Signal Ring, from a startup called Vital Signals, went up for preorder as a wearable promising blood pressure numbers straight from your finger, with no arm cuff and no calibration step. The company opened orders on July 16 at $399 and expects the rings to reach buyers in October. No monthly subscription comes attached, which already separates it from most of the smart-ring field.
I’ve come across plenty of stories from health-conscious buyers who spent around $500 on an Ultrahuman ring to avoid a subscription, only to run into enough bugs and reliability issues that they switched to Oura anyway. If Signal Ring proves more reliable, it won’t just compete on price but on a feature that today’s biggest smart rings still lack.
Oura and the Apple Watch can warn of possible high blood pressure, but neither gives you an actual blood pressure reading. Signal Ring aims to fill that gap by delivering blood pressure numbers straight from your finger, and if it delivers on that promise, it could become the first mainstream wearable to do so.
Numbers on demand: Signal Ring
Signal Ring takes its readings optically from the finger, using sensors and algorithms the company says it built over three years and tested on thousands of subjects. Two modes share the load. A guided “Zen Mode” handles calm, seated check-ins, while background tracking runs through the day to catch how a workout or an afternoon coffee moves your numbers.
A live session can record blood pressure without pause from inside the app, and every reading arrives with context meant to explain what moved it. Continuous data like that appeals to me far more than a lone morning measurement, because pressure swings all day and one snapshot tells you almost nothing about the pattern.
Where the Oura Ring and Apple Watch stop short
“One of the most important measurements in modern medicine is still taken with technology invented roughly 150 years ago,” says Tom Voss, co-founder and CEO of Vital Signals.
Five Apple Watch models can screen for hypertension under watchOS 26, from the Series 9 up to the Ultra 3. They send an alert if they spot signs of trouble, and that’s where they stop. No systolic or diastolic figure ever appears. Oura works much the same way on the alert front.
Oura’s newer Blood Pressure Signals, part of the Ring 5 push, track your pressure patterns overnight to surface warning signs. Daytime trends still lean on a separate cuff, since the app asks you to log third-party cuff readings by hand. You also pay a subscription to see most of Oura’s data ($69.99 a year on top of a $349 to $400 ring).
The deal: $399, October, and no subscription
Preorders opened July 16 at $399, with a sizing kit going out this month so buyers can nail the fit before the rings ship. Vital Signals expects the first units to arrive in October. The company says no subscription is required, and the titanium band is built for all-day wear.
$399 puts it right on top of an Oura Ring 5, except you’re not signing up for a recurring bill afterward. For anyone who’s soured on smart-ring subscriptions, and plenty of owners have, a flat one-time price carries weight. Skip the fee across a few years and the maths starts to favor the ring you own outright.
The accuracy question
Vital Signals says the ring’s accuracy held up in a 451-person clinical study across multiple sites, and that it meets ISO 81060-2, the international standard used to validate blood pressure cuffs. More studies are underway. Compliance with a recognized cuff standard is a strong claim for a finger-worn device, and worth taking seriously.
Skepticism is fair, though. Blood pressure has traditionally been measured at the upper arm for good reason, and reading it from the small vessels of a finger is new ground. One validation study is a start, not a track record, so I’d want to see the follow-up data and independent testing before treating the numbers as gospel.
Who should care, straight from the CEO
Mr. Moss isn’t pitching the ring at everyone. He points it at older users and people whose doctors have flagged them as at risk of hypertension. For younger, lower-risk buyers who trust their numbers, his advice was blunt. “Just buy an Oura or an Apple Watch,” says Mr. Moss.
That candor comes across as a strength to me, though it also positions the ring as a specialist tool. Bloomberg’s write-up suggests it trails the all-rounders in areas like sleep tracking, so treat it as a blood pressure instrument first and a lifestyle wearable a distant second. Buyers chasing one do-everything wearable should look elsewhere.
Background: a founder’s health scare and a crowded shelf
Mr. Moss started Vital Signals after a life-threatening hypertensive event left him rattled by how little he could see about his own blood pressure afterward.
Without the right technology, I couldn’t actually see what my blood pressure was doing, or what was moving it, whether it was a workout, coffee or a stressful day. Signal Ring is designed so people won’t have to guess the way I did. It’s giving people a more convenient and reliable way to track and understand their blood pressure.
I still have two questions about any smart ring. Battery longevity is the big one, since owners across brands have watched capacity fade inside a year, and a swelling cell on your finger is nobody’s idea of fun. The press release also stays quiet on FDA clearance, so where the ring stands with US regulators is worth checking before you commit $399.