Sports Watch & Bike Computer Update, Garmin Rumours and more

V2.6.42 – 25 June 2025

It’s going to be an exciting year for sports technology. Garmin will likely introduce many new watches, new types of tech components, plus up to two(!) new product categories. Apple will plod along, and Garmin’s other competitors will occasionally surprise us. US tariffs will confound and frustrate our predictions.

TARIFF WARS UPDATE:

US tariffs will dramatically impact new wearable releases in 2025. Worst case: entirely shutting down the US market for certain new product landings after June.

A 90-day stay of execution for tariffs exceeding 10% (except for China, 145%. China Electronics attract 10%)

Products from the EU and Taiwan face relatively low(!) duties when imported into the USA. Garmin, Polar, Wahoo, and, to some extent, Suunto have an advantage over Apple and Coros, which are either manufactured in China or heavily reliant on the US market. **If** 145% Chinese tariffs are in place, importing a smartwatch from China to the USA would not be economically viable. Countries could delay the release of new models for a year or hope to find a window when tariffs offer exemptions. Expect to see companies rushing summer launches forward to beat the re-imposition of high tariffs in June 2025. Companies cannot transship via other countries to avoid tariffs – that’s illegal and not how tariffs work.

Garmin plans 2025 updates for several key Edge, Forerunner and Fenix models.

Instinct 3/E and Forerunner 570 have already underwhelmed us. Still, the underwhelmingness has already been stopped by the top-end tri-watch Forerunner 970, and I fully expect next-gen Fenix 8 Pro, possibly accompanied by a Fenix 8 LTE, to move into the overwhelming category. The best mid-sized bike computer, the Edge 850, is also expected to be available in the Summer. So, all that new sports tech goodness will be with us between March and September 2025, in approximately six months of glorious madness. Indeed, tariff issues will likely expedite much of this process if the units can be produced.

This Article

Here, we cover all the recently released sports watches, bike computers, and expected next-gen models, i.e. Garmin (Edge, Forerunner, Instinct, Venu, Fenix/Epix), Polar (Grit, Vantage, Pacer), Coros (Vertix, Apex, Pace Pro, Dura) and more.

The information here is typically based on industry discussions, dual-sourced rumours, high-quality leaks, the extrapolation of past product release cycles, broader technological trends, and their availability. Almost all the new products I discuss here will happen, but precise timings and names are never set in stone.

I never include info that contravenes NDAs.

Regular readers are aware that this article is frequently updated. If you’re here for the first time and interested in ‘future sports devices and feature sports tech developments,’ this post is a good read, discussing new technologies and features rather than specific watch models.

RECAP: Recent Highlights

Key Trend: The latest models of key sports watches have been updated with the widespread adoption of AMOLED screens and dual-frequency, multi-constellation GNSS chipsets. Additionally, there’s a noticeable increase in the use of high-quality materials at more affordable prices. Most brands have transitioned to a newer generation of more energy-efficient heart rate sensors capable of measuring HRV, ECG, SpO2, and peripheral wellness metrics, such as temperature. All these hardware improvements are trickling down to the lower ends of each vendor’s ranges. The significance of sports physiology continues to gain attention beyond Garmin, Firstbeat, and Polar— a trend that should not be underestimated in its importance. However, there have been very few noteworthy additions to the range of sports physiology features other than Suunto’s DDFA. It seems we are close to a stage of maturity in both commonly used technology and the sports functionalities that watches offer.

RETROSPECTIVE: Garmin’s 2024 – a recap

Very briefly, here is what we had last year.

Fenix 8 represents the death of the old MIP display tech. The real MIP-screened Fenix is now a niche product relegated to the Solar tech backwater of more serious adventurers. Fenix 8 is Epix 3 in all but name – predicted here three years ago.

• ✔️Lily 2 (Q1.2024) plus ✔️ HRM-FIT, ✔️Lily 2 Active Q3.2024, ✔️Forerunner 165 (14 Feb 2024), ✔️Edge 1050 (June 25, 2024), ✔️Enduro 3/2s – (27 August), ✔️Fenix 8 – (27 August), ✔️Fenix E – (27 August)

What’s Next From Garmin for 2025

OK. This is what you came for: Summer 2025 will be exciting for Garmin lovers.

