The smart wearable market of India is the second-largest in the world after China. Notably, most of the smartwatches and other wearable devices sold in India are produced locally. This way, along with the local branches of globally known technology producers, India hosts a range of indigenous smart wearable startups and scaleups.
What Are Smart Wearables?
People are so surrounded by devices these days that they often wear them as accessories 24/7. A wearable device may be called ‘smart’ based on several criteria:
- it incorporates advanced technology and performs functions beyond basic tasks;
- it is equipped with various sensors that collect data from the user’s body or environment;
- it has wireless connectivity options to connect to other devices and unlock additional functionality;
- it has built-in processor to analyse and process the collected data for real-time insights and notifications;
- it is often part of a larger ecosystem of devices and services that work together to enhance the user experience.
The vast majority of smart wearable devices are focused on health and fitness. With their sensors, they are able to monitor vital health and activity indicators, such as number of steps, jogging distance, sleep quality, calorie intake, blood oxygen level, heartbeat rate, body temperature, blood pressure, heart rhythm, and more.
However, a growing number of wearable devices are also supporting payment functions. We have smart watches with NFC support and linked mobile wallets, payment rings, cufflinks, keychains, bracelets, and even caps with the ability to finalise transactions. Although some of them are quite niche and exclusive, a lot of wearable payment devices are widely used.
Smart Wearable Market of India
Despite a recent 10% quarterly decline, the wearable market in India remains among the top global destinations for these smart devices. In the last decade, India has been one of the fastest-growing markets for wearable devices globally as well.
Today, analysts note that smartwatches’ popularity is wearing out in India. That is attributed not as much to the lack of demand, but to the lack of novelty. Rare smartwatch producers have introduced significant innovations to existing products lately. Instead, wearable companies have diversified their offerings with smart glasses, earwear, clothing with integrated technology, smart rings, etc. to remain competitive.
Consumer Trends
To understand the specifics of the market for wearable technology in India, you should know some of the key market trends. The main demographic for this segment is undoubtedly youth living in large urban areas. The younger generation of Indian consumers are both tech-savvy and health-conscious, making them the target market for fitness trackers.
Notably, many Indian consumers are price-sensitive, preferring good value for little money. It has led to the popularity of budget-friendly basic wearables that increasingly offer advanced features which were earlier available only in high end devices.
At the same time, in metro areas, citizens may have enough disposable income to choose brand names, quality, and variety of functions over the price tag. Thus, tech savvy cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore bring most revenue in the Indian consumer wearable market.
The smart wearable market in India is highly competitive. There is a large number of brands offering similar products on the market, which leads to price wars and thin margins. Here are some of the most remarkable brands in the wearable segment of India.
boAt
Founded in 2014, the second-largest wearables brand in the world offers wireless earwear, smartwatches, and other smart audio devices. BoAt also has a Smart Ring with sleep and health monitoring and tracking features, including sleep data, heart rate, menstrual cycles, and body temperature. Most of its products are in the ‘affordable’ category. However, boAt has also recently introduced a premium smartwatch product line. Lunar Pro smartwatches are designed for more advanced battery-powered applications requiring sensor measurement and data analysis. About 70% of boAt devices are produced domestically.
Noise
Noise provides a range of audio devices and smartwatches, as well as the Luna smart ring. All the brand’s wearables provide consumers with a personalised health tracking experience using the Noisefit App to help make real-time transformative choices. The Noise Luna Ring gets even more features supported by an artificial intelligence (AI) wellness coach called Luna AI. The company has been repeatedly ranked as one of the best smartwatch brands in India.
Boult
Boult focuses on a quality audio experience, producing one of the most popular earwear devices in India. According to the startup, it is selling a product every 05 seconds. Most recently, Boult partnered with Mustang, setting a new standard in premium earbuds. Besides headphones, earbuds and neckbands, the firm produces G-sensor dash cams for cars, wireless bluetooth speakers, and smartwatches. The latter come with various styles and functionality, including health trackers, notification syncing, messages, and more. Boult smartwatches might have displays either in HD(High-Definition) or AMOLED(Active Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode), for different image effects.
Fire-Boltt
Fire-Boltt is operated in India by Savex Technologies. Its product range mostly includes smartwatches, but the company has also diversified its offering into the audio category, with a few headphone and earbud models. Fire-Boltt smartwatches fit in different consumer categories, with various designs and functionality for luxury lifestyle or active outdoor use. Some of the models are limited to basic functions, while others have more advanced features like Bluetooth calling, in-built games, various sports modes, and smart notifications.
OPPO
OPPO is a multifaceted company, offering a wide range of devices, from smartphones and tablets to power adapters. Its wearable product line includes a few smartwatches. OPPO’s flagship Watch series boasts a flexible dual-curved display, VOOC flash charging, workout and health tracking, and multiple time-saving features powered by Wear OS by Google. This smartwatch’s functionality includes mobile payments in select locations. One of the unique features of OPPO products is embedded generative AI services. For the firm’s smartwatches, this innovative technology enables customers to take photos of their outfits with their phones, so that OPPO Watch’s AI imaging algorithm will generate its own watch face to match the owner’s current style.
Titan
The firm has a decades-long history of watchmaking. Titan Watches was established as a joint venture between Tata Industries & the Tamil Nadu Industrial Development Corporation (TIDCO) in 1984. As the technology developed, the company expanded its offering with smartwatches. One of its latest smartwatch models, Titan Talk S, offers numerous features like breathing rate monitoring, tracking of SpO2, blood pressure, sleep and women’s health. The smartwatch is equipped with camera control, voice recorder, calculator, activity tracker, weather information and sport trackers. It has a lot of sporting features like hydration and sedentary alerts.
Fastrack
Fastrack is a fashion accessory retail brand, launched as a sub-brand of Titan Watches. Since 2005, Fastrack has operated as an independent brand targeting the urban youth and growing fashion industry. Fastrack offers a wide range of smartwatches with BT calls, sports modes, AMOLED displays, and a lot of essential health trackers like heart rate, SpO2, sleep, and women’s health monitors. The watches designed to complement the active lifestyles of young people also have entertainment services like camera and music control.
Crossbeats
India’s Crossbeats smartwatches are stylish and equipped with the latest Bluetooth calling technology. They connect directly with TWS headphones, offer music storage, e-book reader and numerous sports modes. Crossbeats’ latest smartwatches come equipped with AI health trackers, in-app GPS with dynamic route tracking, and ChatGPT-powered voice assistants. You need the Crossbeats.Fit smart app to connect your smartwatch with your smartphone, continuously track your health and activity indicators, and sync data across devices.
Conclusion
The smart wearable market in India is vibrant and competitive, with strong growth prospects and a variety of advanced ever evolving technologies to implement. The leading smartwatch and smart ring providers in India diversify their offerings as much as possible to cater to various categories of consumers and provide exclusive user experiences. With their high-quality products, local wearable producers compete with the globally known tech giant brands and expand their offerings internationally.
