Several smartwear products took the center stage at CES 2022. Apart from the heavy hitters such as Garmin and Skagen, a Movano ring was also unveiled, with a design that specifically has female users in mind. Finally, a French company called Circular also unveiled its first product, simply called the Circular Ring.
The Circular Ring has changeable outer shells for user customization. The ring is extremely lightweight at only 4 grams. It is also water-resistant up to 5 meters. It also offers up to 22 days of built-in data storage without a Bluetooth connection. The biocompatible resin-based product will be available in different sizes.
Tracking and features
A 14-day calibration period begins as soon as the user wears the ring for the first time. During this period, the ring establishes the user’s baseline health parameters, which helps it to give them personalized and actionable recommendations to make healthy changes in their lives. Circular tracks multiple health metrics, including temperature, heart rate variability, energy levels, and VO2 Max.
Circular has a dual PPG sensor in its ring combined with the Circular app that allows it to read heart signals and blood oxygen. It detects if the heart rate shows any signs of cardiac arrhythmia, and if the heart rhythm is steady. The data tracked is purported to be clinically accurate and can be shared with a professional for further advice. Wearing it both during the day and the night can help Circular to correlate the data using machine learning.
Circular also seems to be extremely efficient while tracking sleep. It can tell a user how much time they spend in each sleep stage — light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep, and when they are lying awake. More importantly, it also calculates how efficiently a user has slept. The app shares data on a number of important criteria to examine sleep quality, including time taken to fall asleep, sleep debt, real sleep time, disturbances while sleeping, etc. It also provides silent vibrations to users in their light sleep stage if they wish to be awakened, without disturbing their surroundings.
Price and availability
A single charge of the ring gives it four days of battery life. A single charge from 0% to 100% can be completed in one hour. Pre-orders, which will begin soon, will run until February 27, 202. The device will have a cost of 259 euros ($293) during that time. Starting February 28, the price will jump to 289 euros ($327). Shipping and other details are expected to be announced soon by the company.
