models

Words: Chris Hall, Bethan Girdler-Maslen, Matt Kollat

Photography: Neil Godwin

One of the recent developments in the wearables space is the evolution of smart rings. These dinky devices can slip onto a digit to monitor your biometrics. They’re less intrusive than a watch, meaning you can get those smart functions but still wear your favourite Breitling on your wrist.

The interest in smart healthcare is constantly growing and a smart ring gives you the ability to monitor your sleep, heart rate, daily activity and other metrics, so you can get a fuller picture of your health. Thanks to supporting smartphone apps, you can interpret this data and make the necessary lifestyle adjustments. Traditionally this was something you’d use a watch for - like a Garmin - but smart rings provide a subtler way to gather that background data.

Smart rings are dominated by startup brands: Oura is the biggest name, now in its third generation having first launched in 2015. Ultrahuman is often talked about, while brands like Circular and RingConn are also worthy of your attention. Mainstream brands are starting to move into smart rings too, with Samsung expected to launch Galaxy Ring later in 2024. This is likely to be seen as a comingof-age moment for the tech, with increasing interest expected over the coming decade.

WHAT’S ON TEST…

1 Circular Ring Slim

The Circular Ring Slim only weighs 2g and claims to have six days of battery life. It packs in sensors to track your heart rate, breathing, temperature, activity and sleep, all of which will sync to the smartphone app to help you keep track and make recommendations. The Ring Slim comes in eight sizes, but only one design. And it has a touch button on the top. €264, circular.xyz