Watch Out: Wearables To Undergo A Makeover

Watch out Watches! Wearables seem to have worn out their welcome on the wrists they have occupied of late.

“Omnipresence of connectivity is going to be built into the infrastructure of your body somehow,” predicted Sid Jatia, Under Armour’s VP of Digital, during his keynote at the GDS Omnichannel Insights Summit.

The man knows a thing or two about what’s coming up next for the latest platform, after a decade working in the omnichannel space and 2 years at Under Armour.  Jatia says that wearables are about to experience a major overhaul and executives in the fashion retail and healthcare industries seem to be listening to the buzz and trying to get ahead of the curve.

“The wrist worn wearables category is going through a lot of disruption to itself right now,” says Patrick Bewley, CEO of Big Cloud Analytics. “[The wrist] is a really big competition for real estate on the human body. People have things they wear on their wrist on their daily life already.”

“Consumer technology has been around for a while when you think about technology on the wrists,” adds Mindy Perry, Head of Global Marketing, of Fossil Group’s Misfit Brand + Wearable Device/Connected Accessories, which certainly knows a thing or two about watches. “Apple watch has done a great job. Fitbit has done a great job.”

True the trackers caught our collective attention and then that attention was stolen by the smart watch, but it was only a matter of time before the shiny new object syndrome wears off and jumps the shark.

“We’ve kind of hit a saturation point on the fitness minded people who are going out buying the Fitbits and Garmins and the smart watches are filling this more than anything,” explained Bewley. “We’ve seen declines in sales of Apple Watch last quarter.”

But a saturated market isn’t the only reason for an impending revolution of wearables. Millennials are customers with a new kind of shopping behavior

“Millennials are interesting in so many ways,” says Perry. “For us what was interesting to see is in generations previously 80% of people had owned a watch as a fashion statement and part of their outfit. But when we looked at millennials only 60% of them wore a watch. But, despite that they had the highest propensity and likelihood to buy a wearable.”

Oh those lovable disruptive millennials. So what is the next turn for the wearables we’ve come to love? Those in the healthcare industry who attended the GDS NG Healthcare Summit say they agree with Jatia’s prediction.

“I believe as a result of all this what we’re gonna see is sensors are going to become more pervasive, says Bewley. “They’re going to become buttons and lapel pins and the inseams in your shoes. The ear actually has a lot of opportunity because the ear can do a lot more medical grade data collection.”

Wearables certainly seem primed for a makeover  – and  while some are searching for new places they can find a home on the customer body to deliver the best personal data, others like at Fossil group believe they just need the kind of makeover that doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but instead picks up where tech companies have left off.

“They’ve done a great job with technology but the whitespace opportunity is how to you make something that’s also fashionable, in style, on trend that someone wants to wear,” explains Perry. “That’s why this year Fossil Group will launch over 100 skews across 8 brands in 40 countries in 8 languages. They won’t be a badge of honor that I have the latest technology but a badge of honor because it looks great with my outfit and it connects me to the world in ways that I want it to.”

Think of it as fashionable facts, and a chance to not look like your dad every time you put on your tracker or smart watch.

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