Tech Jewelry Jewelry and Fashion Accessories Integrated with Technology
The miniaturization of technology is offering jewelry makers an unparalleled opportunity to tie their creations into the digital jewelry (aka “wearables”) trend.
This trend marks a merge of decorative forms and functional tech into beautiful-yet-functional jewelry and fashion accessories as profound as the development of the wrist watch. This modern movement of human-integrated technology began with the wrist-worn Fitbit® and is seeing expression through smartglasses, skin patches, biometrics rings, self-lacing shoes, wireless ear buds and much more.
While some brands are storing information via smartphone-based apps, others upload directly to medical databases in the cloud, available to doctors at the touch of a screen. Some pro-technology jewelry lovers are even connecting their smart jewelry forms directly to their social media and online identities, but want their technology to be masked or even invisible to standard viewers.
That’s where designer-artists like you come in.
Human-Integrated Technology
While the phrases “smart jewelry” and “AI jewelry” are used in marketing and social media, the official term for this trend is human-integrated technology. Fashion has moved beyond sporty fitness trackers to luxe jeweled and wearable tech.
Customers are adding sensor-filled rings, necklaces, earrings, watches, bracelets and other styles to their permanent wardrobes. These designs are jewelry designs first, with tech bonuses secreted within. The jewelry is an extension of the wearer, beyond the visual—the data collected becomes a personal story of style, mood, athleticism and more.
There are three main drivers of the digital jewelry trend:
- Athletic performance
- Health and wellness
- Location and safety
Athletic Performance
The first driver of the tech jewelry trend is athletic performance. The Fitbit® and other “step-trackers” launched the wearable technology trend, offering measurable data directly to consumers of their own activity level and physical condition. Steps taken, flights of stairs climbed, calories burned, blood oxygen levels and other signifiers are tracked so wearers can optimize their athletic performance for best results.
There’s even been research studies showing that wearing a step-tracking or other athletic digital jewelry piece increases physical activity in the wearer!
Health and Wellness
The largest category of tech jewelry is aimed at health and wellness. These technology-embedded designs track sleep patterns, fertile periods, fevers, blood pressure and seizure frequency as well as the in-body levels of blood oxygen, glucose and stress hormones like cortisol.
Physical Health - Low-level overall biometric monitoring can be literal lifesavers for individuals with diabetes, epilepsy, high blood pressure, heart disease, severe Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and other chronic health conditions.
This can be especially beneficial to women, as a vast majority of medical research was conducted on male bodies, which can display radically different signs of medical distress. For example, the symptoms of cardiac arrest in women significantly differ from the symptoms shown in men; tech jewelry can notify the wearer that she is not experiencing indigestion—she’s having a heart attack! In addition, many digital jewelry brands allow for menstrual tracking, helping women identify fertile periods and plan around menstruation dates more easily.
Mental and Emotional Wellness - More generalized biometrics can follow symptoms of stress: increasing blood pressure, rising levels of cortisol, faster heart rate with a body at rest and other factors. The wearer can feel the buzz or hear the chime that tells them they are experiencing increased levels of stress, and use other elements of the design to engage in mindfulness, controlled breathing and other tools of emotional regulation.
With biometric tracking, health and wellness can move past the idea of “repairing the broken” to “preventing the damage.”
Location and Safety
Digital location jewelry has moved on from “I’ve fallen and can’t get up.”
These days, sophisticated tech jewelry utilizes the same miniaturized technology that makes getting directions from cellphones: global navigation satellite systems (GPS), real-time locating systems (AirTags®), wireless location systems (Bluetooth® positioning) and more.
Location - Always-on tech location fashion accessories can track your possessions and documents. You’ll always know:
- where your suitcase or passport is while you’re travelling…
- what happened to your keys between getting home last night and leaving for work this morning…
- where your child’s backpack and coat ended up when they come home without either…
- which direction did the dog go when they got under the fence…
- and more!
And you’re not stuck with the current look, either. Just add crystal flat backs or other embellishments to an iTag™ or Spotminder® and it’s suddenly a purse charm, zipper pull, pet registration, medical alert bracelet, key fob and other items you’ll use every day.
Safety – Digital location jewelry can protect you in a crisis as well. It offers geotagging and pinpoint location information to emergency personnel who are trying to assist you or makes critical medical equipment such as inhalers or Epipens® easy to find. Some tech jewelry styles include a panic button, sending silent alerts directly to 911 dispatchers.
The final impetus behind digital jewelry is, of course, convenience. “Smart” rings such as ŌURA® and NFC Ring® not only provide biometric data, they also can make cryptocurrency payments, open electronic house locks, start Bluetooth-connected cars and open or secure devices such as cellphones and tablets.
Making health, safety and athletic performance look stylish is a challenge that jewelry makers have faced since the tennis bracelet. The increasing desire for subtle, non-intrusive technology has also become a status symbol, connecting luxury markets and mainline fashion.
Designers who can conceal the technology within stunning and subtle jewelry designs will find success in this growing style trend.
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**Please note that all metaphysical or healing properties listed are collected from various sources. This information is offered as a service and not meant to treat medical conditions. Fire Mountain Gems and Beads® does not guarantee the validity of any of these statements.
