Most ancillary devices, like wearables, sell you on how much you love technology and try to bring you closer to it. The fashion-forward Altruis from Kovert Designs is meant to remove you from the spell of tech and put you in a more meditative, connected-to-the-here-and-now frame of mind. Unlike its closest competitor Ringly, the Altruis is designed to limit the demands your phone places on you. Instead of providing a constant technological tug and alerting you to activity across your social media accounts, it lets in only a select few who try to reach you with calls, texts, emails, and WhatsApp messages. Starting at $447, though, that peace of mind doesn't come cheap, and it might be lost when you realize that not all the alerts you want to see come through.

Design and Pricing
The Altruis is part of the small-but-growing category of actually wearable tech that mostly takes the form of jewelry. Unlike the Apple Watch and other smartwatches that try to replicate the functions of your phone and put them on your wrist, smart jewelry is mostly notifications-based. It appeals primarily to women who often do not carry their phones in pockets but rather in bags. That can mean they either miss dozens of messages over the course of an evening out or navigate drinks and conversation with a phone in hand and in the way.

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