05 Sep Wrapped Around Your Finger: The Undeniable Appeal of Ringly

Bracelets, anklets, watches, armbands, shoes, glasses and even talking shirts… For the last couple of years, we’ve seen some pretty cool hits – as well as some really awful misses – in wearable technology and pseudo-fashionable gadgets. It’s been a battle to the prototype death between some of the biggest consumer electronic companies, and this year’s CES in Vegas was yet another visit to the wearables battlefield. Recently, several companies have started working on devices to solve specific problems, such as constantly having to check your smart phone for updates (and it makes perfect sense, most of us would start experiencing severe withdrawal if we couldn’t sneak a peek at our phones every once in a while). Finally, there’s a company who just bridged the gap between couture and technology with a very stylish alternative to the rubber and plastic, and we’d love to see a lot more of them: Ringly!

The lovely folks at Ringly, a hip new startup based out of New York, have started taking pre-orders on their chic wearables, and have even sold out on some of their models. They are hard at work producing a collection of smart jewelry and accessories that connect to users’ mobile phones via Bluetooth to “put your phone away and your mind at ease.” Ringly’s debut product is a cocktail ring that comes in four different styles, which lights up and vibrates whenever you receive a new notification. Users can customize which notifications they receive by using the Ringly app. Their fall collection is crafted with 18k matte gold micron plating and incorporates precious and semi-precious stones. These very attractive pieces of jewelry are designed to keep users connected to their phones effortlessly and, according to company executives, Ringly is based on placing fashion and simplicity first, while bringing to mainstream consumers their own little piece of cutting-edge technology. The designers wanted to keep the items discreet, which is one of our favorite features, so that function doesn’t compromise style. “Our core belief is that technology can be more discreetly integrated into our lives”.

“One of the reasons I started the company is I was missing things all of the time because I keep my phone in my purse,” explains co- founder, Christina Mercando. “I wanted to solve that, but I also started to notice everyone around me always having to keep their phone out at the dinner table and it interrupting certain things. I love conversation and I love restaurants and eating and it’s just one of those things that bothered me that I wanted to help fix.”

According to the company, this is just their first line; we can’t wait to see more collections added to Ringly’s inventory. It’s one step forward in our detachment from that addictive, oh-so-tempting ringing, talking and singing piece of modern necessity, and these sexy pieces of tech sure are easy on the eyes…