Keeping score

Are you even a fitness enthusiast if you haven't invested in wearable tech? As smart rings and continuous glucose monitors invade the world's largest smartwatch market, NIDHI GUPTA attempts to navigate the idea of the quantified self

- NIDHI GUPTA

WHEN DISHING ON her beauty routine to Vogue India, Alia Bhatt confessed that she is a fitness device enthusiast. Her preference? The Oura Ring, thanks to its efficiency and form factor and because a ring is her preferred accessory.

Invented in Finland, the sensor-loaded titanium ring has earned a cult following as much for its size, appearance and ease of use as for its bio-tracking abilities. It’s even inspired tech giants like Apple and Samsung to ready their own versions. In India, the world’s largest smartwatch market (according to data from market research firm Counterpoint in 2022), tracking one’s vitals is an idea that has clearly taken hold of popular imagination.

A host of start-ups including Noise, Ultrahuman and Pi Ring have swooped in to fill that demand with affordable smart rings and continuous glucose monitors. “Our smart rings were sold out within 24 hours of launch,” says BoAt co-founder Aman Gupta, of its affordable product that arrived in August 2023.

Continuity of data gathering is key to this new generation of wearable devices. The sensors hidden inside the titanium of the smart rings monitor your body’s heart rate, oxygen flow and sleep patterns, feeding them into the accompanying app, minus the barrage of notifications and pings from your wrist.