Ray-Ban Meta, the smart glasses collaboration between Meta and EssilorLuxottica, tripled in sales this year according to recent earnings reports.

During Meta's Q1 2025 earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg also said the smart glasses have four times as many monthly active users as Q1 2024.

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This isn’t just a product win. It’s a platform unlock.

And it marks a shift that has been building for over a decade.

For years, smart glasses were stuck in limbo - too awkward, too early, too easy to ignore.

But now? They’re stylish. Useful. Mainstream.

The future of wearables isn’t on your wrist.

It’s on your face.

from wristwear to facewear

We got used to wearables living on the wrist — tracking, tapping, glancing and nudging us through the day.

But the next phase is already here. And it lives higher up.

Smart glasses are:

• Hands-free and always aware

• Socially visible

• Capable of combining vision, audio, camera and AI in one seamless form

If the wrist taught us to track, the face will teach us to see in new ways

“We are leading the transformation of glasses as the next computing platform, one where AI, sensory tech and a data-rich healthcare infrastructure will converge to empower humans and unlock our full potential,” EssilorLuxottica CEO Francesco Milleri and deputy CEO Paul du Saillant said in a joint-statement.

“The success of Ray-Ban Meta, the launch of Oakley Meta Performance AI glasses and the positive response to Nuance Audio are major milestones for us in this new frontier.”

style before specs

Ray-Ban Meta has so far succeeded where others failed eg Google Glass and Snap Spectacles.

Why? Because it started with aesthetic intelligence, not tech ambition.

• Designed to be worn, not demoed

• Distributed through retail, not hype

• Backed by Ray-Ban’s cultural credibility, not Silicon Valley novelty

It works because it doesn’t scream smart.

It whispers cool and IYKYK.

meta’s most powerful interface isn’t a phone

Meta didn’t just co-design the product.

It bought a 3% in EssilorLuxottica.

That’s not just a collaboration. It’s creating infrastructure.

Smart glasses are Meta’s trojan horse. A way to embed its AI, voice assistant and ambient computing into an object people already wear.

The next great OS won’t launch in an app.

It will be worn on your face.

not just eyewear, a wearable platform

EssilorLuxottica plans to scale to 10 million smart glasses a year by 2026.

That’s not a test run. It’s category building.

Up next:

• Oakley Meta (recently released)

• Prada Meta (rumoured to be coming soon)

• Improved voice UX for search, directions, translation and ambient capture

That’s not just a new product category.

It’s a framework for how AI shows up seamlessly in the background.

the facewear field guide

six signals for how smart glasses will shape everyday life

1. Instant Translation

   Walk through Tokyo and your glasses translate every sign around you in real time.

2. Invisible Navigation

   Ask for directions and receive subtle prompts in your periphery without breaking stride.

3. Hands-Free Capture

   Say “take photo” and preserve a moment without touching your phone.

4. Social Recall

   At a party, your glasses discreetly remind you who that person was and where you met.

5. Context Layering

   See a product and access reviews, prices or alternatives through visual search.

6. Voice-as-Interface

   Make a call, queue a song or set a reminder - all without reaching into your pocket.

These aren’t features.

They’re everyday UX blueprints for wearable intelligence.

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the EVERYWEAR view

The next OS isn’t an app.

It isn’t a headset.

It’s eyewear.

Smart glasses have passed their product-market-fit moment.

And facewear, style-first, voice-powered, always-on - is where the wearable world is heading.

Wearables aren’t just accessories anymore.

They’re becoming the interface itself.

enjoy this drop?

Subscribe to EVERYWEAR for regular signals from the wearable world, where technology gets closer to the body and further from the screen.

Smart rings, AI eyewear, ambient UX and the cultural shift from device to design.

Because the next platform isn’t something we carry.

It’s something we wear. EVERYWEAR.

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You’re walking through a night market in Chengdu. You point at a menu - your glasses whisper the translation. You scan a QR code and pay without pulling out your phone. You ask what food you’re holding, and it tells you the calories. No screen. No friction. Just wear and go.

This isn’t a future fantasy. It’s Xiaomi’s new AI Glasses - and they’re not trying to be another camera on your face. They’re something different. Built for action, not attention.

