When Casio first announced its smart ring, I almost thought it was an early April Fool’s joke. Never having owned the Casio GMW-B5000 that it’s based on — or any Casio watch — the nostalgia factor never affected me. I never expected Casio to offer to send me one, nor did I expect to like it so much. But here we are!
Sunday Runday
In this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks about the world of wearables, apps, and fitness tech related to running and health, in his quest to get faster and more fit.
The “Casio ring watch” isn’t a traditional smart ring, which sets it up for easy ridicule. The stainless steel design is impressive, but all its heavy components are designed to tell the time and start/stop a stopwatch with tiny buttons, on a screen too small to read easily. It’s not breaking new ground.
Compare that to an Oura Ring 4 or Ultrahuman Ring Air that tracks heart rate, stress, workouts, sleep, and a dozen other metrics while weighing significantly less (16g vs. 3-5g). Putting it in the same conversation with a novelty mini-watch isn’t really fair to Casio, especially since both smart rings cost $230 more, but it’s a natural comparison to make as smart rings grow in popularity.
Now that I’m seeing Casio’s ring in person — instead of looking at press photos that emphasize the display — I have to admit that it’s cute, even without the nostalgia factor. It’s about the size of a high school class ring, only less garish (apologies to everyone I just offended), and the ridged steel look draws the eye.
It only ships in one size, but it comes with a few translucent inserts to shrink it down; thankfully, it fits snugly on my right ring finger with one. It’s on the noticeably heavy side, so I don’t wear it while running. But Casio must have decided it was a necessary trade-off to get the steel, watch-like look and two-year battery life.
The grayscale screen only catches the eye at a direct visual angle; otherwise, it just looks like a flat, glossy layer above the metal, so it’s not distracting. I assumed people would side-eye me for wearing a dorky mini-watch, but you don’t notice that aesthetic unless you’re quite close. Even then, the one or two comments I’ve received are more out of interest and curiosity than open derision.
My recent smartwatch fashion contest proved that I don’t really know what regular, non-techy people think is attractive in wearables; maybe people are silently judging my tastes. But this ring will certainly appeal to a niche crowd that loves the bulky Casio or Garmin Instinct look and already has heart rate tracking from another device.
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Frankly, most smart rings besides Casio’s look the same to me; their designs are in a race towards getting as skinny and low-key as possible, but they’re all these 1-inch-wide metallic bands with a few gold or silver palette swaps. Even this $1,500 luxury smart ring looks fairly generic, aside from the 18K gold or PT950 platinum materials.
I’ve also noticed how many smart rings are pushing to become medical-grade devices, with FDA-approved health sensors meant to target B2B sales and impress doctors instead of consumers. Basically, smart rings aren’t fun; they’re meant to be taken seriously and to blend in. Everything they give you is passive data that requires staring at your phone.
In that context, the budget-priced Casio “smart” ring feels like a nice change of pace. I don’t need a stopwatch timer very often; a countdown timer would be more useful. But I certainly don’t mind having a way to check the time whenever I get smartwatch fatigue and take mine off for the day. It does one gimmick; otherwise, it’s just there to look pretty, not sell health subscriptions.
I don’t think it’s worth getting too philosophical about a 50th-anniversary, limited-time device that’s already sold out (though you can sign up for in-stock alerts at that link). We may not see anything like this again, and I’m sure most people would find it more dorky than cool. But I wouldn’t mind if we started seeing more limited smart rings that emphasize unique designs over functionality.
Look at Circular Ring, the rare smart ring with a haptic motor for silent wake-ups, notification buzzes, and even subtle guidance for meditation. We liked the concept, but Circular had to ditch haptics in the Ring 2 to add an FDA-approved ECG, until they find a way to fit both. That might be the right business decision, but the need to offer competitive health and wellness data above all else makes the field more monotonous.
Everyone thinks of smart rings as mobile, 24/7 doctor’s offices. But we should shake off that impulse to judge any rings that don’t offer health tracking as useless. After all, many people think smart rings are pointless because their smartwatch already tracks the same things.
I don’t know what these new, non-health smart rings would do, necessarily, but off the top of my head, we could see ones with phone-connected haptics for alarms and notifications, NFC-based contactless payments, UWB to unlock a specific digital car key or house smart lock, fall detection for seniors and the disabled, and so on.
Because they’ll focus on one or two key things instead of offering every health sensor and the kitchen sink, maybe smart rings can be (A) more affordable and (B) more aesthetically distinct, like the Casio ring. And these niche models won’t be in such strict competition with fitness smartwatches.