Polar has just launched A fitness bracelet without screen for 199 dollars. No subscription. No notifications. Without digital vanity. It is the clearest sign that something is changing in our relationship with Wearable.
It is the new technological minimalism that focuses on health monitoring, and nothing else.
Why is it important. This trend comes due to the convergence of several contemporary obsessions:
- The optimization of physical performance.
- The obsessive quantification of the self.
- And yes, also digital exhaustion.
WHOOP He first conquered elite athletes promising data that an Apple Watch could not offer, or not with such frequency: cardiac variability, training load, real recovery. It was not so much escaping from technology as deepening it until making it invisible. As invisible as the load: autonomy is two weeks.
The market paradox. These bracelets satisfy two apparently contradictory wishes:
- We want more information about ourselves …
- … but less friction to obtain them.
Whoop’s success was not to eliminate distractions, was to automate the obsession. You do not need to start a training manually when the device automatically detects that you are running.
Amazfit offers your Helio Strap for 99 euros without subscription. Polar asks 199. Whoop maintains its model of up to $ 359 a year. Each price points to a different tribe: the curious, the committed, the obsessives.
Between the lines. The real attraction is not the absence of screen but the promise of knowledge without effort. It is the same impulse that leads people to DNA test either Microbioma analysis: The fantasy that the data will reveal some hidden truth about ourselves. The difference is that now that data arrives every morning to your phone.
The more devout users do not seek to disconnect. They look for a deeper connection with themselves through metrics as a traditional smartwatch, designed for the average consumer, would never prioritize.
The contrast. A Apple Watcha Huawei Watch or a Samsung Galaxy Watch They are generalist devices that make everything moderately well. These bracelets are specialists: they do one thing – monitor your body – exceptionally well.
As the sports watches niche chaired by Garmin, Suunto, Coros and Company, but without screen, notifications, etc.
The second Wearable. Here is the key: these bracelets do not really compete with a Garmin or an Apple Watch except for those who want to lose sight of the screen. For the rest of the market, they complement them. Serious athletes are both: the Garmin to see rhythm, routes and heart rate during training, and the Whoop (or similar) in the biceps for monitoring 24/7. That is why Whoop and his clones offer biceps bands: to release the wrist during the sport.
It is the birth of a new category: the Wearable complementary. It is not “or one or the other”, it is “east and that.” The Garmin to run, the invisible bracelet to live.
The decisive moment. Polar entrance with a subscription free product is remarkable. He suggests that the market is maturing beyond the Whoop model, where you pay both hardware and the interpretation of the data.
Now the question is whether the data is worth $ 359 a year if you can get something similar for $ 199 in a single payment.
And now what. We are seeing the market fragmentation of Wearable. There will be devices for those who want an iPhone on the wrist and devices for those who want a laboratory in the background. Several trends converge:
- The professionalization of amateur fitness.
- The medicalization of well -being.
- And a certain fed up with notifications.
The real test will be if these devices continue to loyalty when the novelty passes. Because after all, having hundreds of data on your dream are of no use if you don’t sleep anymore.
In Xataka | After almost a decade with the Apple Watch I have spent a Garmin. And I have understood what I was losing me
Outstanding image | Polar
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