Ah, crowdfunded product development. So much promise! Back in 2014, we bought into a concept called “Cuff,” a line of jewelry that was meant to act as a safety device, to prevent you from leaving your phone behind, and to track fitness-related activity. After countless delays to the ship date, we checked on their website one last time yesterday to see what the heck happened to our preordered wearables. To our dismay but not our surprise, Cuff is officially out of business. Fortunately, the wearable market is exploding, and there are other products that actually DID make it into production. Here are a few we found while trying to salve our disappointment over the demise of Cuff.
Fitbit Jewelry
Fitbit has obviously emerged as the leader in fitness wearables as of right now, and surely you know the brand both for its fitness tracking and its sleep tracking. The silicone bands typically associated with them don’t necessarily look professional, though, and there are reports that they can start to smell funky after a while. Fitbit does have a new stainless steel bracelet coming out for $99.95 that can house a Fitbit Flex (for an additional $99.95) that could pass for serious jewelry.
And you might already know about the Tory Burch collaboration with Fitbit. The pendant is on sale for $105, and it takes a $99.95 Fitbit Flex to make it work. Some users report more accurate fitness tracking with a pendant, which makes it worth considering.
In general, there have been studies showing that fitness trackers can be inaccurate, and there’s currently a class-action lawsuit over Fitbit’s allegedly faulty heart monitor readings. In general, we think that fitness tracker readings should be taken with a grain of salt. If you use them primarily to motivate yourself to move more, great! And with so many people sharing their Fitbit activity with friends, the friendly competition is bound to generate more healthy activity. The following options may be more feature-rich, but they are also not as widely adopted. As such, you might not experience the social benefits of sharing Fitbit activity.
Ringly Bracelets and Ring Wearables
Ringly, meanwhile, is a cocktail ring ($195-260) with semiprecious stones that connects to your phone via Bluetooth and lets you receive customized notifications through vibration and a subtle light on the side of the ring.
Ringly is also introducing a bracelet (‘Aries’) available for preorder for $195, which they say will ship in fall 2016. Like the original cocktail ring, it uses Bluetooth, it charges in 4 hours and lasts 24-48 hours, and it notifies you of your highest priority messages. Unlike the ring version, the Aries bracelet vibrates, and it tracks your steps.
WiseWear Bracelets
Out of these offerings, WiseWear best lives up to the high hopes proferred by Cuff. It is a fitness tracker that feeds you notifications from your phone—and it has a distress messaging feature for safety. Tapping the front of the bracelet in a customized touch pattern sends the wearer’s location and a text message to a pre-loaded list of emergency contacts.
We like that it boasts a battery life of up to 3 days and it has an actual ticket tech support system on its website. However, the price is considerably more than Cuff, starting at $295 for a minimalist gold-plated cuff. It’s even modeled by style icon Iris Apfel, who is beyond cute. We haven’t heard much in the way of real-life reviews for Wisewear yet, so we’re withholding judgment. This writeup from The Verge does wisely note that it costs more than an Apple Watch and does a lot less.
Fossil Wearables
At about $95, Fossil’s wearable options are a lot more affordable than WiseWear’s. We certainly know the Fossil brand name and hope it will be around for a long, long time. Fossil’s wearables look like typical slim watches with leather bands, and they offer both fitness tracking and Bluetooth-enabled notifications. We’re a little concerned about reviews that report frequent Bluetooth drops and inaccuracy in recording steps. In this emerging field, Fossil’s wearables are still in more or less beta testing.
Have you seen anything exciting in the wearables market lately? Let us know!
