Garmin: Why the watch reigns supreme for health tracking - not the smart ring
Scott Burgett & Joe Schrick talk patent wars, slowing innovation, and smart rings
Much has been made of the rise of smart rings over the last couple of years - not least on platforms such as our own, where we’ve highlighted plenty of the space’s developments in 2024.
At PULSE, we’ve reported on Oura’s fresh takes on stress tracking and pulse wave velocity, circadian rhythms with flourishing startups like Ultrahuman, and Samsung adding legitimacy to the form factor in a way only a household name can.
Yet, while the ring remains an exciting form factor, its emergence has also brought suggestions from those same companies that the finger is superior to the wrist for tracking some vitals.
During the Garmin Health Summit this week in Prague, company veterans Joe Schrick, Vice President of Fitness, and Scott Burgett, Senior Director of Health Engineering, told us otherwise.
Amid presentations from businesses and startups vying for one of the awards on offer at the Health Summit, we sat down with the pair to discuss the future of health tracking from the watch, sensor innovation sitting on the cusp of a new era, and why the brand isn’t concerned about navigating the ever-increasing headaches with patents and regulatory approval.
A picture of health
For all the advances made in activity tracking, design, and smarts in wearables over the last decade, health monitoring has emerged as the industry’s most valuable treasure.