Luxury Meets Biometrics: Why Smart Rings Are the Next Big Fashiontech Frontier
From Sports Bands to Jewellery
For a decade, “wearables” meant visible tech. We strapped on silicone bands, sports watches and anything that could count steps or scold our sleep. The market trained us to see function first and fashion second. Rings were different. They had to behave like jewellery before they behaved like gadgets. That is why turning a ring into a credible computer has been harder than putting one on your wrist. However, the aspiration now is not only to serve early adopters and bio-hackers... The next wave needs to persuade jewellery lovers that the beauty comes first and the sensors just happen to be inside.
Oura Ring as the Disruptor
Oura showed it could be done. The Finnish company took a discreet form factor, focused on sleep and recovery, then wrapped it in a premium, jewellery-adjacent aesthetic. By December 2024 Oura had sold about 2.5 million rings and was on track to generate roughly $500 million in annual revenue. It also raised $200 million at a $5.2 billion valuation to fund expansion. Those are category-defining numbers and they signal real consumer appetite for health in a subtler package.
Market Outlook
Analysts estimate global smart ring revenue in the mid-hundreds of millions of dollars in 2024, with the potential to surpass $2 billion by the early 2030s. Reports forecast growth at a 20–25% CAGR over the next decade. The appeal is obvious: a ring can be worn all day, doesn’t scream “gadget,” and often yields cleaner health data than a wristband.
Tech but Make it Fashion
With that foundation, the conversation is shifting from “does this work” to “does this deserve a place in my jewellery box.” Luxury brands started testing the waters back in 2022. Gucci’s limited Gucci × Oura capsule framed biometrics as an accessory story rather than a tech story, positioning the ring as jewellery first.
In 2025, Ultrahuman unveiled Rare, a collection made from 18-karat gold and platinum, priced between $1,900-$2,200 and bundled with lifetime software membership. In a similar vein, Paris-based SPKTRL, founded by LVMH alumna, is positioning “quiet tech jewellery,” embedding functions that communicate through light rather than notifications, and using materials like CVD lab-grown diamonds.
Meanwhile, Vertu, better known for its luxury phones, has also turned to luxury smart rings, emphasizing wellness features like non-invasive blood glucose level measuring, combining them with premium design, and using materials like gold, silver and cubic zirconia (with an option to customise with diamonds).
The Tensions in Play
Three tensions define this category. First, form versus function: how do you fit a battery and optics into an object that must still feel like fine jewellery? Second, product cadence: jewellery is bought for years, tech refreshes in months. Third, brand promise: maisons trade on enduring craft, while tech thrives on iteration. These frictions are why early success skewed to fitness devices like Whoop and Garmin watches. The opportunity now is to keep the invisible computing while elevating the visible object.
Partnerships may be the solution. A maison brings the codes of luxury and the distribution network, while a tech partner brings firmware updates, roadmap and data integrity. Gucci × Oura proved people will pay for both signals at once. Ultrahuman is trying to learn luxury’s language itself. SPKTRL argues that design can rewrite the interface so the technology recedes into narrative and light. The challenge we see with the latter two, is convincing the customer to buy jewellery from a tech-first brand.
Expanding Functions
Health remains the only universally proven function. Sleep and recovery tracking are what propelled Oura’s success (and what Ultrahuman is also largely betting on). But the small, unisex form factor makes rings ideal testbeds for other functions: payments, access control, subtle messaging, even spiritual or ritual features. The most compelling products will be those that leverage what’s unique to the finger - discreet, screenless, and always worn.
The Middle East Lens
The Gulf is particularly promising for fashiontech rings. Jewellery holds cultural weight, luxury spending power is strong, and smartphone penetration is nearly universal. Local innovations, like the iQibla/Zikr rings, designed for spiritual routines, demonstrate how region-specific functionality can win mass adoption: daily prayer alerts, tasbih counters, app integration.
From a numbers perspective, the GCC smart ring market is still small but expanding fast, valued at about US$2.15 million in 2024 with forecasts of a 30.7% CAGR through 2031, according to Cognitive Market Research. Zooming out to wearables more broadly, the UAE wearable devices market was worth US$10.11 billion in 2022 and is projected to reach US$12.45 billion by 2029. These figures underline the region’s appetite for technology-led lifestyle products.
With both mass-functional options and luxury collaborations entering the market, as well as a strong appetite for emerging tech and AI, the UAE could easily become a showcase for fashiontech rings, combining cultural relevance, strong consumer purchasing power, and one of the most advanced luxury retail landscapes in the world.
Final Thoughts
Smart rings sit at the intersection of utility and desire, where tech is attempting to meet jewellery traditions. Oura proved the category’s potential, but the real test now is whether fashion and luxury can make these devices objects of long-term value, rather than gadgets. From platinum-plated health trackers to quiet-tech minimalism, the industry is experimenting with how much technology consumers want in something they also expect to be timeless.