While Meta’s Ray-Bans have dominated Western headlines, China’s Xiaomi has quietly introduced a challenger with sharper instincts and broader ambition.

Like Meta’s, Xiaomi’s glasses don’t feature a screen. But that’s exactly what makes the comparison interesting: two products, no display - two totally different philosophies.

Meta’s Ray-Bans center around capturing moments, summoning a chatbot, and sharing through your social graph.

Xiaomi’s AI Glasses are built around recognition, translation, utility, and environmental intelligence.

They’re both screenless. But one wants to turn your face into a content creator. The other wants to turn it into an interface.

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From augmented to ambient

Before Meta’s Ray-Bans reframed the category, smart glasses mostly meant augmented reality - heads-up displays, floating maps, digital overlays.

Xiaomi flips the same script. These glasses are built for ambient intelligence. No screen. No distractions. Just context-aware utility baked into your daily life.

You get a 12MP ultra-wide camera for hands-free photo and 2K video capture, a five-microphone array for accurate voice input and noise suppression, and dual open-ear speakers for calls, music, and real-time AI responses. Battery life clocks in at up to 8.6 hours - nearly double the Meta Ray-Bans, with features like object recognition, calorie estimation, live translation, and QR payments via Alipay.

They’re powered by Xiaomi’s HyperOS and HyperAI, running on the Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chip. And with a tap, the lenses shift from clear to tinted.

The glasses don’t just respond to what you say. They respond to what you see.

Built for China’s ecosystem of speed

In China, phones already function as identity, wallet, travel pass, and social graph. Voice commands are fluent. QR codes are everywhere.

So Xiaomi’s AI Glasses don’t feel futuristic. They feel native.

These glasses weigh just 40g, are splash-resistant (IP54), and come in clear or electrochromic lenses.

They blend utility and invisibility. Built not to show off, but to keep up.

Designed to disappear

In China, phones already function as identity, wallet, travel pass, and social graph. Voice assistants are fluent. QR codes are everywhere.

Xiaomi’s AI Glasses don’t feel futuristic. They feel native.

They weigh just 40g, are splash-resistant (IP54), and come with clear or electrochromic lenses. Tap the frame, and your lenses shift from clear to shaded in a flash - part practicality, part design flex.

These glasses look like eyewear. Not headsets.

They blend in, by design.

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Meta vs Xiaomi: Two paths to the face

Both are lightweight, camera-first, AI-forward, and screenless. But their intentions couldn’t be more different.

Meta is building social smartglasses, share-first and assistant-enhanced.

Xiaomi is building utilitarian smartglasses, assistive-first and socially silent.

Why this matters

Smart glasses are evolving from “look at me” gadgets to silent, intelligent companions.

We’re moving from augmented reality to ambient reality. From digital overlays to invisible cognition.

Xiaomi’s AI Glasses show what that looks like when it’s already plugged into a local super ecosystem - one that others like Huawei, Oppo, and even ByteDance are watching closely.

Wearables are shifting from screens you tap to those you wear. Xiaomi’s AI Glasses show how far that shift is going.

This signal a few things. Ambient AI is becoming a design principle. Context-aware computing is now lightweight and stylish, not bulky and experimental. And global competition in wearables is accelerating fast, with China’s hardware makers building serious alternatives to Silicon Valley’s ecosystem lock-in.

Even if Xiaomi’s glasses stay China-exclusive for now, they represent a global direction: wearables that subtract complexity and respond to the world in real time.

A vision of utility-led tech, where the goal isn’t to grab your attention - it’s to remove the need for it.

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👓 The EVERYWEAR view

Not all smart glasses are chasing the same future.

Meta wants your face to become the new camera roll.

Xiaomi wants it to be the next interface.

Welcome to the era of ambient interfaces - wearables that think, sense, and act without asking for your eyes.

The next wave of personal tech won’t ask for your attention.

It will quietly enhance your perception.

And that shift, from glass as content tool to glass as perception engine - could define the next generation of wearables.

Maybe the future of tech isn’t on your face.

Maybe it is your face. EVERYWEAR.

Ray-Bans used to block the future. Now they’re helping you see it.

