I like shiny things, but the new Ultrahuman gold bullion and platinum Rare smart rings take tech bling to a level I’ve never seen before.
The collection of three smart rings inspired by sculpted desert dunes, the rings made their debut at CES in Las Vegas on Tuesday. The Dune and Desert Rose rings are crafted from 18-carat gold sourced from the London Bullion Market Association, whereas the Desert Snow ring is made from pt950 platinum.
Ultrahuman has designed the Rare ring series to be a luxury alternative to the existing smart rings on the market. The sector is currently dominated by Samsung and Oura, but other companies are joining the race to take up valuable real estate on our fingers with their own products. Ultrahuman is one of these competitors and has already partnered with Verizon last year to bring its existing product, the Ring AIR to customers.
Like their predecessors, the Rare rings come equipped with sensors to provide an array of health-tracking features including sleep, movement, heart rate, heart rate variability, stress and skin temperature.
According to Ultrahuman founder and CEO Mohit Kumar, the decision to make smart rings out of precious metals was informed by the fact that people are already treating existing Ultrahuman rings like serious jewelry. “We’ve seen people using Ring Air in engagement proposals, gifts to their loved ones and many other social occasions,” he says.
But engineering these high-end rings isn’t without its challenges. “Rare metals like gold and platinum are aesthetic, but it has historically been hard to machine them in a way that the structural integrity is maintained in the smart ring form factor along with a ‘rougher’ usage behavior,” Kumar says, adding that It requires “advanced techniques” to shape them.
The Rare ring has 6-axis motion sensors.
As you might expect, such high-end metal and labor-intensive manufacturing doesn’t result in a cheap end product. When the rings go on sale in Selfridges in London and Printemps in Paris later this month, they’ll cost between £1,500 and 1,800 ($1,878 to $2,253). That price also includes lifetime access to UltrahumanX, the company’s coverage and benefits program, and free access to existing and future PowerPlugs, a series of specialist analytic tools.
Ultrahuman doesn’t currently have any fixed plans to sell the Rare rings beyond top European department stores, but is considering options in New York, Dubai and India.