The Fenix brand targets a 12- to 18-month annual refresh cycle, and the last major leak revealed that one of the next-gen Fenix 8 (Pro) models will feature microLED display technology. The early Tactix, D2 Mach, and Quatix watches are variants of the Fenix 8, featuring a honed set of capabilities tailored to their target niche markets. Garmin will double down on the multi-variant strategy with comparable Instinct variants across the same markets as the Fenix variants, i.e., an Instinct 3 Tactical pairs with the Tactix 8. There are also related versions for diving and aviation, based on Instinct technology but not under the Instinct brand.

The Edge 850 is a smaller version of the existing large-format 1050, and the Edge 550 is its more affordable, touch-free sibling.

2025’s Forerunners mark the start of the next generation of lighter running and triathlon watches.

• ✔️ Instinct 3 Series (6 January 2025) – the Surf, Camo, Tactical and other variants will follow later in the year. There will not be a 3x…it’s the existing 50mm size.
  • ✔️Descent G2 (12 Feb 2025) – Based on Instinct with Fenix buttons and dive features.
  • ✔️Instinct 3 TACTICAL  (24 April 2025)
• ✔️ Tactix 8: Feb 2025 – AMOLED + Solar + Solar:AB
• ✔️ Vivoactive 6: April 2025
• ✔️ Forerunner 970 (15-May 2025).
• ✔️ Forerunner 570 (15-May 2025).
• ✔️ ️Venu X1 (June 2025)
• ✔️ Quatix 8:  25 June 2025 (Based on Fenix tech)
• POSSIBLE Forerunner 270 (June 2025?, not rumoured, will happen at some point)
• POSSIBLE Forerunner 370 (June 2025?, not rumoured, will happen at some point)
• SPECULATED Forerunner 375/975 LTE (2026 after LTE is added to either Fenix Pro or Venu)
• LEAKED D2 Mach 2: Q3.2025 (Based on Instinct tech)
• LIKELY Edge 850/550 (guess Q3.2025 with rumours – Q2 has been leaked as UNlikely)
• Edge 150 (guess Q3.2025, skipping 140) This is the Edge MTB
• RUMOURED Fenix 8 LTE (as soon as September 2025, tentative leak – likely will be called the pro version, not LTE)
  • LIKELY Fenix 8 Pro (Aug 2025 – Jan 2026) leaked in two separate places
    
• Fenix 8 MicroLED (Aug 2025-Jan 2026) – leaked in three separate places (date approx, but may be a proof of concept)
• ✔️ LEAKED Venu 4  (Oct 2025 – date is speculation, leaked) – this was Venu X1
• Venu X1 Pro (X1 with LTE, vaguely rumoured, predicted Jan 2026 at earliest)
• Descent MK4i: (2026/7, prediction)
• MARQ 3 – (2026/7, prediction)
• Swim 3 – Due. But the long replacement cycle is likely based on 270/275 after its release. OOS in May 2025 (2026 prediction)
• Rally 2 (Q3.2025) – power meter pedals (good rumours)
• ? Forerunner 755 4G LTE/5G REDCAP aka FR965s or FR965 Pro or FR965 5G (see FR970)
• Refreshed Accessories like Garmin HRM 600
  • ✔️HRM 200,
  • ✔️HRM 600
  • ✔️ Varia Vue: 8 April 2025
  • ✔️ Garmin TACX Alpine 25 June 2025
  • Garmin Index Sleep Monitor (might be like Whoop…but the clue is in the word SLEEP…trusted leak to this site…soon)
  • Next Gen Varia Vision – I believe we will see this in 2025
  • Other new areas.

Garmin’s Next-Gen technologies will be these…see the image below!

