Wareable Hot List: 24 wearables innovations for 2024

Welcome to the 2024 edition of the Wareable Hot List. Every year since 2014, we've put together our list of the hottest entities in wearables.

It's less a list of predictions, and more of a guide to people, companies, devices, and names to keep an eye on. Many might not break out in 2024, but you can bet it will be a topic close to the lips of those inside the wearables industry.

This year we've done things a little differently. Here are the top 10 – and you can read the full list on PULSE by Wareable – our new subscriber channel.

Quick look:

1. Apple Watch X
2. XREAL Air 2 Ultra AR specs
3. Samsung Galaxy Ring & mainstream smart rings
4. Blood pressure tracking
5. AI-powered women’s health features
6. Garmin Health
7. John Giannandrea
8. Google Health Connect
9. Samsung Health + AI
10. Mental health and brain tracking
11. Lingo US launch
12. MIJO Connected
13. Powered By Polar
14. Gestures
15. Sustainability in wearables
16. Hearables 2.0
17. watchOS 11
18. Non-optical HR sensors
19. AR upstarts
20. Sleep apnea detection
21. Google Wear OS 5
22. Metabolic health tracking
23. Sweat tracking and hydration
24. Daytime HRV and stress tracking

1. Apple Watch X

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This year’s Apple Watch will be the 10th edition – and rounds off a decade in which the company has dominated the entire watch market, not just smartwatches. And by all accounts, something special is being planned for this year.

A design change is on the cards, as well as new health metrics that could include blood pressure detection and sleep apnea alerts. We could also see a microLED display for the first time, although there are reports that this won’t happen until 2025.

The fact that Apple has had to turn off its SpO2 tracking because of its ongoing case with Masimo is a slight fly in the ointment. But this is set to be a huge step change for the smartwatch, which comes after a fallow period in the pace of new technology hitting the wrist.

Still, the Apple Watch X could be the biggest shakeup for the smartwatch in a long time.

Read our full Apple Watch X rumors guide.

2. XREAL Air 2 Ultra AR 

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A surprise winner of CES 2024, the XREAL Air 2 Ultra AR specs provided a seriously impressive demo in Las Vegas – and it’s one to watch this year.

As Apple shows off its vision for ‘spatial computing’ via Vision Pro, XREAL’s job will be to emulate that in its pair of slimmer, more comfortable specs.

Much work has to be done with the hand-tracking, which was hit-and-miss during our demo.

But XREAL has the benefit of having its tech in place, and it can let Apple work out the use cases and do the marketing of spatial computing for it.

3. Samsung Galaxy Ring

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Smart rings are going mainstream – deal with it. And the Samsung Galaxy Ring will be one of the key developments this year.

We still don’t have a date for Samsung’s launch, or a firm set of specs or features, but we do know it will be health-focused and that the company has been putting a lot of work into AI features for Samsung Health.

There are other unanswered questions about Samsung’s ring, too. Will the ring only work with Samsung smartphones? Given that the company already puts its best health features under this inexplicable criteria, there’s a strong possibility this will happen.

If it does, the Galaxy Ring is unlikely to get out of first gear.

Check out our PULSE podcast with Oura’s chief product officer Holly Shelton on smart rings going mainstream for more on this theme.

4. Blood Pressure

Blood pressure is likely to be a hot topic in 2024, and there are rumors that the metric will appear on the forthcoming Apple Watch X in some form.

We've seen blood pressure for a number of years on the Galaxy Watch, but, aside from requiring a Samsung smartphone, it also requires a proper cuff to calibrate the readings. That means that only people set up to check blood pressure already can benefit from spot readings.

The next wave of wearable blood pressure sensors will need to circumvent calibration and enable anyone to get blood pressure readings. That’s complex, and could require FDA clearance, which would make any appearance on a wearable a big deal.

It may be that we see some kind of high/low blood pressure indicator feature - one that would prompt users to take a proper test. This could be much like some of the sleep apnea and Afib detection we’ve seen to date, but would reduce the effectiveness of the feature.

5. AI-Powered Women’s Health Features

We’ve already seen a ton of women’s health features talked about this year – and this is certainly set to be a groundbreaking year. After decades of research in the areas of menstrual and menopausal health being underfunded, wearables (powered by AI) are stepping into the breach.

Oura has been busy launching new integrations and cycle-related updates, and we’ve seen patent filings for menopause detection.

Menopause is one area that’s seeing plenty of wearable tech attention, with identifyHer, Amira, and more promising insights for women.

Real-world use cases would be ensuring that menopause treatments are working effectively, as well as offering personalized insights into the body.

6. Garmin Health

This little-advertised division of Garmin has been quietly ramping up not only the health capabilities of Garmin devices, but also clinical studies using Garmin devices.

With its reach, Garmin is well-placed to become a powerhouse in terms of its health insights. It's extending partnerships, large-scale studies, and corporate wellness, and is even due to monitor Polaris Dawn astronauts (if the launch ever happens).

A Garmin spokesperson told us that remote patient monitoring is also going to be a big focus for 2024, in addition to fitness equipment connections and driver safety.

7. John Giannandrea

If there’s one person to watch in wearables this year, it might be Apple’s John Giannandrea.

He’s the head of Apple’s AI efforts, and his work will be put into the spotlight in 2024 - especially around the Apple Watch.

Last year, reports emerged that Apple was working on an AI coaching product codenamed Quartz. This service would use data from the Apple Watch to create AI coaching plans and improve the actionable insights from the smartwatch.

This has become a glaring missing piece of the company’s watch. We’ve seen the likes of Oura and Whoop leave it behind when it comes to insights – and a new AI platform could redress this whole imbalance.

AI is said to be a huge element of iOS 18 – and thus, we wonder how much effect it will have on watchOS 11, which should land with the Apple Watch X.

WWDC will be seriously interesting this year.

8. Google Health Connect

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As alternative wearable form factors continue to gain prominence in 2024, Google Health Connect promises to play a big role in bringing all the data together.

The app is still technically in beta, but already boasts integrations with Oura, Fitbit, Whoop, Samsung Health, and more. And despite the odd hiccup, it’s already provided a glimpse into a future of seamless interoperability, meaning you no longer have to rely on one wearable to track all your data reliably.

Your smart ring can do what it does best - sleep tracking - while your smartwatch can do what it does best - track your workouts. If Google can smooth out the app experience and make data transfers a bit more reliable, it will become an invaluable tool.

9. Samsung Health + AI

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Samsung has already jumped ahead of rivals by becoming the first company to receive FDA approval for a sleep apnea detection feature, but even more innovation is arriving later this year.

Teased as part of the company’s Unpacked event in January, Galaxy AI is promising to take the Samsung Health platform up a notch.

It’s not clear yet how much Galaxy AI will underpin the on-watch experience, but Samsung has hinted that the technology will feed into sleep analysis, its upcoming Vitality Score readiness metric, and even medication tracking.

Read our in-depth guide to what Samsung announced for Health at Unpacked.

10. Mental Health and Brain Tracking

Wearables are gunning for new problems to solve – but will mental health continue to be a focus of wearables this year?

Stress is still on everyone’s lips, and Oura has started to look at resilience as part of its own stress tracking. We’d expect to see Fitbit/Google and Apple build on their own experiences, too.

We’ve seen Fitbit also patent diagnostics that could detect mental health issues – and CES saw an explosion of EEG-based devices, such as Neurable, that look at focus, sleep, and other brain activities.

Check out PULSE by Wareable for the full Wareable Hot List and all 24 entries.