Sunday Runday
In this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks concerning the world of wearables, apps, and health tech associated to working and well being, in his quest to get sooner and healthier.
As we are saying farewell to a 2024 stuffed with new smartwatches, good rings, and different enjoyable wearables, I’m utilizing my yr’s expertise as Wearables lead for Android Central — and insights from key wearable analysts — to foretell what 2025 has in retailer for us as smartwatch followers.
We had a really sturdy yr for smartwatches in 2024, however some traits, like an elevated give attention to AI insights and higher well being instruments on mainstream smartwatches, had been half-baked. They had been the precursor to what needs to be a higher push in these areas with the following era of Android watches, Apple Watches, and different wearables.
Below, I’ll break down the surefire predictions, possible potentialities, and wishful guesswork for smartwatch, good ring, and good glasses traits in 2025.
A wider vary of smartwatches, particularly flagships
Garmin was one of many first to get away with promoting a smartwatch that prices as a lot as a smartphone with the Fenix collection, however Apple introduced that concept into the mainstream with its Ultra collection, after which Samsung fortunately adopted Apple’s lead and ditched its mid-tier Classics and Pros for a Galaxy Watch Ultra. In 2025, search for extra manufacturers to begin testing loyal customers’ willingness to spend extra on pricier status-symbol smartwatches, says Jitesh Ubrani, analysis supervisor for IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Device Trackers.
“Samsung (because of Apple) kicked off the Ultra tier, and we count on extra distributors to additionally launch higher-priced fashions,” he predicts. That might imply a Pixel Watch Ultra, OnePlus Watch Ultra, or a titanium TicWatch. And that would simply apply to different health manufacturers which have usually tried to undercut Apple/Galaxy Watch costs.
At the identical time, Ubrani additionally thinks the inverse is true: We’re going to see “extra choices for extra customers,” particularly thrifty watch patrons. The Galaxy Watch FE and OnePlus Watch 2R began that pattern this yr, and we might see much more finances or mid-level watches with strategic downgrades subsequent yr.
2025: The yr of smartwatch AI?
I already introduced up this level in my Wear OS 2025 predictions column, however I think that Apple, Google, and Samsung will shove their big-name AIs into smartwatches in 2025 with the identical urgency and eagerness as they did with telephones this yr. That means Gemini (or Bixby AI) on Android watches and Apple Intelligence on Apple Watches, in some kind.
Anshel Sag, principal analyst for Moor Insights & Strategy, agrees in precept that AI will turn out to be “the connective material between all of our wearables,” from watches and earbuds to rings and glasses. “Apple Intelligence and Gemini will likely be huge drivers, however so will Meta AI and presumably even ChatGPT.”
However, he additionally cautioned that he thinks Google “nonetheless wants to determine a technique to get Gemini to run easily on such performance-limited {hardware},” noting that it “might include RISC-V or another extra succesful platform.”
He’s notably enthusiastic about RISC-V’s potential for Android watches, saying “the payoff might be enormous” for its customized chips. But even when new chips just like the Snapdragon W5 Gen 2 have extra compute energy, the tokens wanted for a conversational LLM could merely be an excessive amount of for the watch kind issue proper now, and RISC-V itself might “take a bit longer” to reach.
Ubrani appeared to agree that “AI will make a splash [in 2025], although this may occasionally not completely be on-device.” Instead, similar to we received cloud-based AI evaluation like Samsung Health’s Energy Score and Wellness Tips in 2024, we’ll see “extra customized experiences” for well being and health in 2025.
Smartwatches will turn out to be much more of a cell physician’s appointment
You know the way a lot information smartwatches can observe already, from coronary heart well being and sleep apnea to pores and skin temperature and AGE index. The Pixel Watch 3 added Loss of Pulse Detection, whereas most mainstream watches warn you in the event you’ve fallen or catch in case your coronary heart price is increased or decrease than regular. So, what’s subsequent?
Stop me in the event you’ve heard this earlier than, however blood stress may roll out extra extensively. Samsung has supplied it for years however with out FDA approval. Apple may add it to the Ultra 3 in 2025 (by way of MacRumors), although leaks have instructed this for years now. Ubrani predicts that the function will “come to extra units and extra international locations” in 2025.
Otherwise, he believes that we’ll begin to see a “extra holistic strategy to well being monitoring” in 2025, incorporating information from third-party units into first-party well being evaluation. For instance, we might see “glucose screens working with smartwatches or in-home units that observe environmental influence on sleep and restoration.”
I personally would like to see higher hydration and sweat monitoring on watches in 2025, so when you should refuel — or in the event you’re near passing out — throughout powerful actions.
Smart rings will continue to grow — then plateau
Ubrani shared IDC’s gross sales estimates and projections for watches and good rings. Smart rings bought about 880,000 items in 2023 and doubled to 1.77 million in 2024. By 2025, they imagine the quantity will climb to 2.54 million, a major 43% enhance.