• microLED (2025, for sure!)
• 5G REDCAP/LTE (more advanced, possibly by 2025)…will happen, a matter of when, but it will feature safety-focused and group-focused enhancements. The latest technology is no longer referred to as LTE (4G LTE) – it has been superseded by 5G RedCap. Rumours indicate that Garmin will continue to use 4G LTE in 2025.
• Continuous ECG sports and wellness insights (chest strap-based, maybe for Garmin Connect+ in 2025, like Fourth Frontier X2)
• New NIRS/optical sensing abilities (sweat, lactate, creatinine, blood pressure) may be available by 2025; it’s just a matter of when.
• Satellite messaging on-watch (further ahead than 2025, perhaps; Apple is rumoured to do this in 2025 – a blow for Fenix and inReach)
• Solar AMOLED (as soon as 2025, or never)
• Solid State Battery…will happen, a case of when
• Heads-Up display…I’m pretty sure about this for 2025.

The most straightforward cycling product to predict last year was the Edge 140, but it did not materialise and will likely be skipped for the Edge 150 if Garmin decides to remain at the ‘low’ end of the market.

Key Trends: Expect 2025 to be an exciting year. Existing software and hardware features will be partially trickled down from the top-end models to the middle and lower-end models.

Expect at least one new technology from Garmin, such as microLED. Perhaps expect Garmin to add consistency to its product Series with an ‘E’ model in each.

Finally, expect Garmin to continue using premium materials to justify its price premiums on some models. See Garmin continue to boost smart features that leverage updated microphones, speakers and voice automation.

Garmin Runners & Triathletes

The AMOLED transition is now effectively complete on the running/triathlon side, thanks to the introduction of the Forerunner 165. MIP/solar has become a niche running feature; perhaps only Enduro will continue to use this technology.

Currently Garmin offers: FR55 (42mm, MIP)> FR165 (43mm) > FR265/265s > FR570(42/47) > FR970 and Enduro 3 (large, MIP, Solar)

I view the FR570 as a continuation of the older 645/655 model, which we thought was discontinued. IE is a high-end model that is pared back in some ways. This leaves the entry-level and mid-level in Garmin’s range as the next to be updated. We will probably see it transition to something along these lines to handle two sizes and AMOLED as the two lower models focus solely on running and the higher ones on multisport and other niches:

Garmin Next Stage (2025-26): FR170 (43mm) > FR270(42/47) > FR570(42/47) > FR970 and Enduro 3 (large, MIP, Solar)

The subsequent move will be to add PRO versions. I suspect these will be the FRxx5 models or existing models labelled as Pro. Incrementing model numbers in the future by 5 rather than 10 might give Garmin a few more years with this numbering scheme, and the PRO name explicitly stated is more meaningful to consumers (perhaps why Garmin will NOT do it!). We might see this emerge as the PRO models bag 4G LTE/5G RedCap without having ‘LTE’ specifically added to the name.

Garmin Stage II (2026-27): FR170 (43mm) > FR270(42/47) > FR570(42/47)/575 > FR970 (47)/975(42) and Enduro 3/3 Pro (large, MIP, Solar)

Perhaps later we get this..

Garmin Stage III – After Stage II, I would see microLED (2027) as the next boost of tech innovation perhaps also 5G RedCap/Satellite (2027) on the very top Forerunner models once proved on other models.

Enduro is a Fenix MIP solar device targeted at trail and ultra runners. MIP will only be replaced if AMOLED+Solar becomes available.

Adventurers

For adventurers, the Fenix 8 and Fenix E are high-end products featuring maps that have undergone iterations and tweaks to accommodate the specific needs of niche markets, including marine, diving, aviation, driving, and military applications. It seems sensible to assume that the Instinct Range will mirror Fenix in terms of its technologies and target customer demographics.

Solar+AMOLED

Garmin secured patents for SOLAR (AM)OLED in 2022, which may be the new feature innovation for high-end watches in 2025-27, alongside 4G LTE/5G RedCap/Satellite connectivity.

In my opinion, Solar has its place only in MIP-screen watches and possibly on bike computers. The usefulness of SOLAR is restricted by the fact that sufficiently awesome battery lives are possible without solar. So, do we ever need solar on FENIX AMOLED watches? I think not. That said, we will see solar Fenix models despite there not being a widespread need for them. We’ll probably see Solar AMOLED watches driven purely by their likely profitability.

At the start of many recent years, it has been tricky to see enough options for Garmin to introduce in the year ahead. That’s not the case in 2025. Various mini-technology cycles and capabilities have converged to provide Garmin with numerous existing and emerging options for 2025-7.

