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Wearable

The Verge is covering the rapidly evolving world of wearables. We test everything from smartwatches like the Apple Watch, to smart glasses like the Meta Ray-Bans, to fitness trackers like the Oura Ring to find out which ones deliver on their promises. Follow along to find out whether covering our bodies in screens and sensors can actually make us smarter and healthier.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Garmin watches now help with birth control.

Not because they’re so ugly, it’s because Garmin wearables that track skin temperature during sleep — like the Fenix 8 and Forerunner 970 — can now feed that data to the FDA-cleared Natural Cycles birth control app to show the wearer’s daily fertility status.

Time to get busy.
Time to get busy.
Image: Natural Cycles
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Nothing might be the next company to get into AI glasses.

Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Nothing plans on launching AI smart glasses during the first half of 2027. The upcoming glasses will reportedly come with built-in cameras, microphones, and speakers, while offloading AI processing to a user’s smartphone and the cloud.

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Order, order — no smart glasses in Philly court sessions.

Starting Monday, wearing smart glasses with audio or video recording is verboten in Philadelphia’s courts. That includes prescription smart glasses. Violators could be arrested and face contempt charges. This follows other state bans and a judge reprimanding Mark Zuckerberg’s team for wearing smart glasses during Meta’s social media addiction trial.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
Polar’s new durable Street X is one of its most affordable smartwatches.

The Polar Grit X2 Pro smartwatch that debuted in 2024 is now $999.99, but the company’s new Street X has launched at $249.99. It features a 1.28-inch AMOLED touchscreen, built-in GPS with a compass and barometer, a skin temperature sensor, fitness tracking for over 170 sports and activities, and up to 10 days of battery life.

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Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Ultrahuman is back in the US, starting with the Ring Pro.

Its smart rings disappeared from sale following a patent dispute with Oura, but the Ring Pro has been cleared to launch thanks to a redesign. Preorders start today from $399, with some discounts for early buyers and no ongoing subscription cost, but the rings won’t ship until May 15th.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro, positioned atop its Pro Charging case.
The Ring Pro has a 15-day battery life, and a tweaked design to avoid Oura’s patent claim.
Image: Ultrahuman
Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Strava hates to see Le Monde coming.

This time, the French newspaper found the location of an aircraft carrier because a sailor jogging on deck was recording their run on Strava. This isn’t even the first time. In 2024, Le Monde also found President Emmanuel Macron’s bodyguards also leaked his location by tracking workouts on the platform.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Garmin gets WhatsApp’d.

Garmin users can now compose and reply to WhatsApp messages directly from their watch after downloading the app, just like Apple Watch owners. DC Rainmaker has all the details.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
Apple’s home hardware engineering boss is going to Oura.

The exec, Brian Lynch, will be Oura’s SVP of hardware engineering, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports.

Richard Lawler
Richard Lawler
Beats and Nike team up for a pair of Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds.

When Victoria Song reviewed the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2, she found a lot to like about their slimmer ear hook and wireless charging, even before their iOS 26 upgrade. Now, Beats is launching this color-splashed collaboration, which is at least bright, even if it lacks the internal hardware updates of Apple’s new AirPods Max headphones.

They’ll go on sale on Nike.com, Apple.com, and other stores on Friday, March 20th, for $249.99.

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Promotional image of the Nike Powerbeats Pro 2
Image: Beats
My fitness tracker is a secret weapon against my chronic illness

Disabled folks are using their devices to manage long Covid, POTS, and more — and it’s working

Arielle Duhaime-Ross
Emma Roth
Emma Roth
Samsung is still planning to launch its first smart glasses in 2026.

We still don’t know much about the AR glasses Samsung is building with Google, but Jay Kim, Samsung’s EVP of the company’s mobile division, tells CNBC the device will connect to your phone and have a built-in camera at “your eye level.”

Kim added that Samsung aims to launch the product this year, echoing what the company said in January.

Thomas Ricker
Thomas Ricker
Adidas’ 3D-printed sneakers grow laces.

The Climacool sneakers I reviewed last year are now available in an all-white colorway, complete with ghost stripes and white laces. The $160 Climacool Laced kicks are 15 percent lighter, thankfully, and available to buy worldwide from adidas.com and via the Adidas app. The $140 slip-ons are back in stock too.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

1/6Image: Adidas
Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
On’s lightweight sneakers made with spray-on fibers will soon be launching globally.

Swiss sportswear brand On has opened a new factory in South Korea expanding the manufacturing capacity for the company’s LightSpray sneakers partly made by robots spraying fibers. Previously only available to elite athletes, the expansion will help make the company’s new $280 LightSpray Cloudmonster 3 Hyper shoes available to everyone when they launch globally on April 16th.

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

<em>The On LightSpray Cloudmonster 3 Hyper shoes will have a limited release on March 5th in the US followed by a global release on April 16th.</em>
<em>The upper portion of the shoes are made robot arms that spray fibers on a mold in a three-minute manufacturing process.</em>
1/2
The On LightSpray Cloudmonster 3 Hyper shoes will have a limited release on March 5th in the US followed by a global release on April 16th.
Image: On
Robert Hart
Robert Hart
Oura adds a model designed to discuss women’s health to its AI chatbot.

The Oura Advisor chatbot will soon be able to offer smart ring wearers an AI model that it says covers “the full reproductive health spectrum, from early menstrual cycles through menopause.” Of course, reproductive health data is sensitive, particularly in places like the US — you might want to think carefully before handing it over.

Here’s what Oura is saying about the model’s privacy:

It is hosted entirely on Oura-controlled infrastructure, and conversations are never sold, shared, or used to train public or third-party AI systems.

Terrence O'Brien
Terrence O'Brien
Researchers at the University of Maryland built a Fartbit, a Fitbit for farts.

The team is constructing the Human Flatus Atlas, bringing modern wearable monitors to bear on digestive health, measuring the frequency and intensity of farts. The team even had to create an artificial butt that could pass gas on command while developing the prototype. According to the Wall Street Journal:

In the current study, the Human Flatus Atlas app asks participants to take a picture of everything they eat and drink. Researchers could analyze that data, seeking correlations between diet and the sensor’s main metric: the total volume of gas passed in a day.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Suggested follows.

Amid reports that Meta is preparing to release a smartwatch later this year, one Verge commenter has already figured out what the social media giant is going to do with all that new data.

jeffehobbs:

People To Follow Who Have Low 𝑆𝑝𝑂2 Levels Like You >>
[show less]

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

‘Wellness’ feels like it’s losing all meaning in health tech

Oura is lobbying for relaxed wearables regulation. It has a point, but is regulation even the problem here?

Victoria Song
Sean Hollister
Sean Hollister
Meta sold 7 million smart glasses in 2025 — that’s triple 2023 and 2024 combined.

Remember when EssilorLuxottica said it sold 2 million and would hit 10 million a year by 2027? 10M seems well within reach. “In 2025, we sold more than 7 million units of AI glasses, posting exponential growth,” said CEO Francesco Milleri. Prices may stay high in the short term, though, they hinted on the earnings call.

Dominic Preston
Dominic Preston
Gotta go fast.

Sega has partnered with Seiko to make a limited edition 65th anniversary watch with a subtle Sonic the Hedgehog motif, though he may not be the best character to associate with a timepiece.

Lewise:

Shame it’ll always run fast

Get the day’s best comment and more in my free newsletter, The Verge Daily.

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