When you’re royal, every little thing that you do is recorded and scrutinised by the media, including your choice of jewellery.
During Harry and Meghan’s tour of Australia, people started noticing a little black ring on Harry’s right-hand ring-finger. At first, they thought it was a gift from Meghan. Turns out it’s much more interesting.
The Oura ring, which Prince Harry has been wearing, is a smart ring that tracks fitness and sleep. You can also get smart rings which specialise in sharing information and making payments via near field communication, or rings which act as SOS beacons.
Some of them even let you take phone calls just by holding your finger to your ear.
Here’s The Telegraph with more info about Harry’s ring:
What is an Oura Ring, you ask? Well, it’s part of a new breed of smaller, less obtrusive sleep and fitness trackers designed to help you keep an eye on your health without having to wear a chunky wrist-mounted device.
For someone like Prince Harry, whose style is all about subtlety and elegance, it’s easy to see why a smart ring would be preferable to the plastic fitness trackers of recent years.
When wearable fitness trackers became a thing a few years ago, a number of companies started patenting ring designs. Even Apple patented a ring back in 2015, although the Apple ring never materialised.
According to NBC News, the device not only tracks sleep and fitness, but also monitors heartbeat, heart rate, and body temperature to determine overall well-being. Data from the ring is transferred to a user’s phone, and the device must be charged once a week.
The gadget has the backing of Kevin Lin, co-founder of Amazon’s Twitch streaming platform, who is on the board of Oura Health, the company behind the ring. The board also includes Stephen Friend, a former health researcher at Apple.
Other investors include Jaan Tallinn, who helped develop Skype. The company is in discussions for new investment from bold-faced names in technology, sports and Hollywood but declined to name them, citing ongoing discussions.
The ring got its start at the CES consumer electronics show in 2016 when it was named one of the most innovative products.
Now that Harry is wearing one, expect business to boom.