Meta just invested $3.5 billion in EssilorLuxottica. This isn’t eyewear — it’s infrastructure.

Meta just invested $3.5 billion for a 3% stake in EssilorLuxottica - the company behind Ray-Ban, Oakley, and some of the most culturally iconic frames on the planet.

This isn’t a side bet. It’s a mainline signal. Meta doesn’t want to compete with smartphones. It wants to build what comes after them. The next great interface won’t live in your hand. It’ll live on your face. And this is how Meta plans to own it.

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From collaboration to control

For the last few years, Meta and EssilorLuxottica have been quiet collaborators. Meta built the tech. EssilorLuxottica brought the style and scale. Together they launched the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses - sleek, subtle, wearable, and surprisingly capable.

But this move is different. Meta is no longer content being the software layer. By taking an equity stake, it’s stepping inside the machine, influencing how the next wave of facewear is designed, distributed, and ultimately worn.

It’s the difference between selling a product and owning the platform.

Meta didn’t just invest in eyewear. It invested in identity.

Facewear is the new smartphone

Smartphones won the last interface war. But the rules are changing. The next computing wave won’t require tapping, typing, or even looking down. It will live ambiently in your periphery - augmenting what you see, enhancing what you hear, and quietly responding to what you need.

Glasses are the perfect vessel. They’re already socially accepted. They sit at the exact intersection of human and world. And they can do more than see - they can signal.

The Ray-Ban Meta glasses already offer voice access, livestreaming, hands-free capture, and AI assistance. But this is just chapter one. They’ll keep getting better - more capable, more invisible, more essential.

The next platform isn’t handheld. It’s head-up, always on, and worn with intention.

Style as strategic infrastructure

Wearable tech doesn’t fail because of tech. It fails because no one wants to wear it.

That’s where EssilorLuxottica comes in. This isn’t just a manufacturer. It’s the taste engine of global eyewear. Its brands aren’t products they’re signals. Ray-Ban. Persol. Oakley. Prada. And many more. Each one carries social meaning and identity before a single feature is mentioned.

Meta knows it can’t manufacture cultural capital. So it’s investing in the people who already do.

In the wearable era, style isn’t a feature. It’s the platform.

The desire stack

Most tech companies build features. But the most powerful brands build want.

With this move, Meta isn’t just refining a product. It’s constructing a new kind of stack - one made of aesthetics, narrative, intelligence, and distribution. Call it the Desire Stack. A system where people don’t just adopt new tech. They crave it. They align with it. They wear it to say something before it does.

Glasses are no longer passive accessories. They’re active interfaces. And Meta wants you to wear its operating system on your face.

Tech doesn’t win by being the smartest. It wins by being wanted.

A scene from tomorrow

You walk into a gallery. Your glasses whisper the name of the artist, pull up their last show, translate the wall text, and tag the moment for later. Someone greets you. Your glasses remember their name, surface your last message, and help you pick up where you left off.

You didn’t tap a thing.

This is the future Meta is building - not just smart glasses, but a sensory interface. One that sees what you see, hears what you hear, and quietly helps you navigate the world with more context, confidence, and clarity.

The new interface isn’t a screen. It’s a sense layer.

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Learning from the ghosts of (smart) glasses past

It’s not guaranteed to work.

Google Glass was ahead of its time but socially rejected. Snap Spectacles had the form, but not the function. Even Meta’s first-gen smart glasses were more curiosity than essential tool.

Wearables live or die by social permission - and that’s the one thing you can’t code.

But this time feels different. The aesthetics are right. The UX is improving. The AI layer is smarter, faster, and more embedded. Meta is clearly trying to avoid the mistake of making a device you can wear. It’s trying to build one you want to wear.

In the wearable world, product-market fit is really person-image fit.

Taste as infrastructure

Underneath it all, this move is a nod to a larger truth.

Taste is no longer a finishing touch. It’s not marketing. It’s not styling. It’s infrastructure. It determines what scales, what spreads, what gets picked off the shelf and into real life. And in a future where computing blends invisibly into what we wear, taste becomes the default filter.

Meta isn’t just buying tech. It’s buying a seat at the taste table.