AMOLED was the next big thing in 2023-4, and an under-the-radar addition was a new generation of more energy-efficient dual-frequency GNSS chipsets. The ‘next big things’ for 2025-6 are micro-LED displays and more advanced 5G/Satellite capabilities. However, the technology for the former (on watches) will not be ready at scale and cost until mid-to-late 2025. It will not be ready for the mass market (like the Apple Watch) until 2026-27, due to limited production capacity, high failure rates, and resulting high component costs.

Smart features on sports watches

important: Garmin’s iOS Victory – EU DMA will disadvantage Apple Watch

Given its restrictive access to iPhone features, I’m still unconvinced that Garmin can produce meaningful 5G features beyond those it already supports. That said, December 2023 revealed insights into the new CIQ capabilities for 2024, providing substantial clues about the upcoming headline features for new watches. They mostly hint at new 5G/LTE capabilities rather than anything else. The comparable CIQ8 announcement in late 2024 gave no such clues, merely offering improvements to Garmin’s technical ecosystem and developer productivity features.

Connect IQ 8 (CIQ 8)- what’s announced and known about System 8 for new 2025 watches

The current Elevate Gen 5 HR sensor (2023) is a recent innovation with on-demand ECG capabilities. That tech will eventually be rolled out to most watch geographic markets and Product Series from now until the end of 2026, but I’m not at all excited by the prospect and suspect that much of the sports market won’t be either. Garmin’s wrist-based ECG is highly limited and nothing like what is offered by Fourth Frontier X2 or indeed by the passive nature already provided by Apple’s Afib – Garmin lacks passive ECG/AFib detection, requiring a manual reading, which is nowhere near as convenient or practical as the active background measurement offered by Apple Watch for quite some time. Perhaps that’s a feature for Elevate 6? Hardly exciting, though, is it?

With Whoop and Samsung offering blood pressure trends and with other rumours that Apple will follow suit in 2025, Garmin will likely respond in 2025-26

Next-gen biomarker sensors

So, where are the next-gen HR sensors that can sense novel biomarkers? Apple is supposedly lining up its new sensor package for 2025, so it’s plausible that conservative Garmin could sneak ahead of cautious Apple. Things will become more apparent in Q3. 2025 *if* the more aggressive Asian brands introduce the same new sensor technologies. Where they lead, Garmin and Apple follow soon after. The following link discusses some of these novel biomarkers that were relatively advanced in 2023, but are still not in the mass market.

Next Gen Sports Sensors for 2023 and beyond – Lactate, blood pressure, hydration, creatinine

Wellness/Medical Features

Blood pressure TREND sensing is the next likely addition to watches’ sensor capabilities.

Alongside this, all wearable platforms will start to integrate more closely with medical health record platforms – simplistically, your doctor or insurer could have access to your data much more easily (with your permission)..

Suunto, Polar, Wahoo, Hammerhead, Coros & Other Sport-focused GPS Watches

What’s Next for Garmin’s Competitors?

• Feature catch-up
• Fleshing out the competencies in individual feature sets
• Deeper physiology
• More refined mapping

I expect nothing inspiring in the tech sense here in 2025, unless Suunto or Polar reenters the Wear OS market. The regular new iterations might be exciting in a marketing sense if they are competitively positioned. Those companies have no direct way to get support for on-device payments (see the linked article for a workaround) and Spotify inside the watch, so you would have thought they would have to jump on the Wear OS wagon at some point in the next five years or be left a long way behind on the smart features they can offer. Set against that is the closing of the latest versions of WearOS to Samsung and Google-only products.

Coros

This is speculative information

• Apex 3 AMOLED, June 2025 (MIP was stated by a company representative)
• Vertix 3 + 3 AMOLED, 2025
• Coros Dura 2, 2026

Coros’ next move should be to complete its AMOLED expansion to the extent necessary. The only apparent AMOLED omission is Apex 3, which I expect to see this year. Vertix must continue the company’s tradition of market-leading battery life, retain MIP, possibly similar to Garmin, and offer solar or size variants.

