the future

Gucci Is Getting Into the Wearable-Tech Game

Will.i.am.
Will.i.am. Photo: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

Will.i.am took the stage today at Baselworld, the luxury-watch trade show in Switzerland, to announce that he is collaborating with Gucci on a wearable device. The so-called “smartband” can make phone calls, send texts, and play music, among other features. “In developing together a device that is both fashionable and technologically advanced, we will create something that is unique in the marketplace,” he told Vogue. But not only is Will.i.am at the vanguard of wearables, he’s also pioneering a new vocabulary. “From the very start, I coined the term ‘fashionology,’ a merging of the worlds of fashion and technology, which is exactly what this collaboration with Gucci represents,” he added. Though engineering a complex wearable device is surely no mean feat, trying to make “fashionology” happen seems like the tougher battle.

Gucci Is Getting Into the Wearable-Tech Game