The interface layer is cultural now. Design is distribution.

What this unlocks

This deal changes the wearable race. It forces rivals to reframe what a smart device needs to be. It opens the door to more tech x fashion alliances. It pressures Apple to rethink the form factor of its Vision hardware. It puts pressure on Google and its own facewear play. It signals to fashion brands that their design codes are now strategic assets.

Because the next interface shift won’t be just technological. It will be cultural. It will be visible. It will be wearable.

And the most important real estate in tech won’t be in your pocket. It’ll be on your face.

EVERYWEAR final view

The next interface shift won’t just be technological. It will be cultural.

It will be visible. It will be wearable.

And the most valuable real estate in tech won’t be in your pocket.

It’ll be on your face. EVERYWEAR.

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Smart glasses are no longer science fiction. They’re not a gimmick, not a prototype, not something only tech insiders wear at conferences. They’re on faces, in public, and part of real product ecosystems. And the next generation of players is forming fast.

2026 is shaping up to be the year of the smart glasses, and we’re going to be EVERYWEAR to track it all.

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In a move that could reshape the future of wearable tech, Google has invested approximately $100 million into Gentle Monster’s parent company, iiCombined, taking an estimated four percent stake.

It’s a strategic alliance that pairs Google’s AI horsepower with one of fashion’s most disruptive eyewear brands which says a lot about what comes next for…. the interface on your face.

Who is Gentle Monster?

Founded in Seoul in 2011 by Hankook Kim, Gentle Monster is not your typical eyewear brand. Its reputation was built on oversized, experimental frames that pushed beyond conventional style and embraced spectacle - quite literally.

The brand is known for its bold, oversized silhouettes that challenge convention while maintaining everyday wearability. Its appeal is global, with a fanbase spanning K-pop royalty, avant-garde art lovers, and fashion insiders alike.

What truly sets Gentle Monster apart is its approach to retail. Each store is an immersive installation which is more gallery than shop. With rotating exhibits, sculptural displays, and surreal theatricality, it’s one of the few fashion brands where the store experience becomes cultural currency. When you walk into Gentle Monster, you’re walking into a vision of what branding can be when it’s treated as art. Sounds very Apple store-esque…

The company also has a track record in tech. In 2019, it collaborated with Huawei to produce smart audio glasses, a quiet early bet that style and circuitry could co-exist. The experiment laid the groundwork for what’s now becoming a much more ambitious partnership.

Why would Google invest?

This clearly isn’t just a financial play. Google’s investment is part of a broader push to bring smart eyewear into the mainstream using its Gemini AI and Android XR platform. But in a way that is cool, yet different and culturally credible.

It’s building an ecosystem that includes Gentle Monster, Warby Parker, and Kering Eyewear - offering consumers everything from fashion-forward to mass-accessible frames, all infused with real-time AI features. The first Gemini-powered glasses are expected in 2026.

What makes Gentle Monster such an ideal partner is its credibility. Google Glass famously failed not because it didn’t work, but because it looked like a sci-fi experiment. Oh and the Scoble in the shower shot.

Gentle Monster solves that problem by making products people actually want to wear. It brings the aesthetic authority, brand heat, and star power that tech companies typically lack. It’s the equivalent to Meta teaming up with EssilorLuxottica. EL reported back in 2022 that they estimate over 500m people wear their glasses around the world.

The cultural reach is equally important. Gentle Monster sits at the intersection of fashion, celebrity, and next-gen luxury. Its stores are ideal launch pads for wearable tech, places where people already expect surprise and spectacle. For Google, it’s not just about product integration. It’s about narrative. And Gentle Monster knows how to build one.

What’s in it for Gentle Monster?

For Gentle Monster, this partnership provides something money alone can’t buy: a direct link to world-class technology infrastructure. Through Google, it gains access to Gemini AI, on-device processing, spatial computing tools, and real-time language translation - all of which elevate the smart eyewear experience from novelty to necessity.

The deal also unlocks global scale. While Gentle Monster has a strong foothold in Asia and a cult following elsewhere, Google offers a pathway to much wider distribution - through Android, YouTube, Pixel, and more. The partnership increases its cultural surface area and opens up new audiences.

