Smartphone, smart TVs and now, smart fashion. The fashion industry is in the grip of tech fever.

Tory Burch Fitbit Accessory

By all estimates, luxury wearable technology will be the next big growth area. Realizing the potential of this huge market, designers have begun collaborating on new-age gadgets with tech companies.

TAG Heuer Connected Watch

Fossil, for instance, has tied up with fashion and lifestyle brand Michael Kors to launch Michael Kors Access Android Wear watch; besides, wearables from Armani, Kate Spade, Diesel, Lacoste and more are on their way. Many of these devices will have identical specs and features, but the devil will be in the details. Tag Heuer’s first smartwatch, the TAG Heuer Connected is the work of Google and Intel. It puts time telling front and center, the build quality is top notch and it’s a luxury, comfortable fit.

Michael Kors

Clearly, luxury fashion is making deep inroads into the wearable tech segment as designers try their hands at developing smart, stylish accessories and clothing aimed at tracking performance and health, or simply making connected lives easier to manage.

Ralph Lauren Tech tee

Luxury brand Ralph Lauren unveiled its high-performance smart compression shirt, the Polo Tech, at the US Open. The company took in feedback from players and ball boys during practice sessions, said David Lauren, an executive vice president of his father’s namesake company. Swarovski’s new Misfit Shine activity tracker is dominated by a large single Swarovski crystal, which has nine accessories to accompany it, from an attractive bracelet to blingy pendant. The best thing about the collaboration is that the design actually enables more tech features, and after the initial launch will be a solar powered version, which uses light refracted by the crystal to infinitely power the device. And Tory Burch’s Fitbit accessories, from blingy jewellery to stylish bands, work for every occasion: office to the next hot party.

Swarovski Misfit Shine

The obsession with wearable tech extends to even the health segment. GOQii, a device by an eponymous company headquartered in California, with offices in Mumbai and Shenzhen, offers advanced wearable technology while removing the anonymity of tech. Knowing that fitness is a life-choice, its goal is sustained engagement, thanks to the added service of fitness coaches, all packaged in a single integrated solution — the GOQii band — an effective combination of technology and human connection.

GOQii

Vishal Gondal, Founder and CEO, GOQii, is backed by powerful investors such as Google’s Amit Singhal, Microsoft’s Taher Khorakiwala and Vijay Vashee and Bollywood actress Madhuri Dixit-Nene and her husband, Dr. Shriram Nene, among others.  According to Gondal, technology will always evolve.  We aim to build a complete lifestyle ecosystem around the wearable band. Our coaching service is a cloud-based platform that sends data to real coaches, who analyse and engage customers by providing the right advice. The GOQii service is also compatible with 35 other fitness bands including Fitbit, Jawbone, and Misfit. For us, it’s our service and not the hardware.”

Mindshare Worldwide, a global media agency network, predicts that wearable technology will transform the luxury goods market, as new products such as Google Glass drive the market to innovate further and create high end products which look good and have advanced technology functions.