How a Diamond can Beat Digital Distraction

Less is sometimes more.

Every device you own today does a thousand things. Your smartphone has a restaurant full of menus you've never even looked at.

It connects wirelessly not just to your earbuds and your smartwatch, but (for early adopters) your AR (augmented reality) glasses, a range of sports and medical devices, your car, your house, you name it.

And now it connects to a diamond, via the latest smart ring.

Smart rings have been on the market since 2021 and currently account for just 1 per cent of "wearables".

But they bridge two luxury worlds - tech and jewelry - and that means there's plenty of scope for growth.

The first smart rings were packed with as many features from smartwatch as the makers could fit.

They had health and fitness trackers, they monitored sleep, stress, movement, heart rate, skin temperature and ovulation. Newer models can even make NFC payments.

The next step in the short history of the smart ring was bling.  The tech was solid and the race was on to turn a functional gadget into a thing of beauty.

Samsung, Oura and Ultrahuman, among others, brought out gold, platinum or titanium versions of existing models.

Vertu, best-known for giving smartphones the VIP treatment, encrusted some of their smart rings with accent diamonds.

These were all predictable adornments of a gadget already in mass production.

What the French startup Spktrl has done with the introduction of its own take on smart rings - the Light Ring - is something different, novel and interesting.

It's set with a 1.5-carat emerald-cut lab grown diamond that glows different colors for different smartphone notifications. That's it.

Blue could be a call from your partner, red for a work email, and so on. You'd never know it had a "secret" function, until it starts to glow.

It's very much a back-to-basics approach, combining the beauty of a diamond with one simple function.

It's part of a "quiet tech" revolution, aimed at reducing rather than adding to daily distractions.

AI learns the wearer's habits over time, monitoring their response to alerts, and modifying its behavior accordingly.

"The stone is the interface, and the color is the language," says Katia de Lasteyrie, a former innovation lead for LVMH's watches and jewelry division, and founder of Spktrl.

The company says it caters for clients seeking mindfulness, luxury, and elegant digital curation, pushing against tech overload and superficial gadgetry.

As a brief postscript, there is actually at least one other jewelry item which also has a simple - and secret - function.

It looks like an ordinary gold necklace, but it has a panic button hidden inside the charm.

US-based invisaWear incorporates a smart device that can send an SOS message, together with GPS location to the owner's emergency contacts.

The idea is that the wearer can discreetly raise the alarm, in a situation when it wouldn't be possible to reach for a connected smartphone. It's available in a range of bracelets as well as necklaces.

Another case of less being more, another blend of bling and tech. Jewelry is no longer just decorative.

Have a fabulous weekend.