More than anything, this move future-proofs the brand. Eyewear is no longer a passive category. It’s becoming active - a user interface you wear. By moving early and aligning with a partner like Google, Gentle Monster positions itself ahead of the curve while many luxury competitors are still treating wearables as fringe.

And of course, the capital helps too. The $100M investment can fuel new concept stores, smart product R&D, and experimental product lines that fuse top design with ambient tech. Crucially, Gentle Monster maintains creative control - this is a minority stake, not a takeover.

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What this means for wearables

The battle lines are now clear. Meta has Ray-Ban and EssilorLuxottica. Apple is building vertically through Vision Pro. Google is building sideways, through partnerships that combine utility, distribution, and style. And Snapchat, though earlier to market with Spectacles, continues to quietly iterate in the background, blending AR experimentation with creator culture.

What’s emerging is a new model of smartwear: one where glasses are no longer gadgets, but lifestyle objects. Fashion is no longer a finishing touch. It’s the starting point.

We’re entering an era where retail becomes R&D. Gentle Monster’s theatrical stores double as live labs, perfect for testing lens types, AI features, and use cases in real time. It’s a form of product feedback no smartphone kiosk can deliver.

And perhaps most critically: we’re seeing the rise of the personal interface. Glasses are worn on the face. They’re part of how we’re seen, and how we see. That proximity demands a product that respects style first, functionality second. Gentle Monster understands that intuitively. Google now gets to benefit from that instinct.

The EVERYWEAR view

Wearables are shifting from novelty to necessity. And the ones that will win aren’t just smart - they’re stylish, desirable, and invisible.

Gentle Monster brings fashion’s imagination. Google brings AI’s future. Together, they’re building a new kind of interface - one that you not only wear on your face, but carry in your sense of self, EVERYWEAR.

✴️ If glasses are becoming software, what happens to the rest of what we wear?

Subscribe to EVERYWEAR to see what’s coming next.

everywear.tech | Signals from the Wearable World

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And this time, it is not just about fashion. It’s about the future of computing.

In 2025, big tech is teaming up with optical giants and hardware specialists to make smart glasses not just viable, but desirable.

These are not experiments or prototypes. They are real consumer products backed by real strategy. And the players involved are not playing small.

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The smart eyewear battleground

Here is the new landscape shaping up in front of our eyes:

Google’s full-stack strategy

Google is covering every angle. Its $100 million investment in Gentle Monster brings aesthetic credibility and cult design appeal.

Its partnership with Warby Parker opens up the direct-to-consumer market. Kering Eyewear (behind Gucci, Saint Laurent, and more) offers a luxury tier. And its ongoing alliance with Samsung and Qualcomm forms the technical backbone for Android XR.

Together, this creates a layered smart glasses play: from affordable and wearable, to premium and bold. All powered by Gemini AI. All ready for consumers by 2026.

Meta’s optical empire

Meta continues to double down through EssilorLuxottica. The success of the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses took many by surprise, which gives Meta a great head start and some solid foundations to build on from.

They have since already followed up with the introduction of the upgraded and sportier Oakley Meta HSTN, with a Prada collaboration on the horizon. The future is looking bright for Meta and wearables.

Where Google spreads across tiers, Meta goes deep.

Ray-Ban provides fashion-forward mainstream reach.

Oakley adds utility and performance.

Prada signals luxury and culture.

Meta AI ties it all together.

This is before we even go in to Project Orion which we’ll cover off further in a future edition.

Samsung and Qualcomm: powering the platforms

Samsung is not just collaborating with Google. They are building their own products too. The Haean smart glasses are ultra-thin and designed for everyday use.

Project Moohan, its joint AR effort with Google, is aimed squarely at the premium headset and glasses category.

Qualcomm also provides the underlying chips and platforms.

The Snapdragon AR1 and XR2 are already embedded in Meta’s smart glasses and will likely power Google’s Android XR devices too.

Qualcomm is also exploring input innovations like smart rings and local AI demos, reinforcing its role as the infrastructure layer behind the scenes.

