A few years back, when wearables started making headlines in the tech press and beelines to our wrists, hands and heads, the smart ring was considered to be just as much of a life-changing, money-making idea as the smartwatch. A smart ring arms race ensued and the collective excitement for devices like the Smarty Ring, Fin, Nod, Logbar’s Ring, Mota’s Smart Ring and more grew and grew. And so did the promises about how smart rings would revolutionise all areas of our lives. From helping us pay for things and open things with NFC, notifying us of alerts on our phones and computers and even tracking metrics and activities with tiny sensors, like heart rate and fitness metrics.

But fast-forward to the present day and only a few devices have made it to market, with many casualties facing legal, financial and technical troubles along the way — and others nowhere to be seen.

You could argue that all of these false starts mean the excitement for smart rings is waning, so we wanted to find out why smart rings have been everywhere for so long, but crucially, not on our fingers. And whether their time has already come and gone.

Click here to read the rest of the feature on Wareable.