Smart rings: a growing market

These searches do one job: finding a ring that tracks sleep, heart rate and activity, in place of a watch or a band on the wrist. People search the brands, Oura, RingConn, Samsung's Galaxy Ring, Ultrahuman, Garmin's Cirqa, Halo, Pebble, their generations and comparisons ("halo ring vs oura ring", "ringconn gen 3"), and the plain category in the words of what it does: "sleep ring tracker", "fitness tracker ring", "smart ring health tracker", "smart ring for women", "smart ring for men".

The category is growing on its own, not with the market around it. Measured the last 12 months against the 12 before, "oura ring" is up 98%, "oura ring 4" 206%, "ringconn" 475%, "samsung galaxy ring" 604%, "ultrahuman ring air" 247% and "smart ring for women" 784%, and 10 of the 10 members with a measured year are rising, at a median of 397% against 238% for the typical trend we track. Over the same year the wrist trackers they replace moved far less: Fitbit and Whoop, the controls checked for this decision, are each up 44% over a year. "smart ring for women" shows the climb plainly: from almost nothing three years ago to a level that keeps rising each year, not a single jump.

Two cautions. Most of the generic and brand searches sit well below a peak in the last six months, "smart ring for women" is down 58% over six months, "samsung galaxy ring" 59%, so read the year, not the half-year. And several of the newest names are direction only: "halo ring" jumped about 4.2× within a year after years level, which we flag as a sudden step; Garmin Cirqa, Oura Ring 5 and Pebble's ring are new enough that their percentages are the top of the search scale, not measurements. Oura itself is seasonal, peaking in June.

Who is buying: health-minded shoppers comparing models, and increasingly by gender and by what they don't want, "smart ring for women without subscription" is a tiny search, but it names the complaint, Oura's monthly fee, that RingConn and others sell against. What a founder should notice: Oura holds the head term (1.8 million searches a month) while challengers grow faster underneath it, so the opening is not another ring but what goes with one, reviews and comparisons people search before buying, sizing and fit, subscription-free apps, accessories, and sleep and cycle coaching built on the data.