I don’t think we will see a Coros Solar watch. Instead, the best we can expect to see is a MIP version of Vertix 3 remaining alongside Vertix 3 AMOLED. Still, the rest of the range will eventually transition to AMOLED, although this Reddit comment suggests otherwise; we will see!

Musing: I don’t see any new watch sub-brands created by Coros. Instead, seeing a larger version of Pace 3 (like Garmin Enduro) or a smaller version of Vertix 2 makes more sense. This would follow a similar theme to what the company has done with the Apex 2 Pro, successor to its smaller Apex 2 sibling.

Maybe we will see something completely different.

The new Coros DURA bike computer features a solar boost, complementing its market-leading battery life. It’s not the prettiest bike computer, but it’s one of the easiest to operate, thanks to a Digital Crown on the side. However, it’s a bit of a mess internally, which needs to be sorted out. I suspect it hasn’t sold well and won’t sell well in the future, even when ‘fixed.’ Perhaps the company won’t add Dura 2 in 2026. If so…where is its future? It could be just another niche player trying to keep at the higher pricing tiers.

Polar

This is speculative information

• ✔️ Grit X2 Pro (Titan) – 20 March 2024
• ✔️ Polar 360 – May 2024
• ✔️ Vantage M3
• ✔️A Polar Band as yet unnamed, perhaps some combination of the existing B2B 360 strap, Polar Elixir and Polar LOOP. Competitive to Whoop
• Pacer 2 AMOLED, 2 PRO AMOLED Q4.2024 – this was the Vantage M3
• Unite, 2025???
• ✔️ Grit X2 – June 2025

Next up from Polar might be AMOLED versions of the Pacer (Pro) and Unite (fitness) watches. It’s unclear if or how a next-gen Pacer can be differentiated from Vantage M3.

A new venture from Polar would most likely be a Grit M2, i.e., an X2 outdoors watch with maps made of lower-quality materials. This could be priced well below the Garmin Fenix E to be attractive, but how far down the price scale would Polar have to go to be seen as offering better value than the extremely affordable Amazfit T-Rex 2? I don’t know the answer, but there is scope for something here now that Garmin has laid out its stall with Instinct and Fenix; then there’s just the pesky problem of Suunto’s excellent Race S.

On the other hand, we could speculatively say that Unite might be a poor performer in terms of profit generation and could be skipped or dropped.

Suunto

Suunto is the most likely to surprise us, as evidenced last year by the excellent Suunto RACE and Suunto RUN watches (possibly the best outside of Garmin) and the Shokz-like Suunto Wing headphones. Polar is taking a similar but distinct route by opening its platform to Sennheiser’s optical HR earbuds… Suunto has also opened up its app to Xiaomi.

People forget that Suunto is no longer Finnish. Its Chinese owner also owns the Haylou brand. It’s possible that a dramatic cross-branding of watches in the stable could effectively lead to the introduction of newer, more affordable Suunto watches (Edit: Suunto RUN might indicate more of this to come).

Suunto RUN features new internals and is not adopting the Wear OS route. They seem to have dialled in a future on their proprietary OS, and Suunto RUN has a new iteration of that indicting that is the direction of travel for the company.

This is speculative information

• ✔️New Suunto Vertical SOLAR, March 2024 (minor iteration replacing non-solar version from May 2023)
• ✔️New Suunto OCEAN
• ✔️ New Suunto Race S, (larger Race was Q4.2023)
• ✔️ Suunto RUN – 13 May 2025
• Suunto VERTICAL AMOLED aka 9 PEAK PRO AMOLED H2.2025

It appears that the Suunto Race and Race S AMOLED are successes. This might give Suunto the confidence to lower prices with new AMOLED Vertical and 9 Peak Pro iterations in 2025. Suunto could conceivably introduce a cut-down version of RACE with lower-quality materials (Suunto RUN!). Still, that would need to offer something extra to the lower end of the market to stand out; perhaps Suunto considers its app store sufficient differentiation? A: No, the app store was mysteriously absent from Suunto RUN ,but Alipay was added in China and offline music support globally.

TAG HEUER

This is speculative information.

I only mention the TAG brand here as the company is the most likely to be the first to release microLED.

