The Verge’s 2024 in review

When you say “wearables,” people generally think of smartwatches. But 2024 was a relatively quiet year for smartwatches, during which iterative updates reigned supreme. That happens in a maturing category. In exchange for polished products, you lose out on the weird frenetic energy — and sometimes ludicrously bad ideas — found when people are trying to figure out how to make a nascent gadget category work. Thankfully, it seems that energy is starting to bubble up with smart rings.

Smart rings are not new, but in 2024, there was a sort of renaissance for the category. I had an inkling that might be the case back in January, when several smart rings littered the CES show floor. And then Samsung kicked the door wide open in February by announcing the long-rumored Galaxy Ring. Samsung is a major player in the smartwatch space. For them to branch out into an entirely new wearable category? That’s big. It propels what’s thus far been a niche form factor into the mainstream.