Snap stays experimental

Snap may not have retail muscle or big-name partners, but it continues to iterate for creators. It’s arguably got a potential sleeper hit on its hands with its upcoming sixth generation and has been doing it one of the longest but remains a smaller and more experimental outfit.

Snap Spectacles first came out in November 2016 initially through pop up vending machines in the US.

The Spectacles allowed people to record video to be shared on Snapchat and were then made available more widely for sale online in February 2017.

Its upcoming Specs AI are designed as open tools for developers and power users. While Google and Meta battle for mass adoption, Snap builds for niche influence.

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Who else is in the game?

A few more players are circling the smart eyewear space, each with different angles and ambitions.

Apple

Apple is not in the glasses game yet, but it is coming. And when it does it’s going to likely set the bar.

After launching Vision Pro in 2024, sales numbers and take up have been lower than expectations and forecasts.

The high price and the sense of isolation when wearing a full headset has not helped with advancing their acceptability.

Apple is reportedly developing lightweight AR glasses as a long-term follow-up.

When it enters the category, it will likely do so with the same polish, design discipline, and cultural influence it brought to wearables with the Apple Watch. which we must not forgot took multiple years and interations to find its own product market fit.

Amazon

Amazon’s Echo Frames are now in their third generation. These are audio-only glasses with Alexa integration, focused on utility rather than AR or visual interfaces. While they lack cameras or displays, they reflect Amazon’s interest in ambient computing through wearable form factors.

Xreal (formerly Nreal)

Xreal is building lightweight tethered AR glasses for entertainment and gaming. Products like the Xreal Air are popular with tech enthusiasts and early adopters. While they do not yet have cultural or fashion credibility, they lead on immersive display quality and media consumption.

Others

Companies like Vuzix, Bosch, Lenovo, and TCL continue to build smart eyewear for enterprise and industrial use. These products rarely reach consumers, but they shape the hardware pipelines that consumer glasses will eventually draw from. Luxshare Precision, a key Apple supplier, is also rumoured to be working on AR components behind the scenes.

This time, it is not just tech

What makes this moment different is that these smart glasses are actually wearable.

They don’t look like developer kits. They look like glasses people would actually willingly choose to wear. And millions already are. That’s because every major tech player has brought in experts in taste, style, and cultural capital. The social norms are eroding.

This is not just a product race. It is a platform war. The winning smart glasses will not just be the smartest. They will be the most invisible ones that people just want to wear.

Ray-Ban has the biggest early head start here for Meta due to the form factor being familiar and inobtrusive. They will plan to use that halo effect to permeate other brands within the EssilorLuxottica umbrella.

Who’s next?

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Here’s just a small sign of things to come for Meta and all the brands under one roof:

I’d love to see Alain Mikli, Burberry, Chanel, Ferrari, Moncler, Oliver Peoples, Persol and Polo Ralph Lauren all get the smart treatment.

TL;DR

Smart glasses are no longer a side project. They are a category.

• Google is partnering with Gentle Monster, Warby Parker, and Kering for a full-tiered approach.

• Meta is deepening its collaboration with EssilorLuxottica to push Ray-Ban, Oakley, and Prada into the wearable age.

• Samsung and Qualcomm are powering the hardware layer behind Android XR.

• Snap continues to experiment at the edge of creator culture.

• Apple, Amazon, and Xreal are watching closely-or quietly preparing their own plays.

The future of computing is now one that you wear.

EVERYWEAR.

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Hey there, thanks for being here and welcome. You are EARLY EARLY.

This is the very first post to EVERYWEAR. It’s June 2025, but truthfully, it’s been in the works for a long time (i’m an overthinker okay?).

So what is all this then?

It’s part observation deck. Part signal tracker. Part public notebook. A place to explore how the tech we wear is quietly transforming how we see, move, feel and interact with the world around us.

And who am I?

I’m Michael Litman, former tech startup founder, ad agency strategist, author and voracious curator of internet rabbit holes.

I realise all of those things are past tense so what do I do now?

I’ve recently turned a few new pages. Started a family, left adland behind and joined DF in a new role in the tech media space as innovation director.

It’s pretty cool because I get to combine all my previous knowledge, skills, interests and passions at DF within media, emerging tech and editorial here in London, UK.