The TAG Heuer Calibre E5 was expected in H1. 2024, but it is now believed to have been delayed until 2025.

TAG was known to be prototyping with AUO microLED screens and would have been the first to release that technology in volume. Like other players, high screen costs due to yield issues have delayed the adoption of the technology. However, it was thought that TAG could absorb such high component costs in its high sale price.

Wahoo

This is speculative information

• ✔️Wahoo TRACKR
• ✔️Wahoo ELEMNT ACE Dec 2024
• ✔️ Wahoo KICKR Run super-smart treadmill Q3.2024 (USA) – Q1.2025 (globally)
• ✔️ Wahoo ELEMNT BOLT 3 April 2025
• ✔️ Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM 3 April 2025
• Later in 2025, Wahoo may also update peripheral products like the TICKR HRMs, and rebrand as new TRACKR variants. CLIMB 2 and HEADWIND2 are possibilities; the former could be steerable, and the latter could fill feature gaps such as working in pairs or reacting to power changes.

Wahoo’s most likely way forward is with a small and medium-sized version of the new ACE, built on an entirely new hardware base. ACE received far worse press than it deserved, giving the impression that the product was further away from being a ‘proper’ product than it was.

Most likely, in 2025, we will see new Wahoo TRACKR HRMs. The initial TRACKR was the base model, so expect one or two more heavily featured ones in H2.2025.

We must also be hopeful for new pedal power technology that builds on LOOK or SHIMANO compatibility.

CLIMB seems like a decent product with no obvious way to enhance its features beyond steerability, unlike HEADWIND, which could benefit from additional smarts, such as working in pairs and auto-adjusting strength based on POWER.

The company is also rolling its smart treadmill out beyond the USA this year. That’s probably a sizeable manufacturing and distribution task for them.

Wahoo is now on a firm financial footing; regular sales clean the company of Rival stock. I had hoped for a RIVAL 2, which was previously planned, but an interview with DCR and Chip (CEO) says no new watch is due. Rival has been sold at $/£99 on a few occasions – fantastic value. Wahoo could produce more and sell for minimal profits to undermine the competition and keep its brand highlighted. As of April 2025, it has been sold out globally and may have been discontinued.

Hammerhead

Released

• ✔️ Karoo 3 

These will become a part of the SRAM groupsets. Don’t expect Karoo 4 until 2026.

A possibility would be for a smaller-format Karoo in 2025, anytime from May to October (guess)

Apple

This is speculative information.

• ✔️Apple Watch 10 – Sep 2024.
• Apple Watch 11 – Sep 2025 (just a guess 😉 )
• Apple Watch Ultra 3 – Sep 2025 (likely and interesting)
• Apple Watch 11e/SE 3 –  September at the latest, possibly earlier (Q2.2025), possibly with watchOS 26 (!)

Rumoured features include Globalstar low-earth-orbit satellite connectivity for the Watch Ultra 3, which would be used for emergency purposes, but possibly also for sending SMS messages. The same rumours could be confused with CONNECTED satellite connectivity via a paired iPhone. Watch 11 is rumoured to have both a new blood pressure TREND sensor (i.e. useless but possibly a next-gen oHR sensor that would probably also add back a proper way to measure SpO2) and 5G connectivity (not 4G LTE)

Please don’t get excited by features the Apple rumour sites want to see or the hardware upgrades they won’t get. Micro LED screens and super-sensors WILL come, but that’s for 2025/6.

Google

Google will iterate the Pixel watch annually, containing Fitbit technology and sports-like features.

The Fitbit brand will only continue in software and on lower-end fitness trackers. There will be no more Fitbit watches. Versa and Sense are effectively discontinued but Charge, Inspire and Ace bands should continue

• August 2026: Pixel 5, 41mm and 45mm

Interestingly, Google seems to have been working very diligently over the last year, and the next set of Pixel firmware on Pixel 3 looks highly polished and broadly in line with the running, recovery, and sleep features on the Apple Watch.

Samsung

• Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 (Standard) – July
• Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 (Ultra) – July

2025 again sees the sports tech brands & products at an exciting juncture.

The era of companies quickly adopting technological leaps to expand global markets has ended.