No doubt, one of the best good rings will preserve getting higher with new well being insights. But IDC predicts that the following jumps for 2026 (15%), 2027 (9%), and 2028 (5%) will lower, with good rings in all probability not rising a lot past 3–4 million anytime quickly. That’s a far cry from smartwatches (156.8 million in 2025) and health bands (35.3 million). Even good glasses are anticipated to develop sooner (extra on that subsequent).
When I requested Ubrani why he thinks good rings will not develop to supplant different wearables, he blamed “provide challenges inherent to the shape issue,” like the necessity for a sizing equipment and the problem of various stock for each dimension and end of a hoop.
Also, “from a client perspective, pricing is a barrier,” and “the market is not enormous as a result of many would discover a smartwatch to be ok.”
“I personally use [a smart ring] each day,” Sag says, however “they’re extra of a distinct segment product that is predominantly targeted on well being…rings merely do not exchange smartwatches, they’re largely complementary.”
He particularly praised the Samsung Galaxy Ring and the way it can “allow higher UX” however argued that “its limitation to Android solely hampers its potential.” I argued that actual level final yr about Galaxy exclusivity, so it felt a bit vindicating.
As for what I need to see from extra good rings in 2025, I coated that in a earlier column: haptics for alarms and notifications, higher “discover my ring” instruments, NFC help, extra well being vectors like passive AFib detection, and extra distinctive types than the everyday thick-band look most of them share. And typically talking, I simply need extra good rings from mainstream manufacturers; give me an Apple Ring, Pixel Ring, Garmin Ring, and so forth.
Smart glasses escape into the mainstream
Smart glasses won’t suit your typical imaginative and prescient of “wearables,” however they’re truly fairly much like good rings. Hear me out: They’re one thing you usually purchase based mostly in your vogue sense and style. They provide options already out there in different common good tech like audio (earbuds), cameras (smartphones), and AI (telephones once more). And you must design them for a number of types and finishes, making them more durable to promote and distribute.
Ubrani identified many of those issues, saying that “most customers do not want” AI, music, and images in a single $300 package deal on high of an costly smartphone value. People who already put on glasses “could be delighted to have further options built-in,” however these digital tech corporations “haven’t got the experience to promote eyewear,” particularly by way of conventional channels. And those that do not put on glasses “won’t need to put on glasses until it is fixing an unsolved challenge.”
Yet regardless of all these roadblocks to success, IDC tasks that good glasses’ gross sales will soar from 2.5 to three.5 million in 2025 and an extra 1 million annually by way of 2028, making them the fastest-growing wearable class.
“Smart glasses should not going to stay area of interest,” Sag argued. “They will proceed to develop as a result of they’re essentially the most pure platform for AI and I imagine that Meta’s gross sales will proceed to develop because it begins to co-market with EssilorLuxottica.” Meta received the bidding battle for EssilorLuxottica, allegedly beating out Google’s bid, giving them the sting with their common Meta Ray-Bans.
Beyond Meta, Google not too long ago introduced its Android XR platform that’ll energy mixed-reality headsets, AR glasses, and good glasses. Samsung additionally introduced its “Project Moohan” XR headset, however we have additionally seen leaked experiences about Samsung AR glasses arriving subsequent yr.
Unlike displayless good glasses, it is onerous to say whether or not AR glasses are prepared for enormous gross sales. We like manufacturers like Xreal that use AR glasses as prolonged shows for gaming — and we’re excited for the spatial Xreal One Pro coming subsequent yr — however we’re nonetheless years away from the wide-FOV Meta Orion AR glasses meant to be worn outdoors or all day.
We’ll see whether or not AR glasses prototypes like Google’s Project Astra will make an look in 2025 and whether or not they may take the world by storm like Google Glass (briefly) did. Sag was far more bullish concerning the prospects of AR glasses within the subsequent few years, whereas Ubrani mentioned an AR show would “change a few of this dialog, however distribution will stay a problem.”
No have to be grasping
I wrote final week about how surprisingly good smartwatches have gotten in 2024 by way of speedy app efficiency, dependable well being & health information, and a wider vary of designs and model choices. Whatever occurs in 2025, we’ll nonetheless have that baseline of high quality to depend upon.
My private wishlist for brand spanking new smartwatch options in 2025 may be very area of interest: I’d like to see extra rucking sports activities modes that allow you to enter your pack’s weight and take it under consideration for coaching load, and the leaked Garmin Instinct 3 may just do that. I would like customizable Google Maps programs you possibly can obtain to Wear OS watches for offline turn-by-turn navigation throughout hikes and exercises. And I would like all watch manufacturers to proceed to enhance their coronary heart price algorithms and sensors so they don’t seem to be all so mid-tier on the subject of anaerobic observe exercises, so I need not put on a chest strap.
What are your hopes and predictions for smartwatches, good rings, and good glasses in 2025? I hope no matter they’re, they arrive true within the new yr.