I also noticed my Twitter / X account is mostly now a very inane and chaotic mix of tweets (we still call them tweets right?) about Nottingham Forest, fantasy football, AI, crypto and hype fashion. So don’t follow that if you’re not interested in any of the above. I wanted somewhere to just focus on this new and growing niche - wearables.

I’ve always drawn to consumer tech and staying at the forefront of innovation. Not just the devices themselves but what they are trying to achieve and why now.

From running an import video game online shop for the Nintendo GameCube back in 2002 before Uni. To then, a decade later, getting in early on backing a Pebble smartwatch from Kickstarter in 2012. One of the first smartwatches to gain traction.

It was at this nascent stage which felt like a glimpse of the future. I saw the notion of being able to be ‘connected’, even back then, to be novel, useful and innovative rather than invasive or distracting. There was a kind of quiet magic to it.

The Pebble then went on to sell 2 million watches and did over $230m in sales. And that was over a decade ago.

What Didn’t Work

If we fast forward another 10 years +, we’ve seen many different wearable variants come and go. Billions of dollars in R&D has been invested into the likes of:

Magic Leap, HoloLens, Google Glass, Amazon Echo Loop, Bose Frames, Levi’s Jacquard, North Focals, Humane AI Pin, Snap Spectacles and even to an extent more latterly, Apple Vision Pro. Each one as hyped as the next big thing. Few made it past niche audiences and fewer still had any longevity.

Some were too early. Some didn’t solve real problems. Some felt uncomfortable to wear or awkward to use. Some had battery life not long enough to be usable. Others faced a privacy backlash, social friction, or simply tried to do too much without doing anything well.

But these attempts weren’t failures in vain. They taught us what doesn’t work - and hinted at what might. Timing also may only now be on their side too.

What seemed to become evident to me is that wearables don’t succeed by being louder or more futuristic - but by becoming invisible. By offering value and utility with as little friction as possible. By fitting into daily life, not force you to change.

Then Something Shifted

In summer 2024, I picked up a pair of Meta Ray-Bans with prescription and transition lenses because I wanted to actually wear them - and something clicked.

They didn’t feel like a gimmick to me. They felt inevitable. AI built in. Easy photo and video capture, hands-free. Simple voice control. Open ear audio. But crucially, they just look like Ray-Ban sunglasses. They blend into the background rather than standing out.

That feeling of quiet, useful magic — reminded me of the first time I got an iPod or tried AirPods. They just worked.

We’re entering a new phase of wearable tech. A phase that isn’t about novelty, it’s about utility and value that simply blends in to daily life, invisibly.

What’s Working Now

We’re now seeing products that actually fit into people’s lives:

• Apple Watch – a discreet health companion

• Oura Ring – sleep insights as lifestyle ritual

• Whoop – athletic tracking without distraction

• Meta Ray-Bans and Oakleys – ambient computing that disappears into your eyewear

• What have I missed?

What do they all have in common? Offered a familiar form factor, utility through data and value from daily use. They tapped in to existing habits and solved real problems.

EVERYWEAR is about tracking those shifts. Not just the products, but the patterns beneath them.

What to expect with EVERYWEAR

This is EVERYWEAR, a publication tracking the fast-evolving world of wearable technology — and what it means.

From smart glasses and rings to earbuds, sensors, and interface layers, we’re entering a new era where the tech we wear doesn’t just function — it shapes how we move, feel, signal, and connect.

What we will explore:

• Signals – the most interesting updates, drops, and trends in wearables

• Spotlight – deeper dives into brands, retail, platforms and cultural shifts

• Hands-On – personal reviews and reflections from life with wearables

• Future Fit – frameworks and ideas on what’s coming next

Whether it’s the next Meta release, Oura’s evolving rituals, or whatever Jony Ive’s next secret project with Sam Altman is - if it’s wearable, cultural, and shaping how we live, it belongs here.

Why Now?

Wearables are becoming the next interface layer - more personal than your phone, more present than your watch.

EVERYWEAR exists to track that shift.

To decode the meaning behind the products.

To ask the bigger question:

What happens when the interface is you?

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The future isn’t just something we watch.

It’s something we wear.

EVERYWEAR.