Significant advancements are still possible, but are ever more challenging to achieve, and the certainty of ongoing economic growth in Europe and the USA is gone. Supply chain disruptions (China sanctions) and increasingly regionalised/deglobalised markets will make smartwatch development more challenging than in years gone by.

• Garmin has filled all the main product niches. Looking at geographical expansion, can a US-Taiwan-based company improve market share in underperforming markets like China? Probably not.
• Polar still has no running track mode, and once admitted, it can’t compete against Garmin in triathlon. Its web platform and app are undergoing. A return to Wear OS is an unlikely possibility.
• Suunto seems to be moving in many right directions—aesthetics, price, and on-watch apps. Its Chinese owners can likely make the Suunto brand sell more in Asian markets and hence have more confidence in expanding the brand beyond what we currently see with Haylou (part of the same group). It will need more than third-party watch faces from its app store or a Wear OS model to become a key player.
• Coros has done very well in the last few years, but faces the dilemma of incorporating competitively priced modern hardware at its chosen price points. I don’t see it making much profit from Vertix/Apex. It’s a small company with a good public profile that profits in the volume game with Pace 3/Pace PRO. That volume game requires noticeably lower prices than Garmin, and it requires Garmin not to care too much about what Coros does…or Garmin will crush it (FR175/FR275). Pace 3 Pro exemplifies that Coros intends to compete with Garmin in terms of price, with features that aren’t as good. Coros risks disaster if it makes one fundamental mistake with its limited range of products. For example, DURA’s faltering launch indicates that the company can self-implode without help, but it will be OK for now.
• Wahoo has many technological ways forward for its excellent product range, but the indoor bike training market must not be the cash generator it once was. There’s probably little scope for Kickr Move 2 to differ in any material sense from the current model. The company is refocusing its online training services, and competition is hot at the lower end of the trainer market. So, can Wahoo make a financial go of three new bike computers, some accessories and a treadmill for 2025/26? IDK. It won’t be easy.
• Smaller companies like Sigma, Bryton, igSport, and Magene will continue to innovate as they catch up with the technology. Still, I can’t see them progressing much in their Western Europe or North America market shares. Magene is most likely to be the ‘best of the rest.’ All seem to have relatively good hardware and core features, but their ecosystems lack punch.
• Even lesser-known smartwatch and sports watch brands emanate from Southeast Asia and India. It would just take one of them to get some financial backing and buy Polar to become a global player rather than a struggling regional player few in the West have heard of or trust.

Smart Fitness, Wear OS, WatchOS & Similar Smarts

As I’ve now said for several years that the end-game is: Apple’s watchOS vs Google/Samsung’s Wear OS vs Domination of low prices by Asian brands (China/India). That end game seems clearer as we start 2025, although Garmin continues to fare much better than I expected.

Proprietary sports platforms like Garmin, Polar, Suunto, Wahoo, (Coros?) will still be here in 3 year’s time. But…how big will they be?

As ever, increasingly competent SMART watches will continue to eat into the traditional customer base of sports watches: high-end Pixel 3, Apple Watch 11, Apple Watch 11e/ SE Gen 3, and Samsung Galaxy Watch7. They improve yearly, and Garmin’s evident feature dominance is continuously blurred and stagnating in some sense.

The long-awaited Wear OS bounce has happened. Samsung and Google get first pick with the latest versions of Wear OS before competitors. They have decided to ringfence the entire market, and the 3rd party alternatives from years gone by will become ever less common and with dated Wear OS versions.

Something significant needs to happen to disrupt markets and change the medium-term trajectory. Whether it is a war over Taiwan or the EU forcing Apple to open up iMessage to a standard API, without such disruptions, the inevitable trajectory is for the Apple vs Google/Samsung stand-off. With Trump’s re-election, disruptions are closer than you might think; you only have to look at China’s burgeoning stockpiles, which show that the country is expecting something terrible to happen. Tariffs will also have consequences. His words imply that he doesn’t understand tariffs.

