I’m a sucker for wellness products and jewellery, so when you combine the two, I really start listening.
For years, fitness wearables have either been extremely sporty or deliberately futuristic. Useful, yes. Extremely chic? Not always.
WHOOP is now making a case for a third option with Meridian, its most elevated band yet.
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Designed to look more like a piece of jewellery than traditional fitness hardware, the new Meridian collection is made from waterproof stainless steel Milanese mesh and has a tapered silhouette, magnetic adjuster and refined proportions.
In other words, it is designed to sit comfortably alongside your existing jewellery rather than competing with it.
Which has me increasingly interested in how I will style my stack with WHOOP.
According to the brand, 80 per cent of its female members wear their WHOOP alongside wrist jewellery, while 35 per cent have removed their device for special occasions.
Meridian appears to be WHOOP’s answer to that styling dilemma: a band designed to be visible, wearable and polished enough to keep on around the clock.
The collection comes in four finishes: Gold, Rose Gold, Alloy, which is the silver-toned option, and Matte Black. Each is priced at $229.
The campaign was shot in Paris and features global athletes Virgil van Dijk and Antoine Dupont alongside four women working across creative industries: culinary creative Zélikha Dinga, vintage curator and stylist Salima Boufelfel, jewellery designer Charlotte Chesnais and floral artist Yurika Moriya.
What is WHOOP?
WHOOP is a human performance wearable designed to help users understand aspects of their health, recovery, sleep and training.
Unlike a traditional smartwatch, WHOOP is centred around performance and physiological insights rather than being an all-purpose device for notifications, calls and apps.
The wearable is designed to be worn continuously, allowing users to build up a picture of patterns across sleep, recovery and activity over time.
What does WHOOP do?
WHOOP collects physiological data while you wear it and uses that information to provide insights around areas such as sleep, recovery and strain.
The idea is to help users understand how their body is responding to training and everyday activity, rather than simply counting steps or recording workouts.
For anyone who enjoys tracking their routines, it can provide another layer of information to consider when thinking about exercise, rest and sleep.
Is WHOOP the right fitness wearable for you?
That depends on what you want from a wearable. WHOOP is particularly geared towards people interested in tracking training, recovery and sleep and who are happy to wear a dedicated performance device.
If you primarily want smartwatch functions such as messages, calls, apps or a traditional watch face, another type of wearable may be a better match.
But if the appeal is understanding your sleep and recovery alongside your workouts, WHOOP offers a more performance-focused approach.
And with Meridian, there is now another consideration: whether you actually like the thing sitting on your wrist.
How does WHOOP differ from other wearable fitness devices?
WHOOP is designed primarily around continuous performance and recovery tracking, rather than combining fitness tracking with smartwatch functions. Its approach focuses on metrics and insights around areas such as sleep, recovery and strain.
The Meridian collection also takes a different look aesthetically. Instead of making the wearable look like another piece of sporting equipment, WHOOP has designed the band with jewellery styling in mind.
That might sound like a small detail, but anyone who has ever taken off a fitness tracker before getting dressed for dinner will understand why it matters.
At $229, Meridian is the it-girl accessory end of the WHOOP offering, with four finishes designed to work with different jewellery styles.
Gold and Rose Gold make sense for anyone who lives in warm metals, Alloy offers a classic silver look, while Matte Black is the option for a sharper, more minimalist finish.
For me, the appeal is less about pretending a fitness tracker is suddenly a bracelet and more about making something I already wear every day look like it belongs with the rest of my jewellery.
Wellness in its jewellery era has me clicking add to cart, multiple times.