Huami (Amazfit/Zepp), Huawei, Realme, Redmi, TicWatch, and others will continue in the battle of the budget smartwatches. Several of these have significant sales figures in some Far Eastern markets, and some products might even be described as increasingly competent – e.g. T-Rex 3. Indeed, we now see Chinese companies building significant competencies and sales volumes in their domestic markets before using that strength in other geographic markets; ‘dumping’ is an issue in non-smartwatch markets (EVs, solar panels); maybe that will also happen to smart tech

Many companies cannot cross-sell watches with a top smartphone from the same brand. Even those with a decent partner smartphone like Huawei face other issues – Huawei is effectively excluded from many Western markets for political/security reasons, so I don’t cover them here as a rule.

Bike Computers – Hope or Hopeless?

Garmin dominates this sector, with Wahoo as the leading challenger brand. The long-term impact of SRAM/Hammerhead Karoo 3 remains uncertain, but it is viewed as a hopeful contender with realistic success potential. Lower-end brands, such as Lezyne or budget, high-spec options like Bryton (Taiwan)/Magene (China),  Mio Cyclo (MiTAC, Taiwan), Navihood, TRIMM, CYCPLUS and iGPSPORT (Korea) appear to face challenges to get even the smallest of footholds in non-Asian markets

Wahoo, adept at maintaining secrecy, is not expected to leak information, so keep quietly hoping for exciting developments with the third-gen ROAM/BOLT. Despite already offering three sizes of performance satnavs, Wahoo seems to cover most commercial bases in the bike computer market. Apart from iterative model strategies, there are no significantly new gaps for profitable sales of bike computers. Perhaps Wahoo could make a Varia-like smart radar and light system (edit: 🙂 ).

While Apple, Google, and potentially Asian players in domestic markets may dominate the global watch market, Garmin leads the bike computers. Many challengers exist to Garmin’s Edge Series, but only Wahoo & SRAM-Hammerhead seem to be coherent challengers with decent marketing and tech combos. Whilst they lack in the feature count stakes, they are catching up, but catching up is difficult. Will Bolt 3/Roam 3/ACE withstand an onslaught from Edge 550/850/1050? It’s an exciting market position to debate as Garmin Edge will NOT pull further ahead regarding features or market share. Their tech is already well-advanced, and their market position is too dominant. Catching up in each respect is more straightforward than for Garmin to pull further ahead.

Smaller companies face a challenging task in getting close to Garmin in cycling. The likelihood of a new product eventually outperforming Garmin is higher if it’s Android-based, owing to the potential advantages of easier app integration and a shorter development cycle, as seen with the Karoo. Stages seemed interested in this competition with its DASH L200/M200. Still, its bankruptcy has dealt a fatal blow to the DASH models, and it is unlikely that the new owner, Giant, will pursue bike computer development in any way but tokenistically…if at all. The old Stages bike computers would need a design overhaul from the ground up.

Garmin’s focus on higher price points leaves plenty of room for smaller companies like Bryton, Sigma, Lezyne, iGSport and CatEye to compete in the lower-priced, less profitable arena. Ancient rumours about Polar releasing a bike computer are wishful thinking. Phones are increasingly used as recreational bike computers, and they do a good job at it – Apple has already covered this base.

While there are well-featured bike computers like Stages M200/L200, Sigma ROX 12 EVO, and high-end Bryton models, they seem to lack the unique appeal that propels them to Wahoo’s level. Wahoo BOLT Gen 1‘s enduring success beyond its fourth birthday suggests that many riders prioritise reliability, user-friendliness, or brand image over high technology. 

Then comes Coros. Write a sentence using these words: CAT, PIGEON, AMONGST. Coros will struggle to expand beyond its existing watches and a relatively small cycling niche unless it adopts predatory pricing strategies. DURA’s launch exemplifies that making a competent bike navigation device is a complex, multi-year endeavour. Coros Pace 3 Pro exemplifies that Coros is changing strategy and imagining itself able to command the same broad pricing levels as Garmin, not easy with >100% China-tariffs (April 2025)

That’s all.

Lists of all Firmware Updates

• Suunto updates are here: link to Suunto.com
• Polar updates are here: link to Polar.com
• Garmin updates are here: link to gpsinformation.net
• Elemnt Updates are here: link to wahoofitness.com and here
• Fitbit updates are here: link to Fitbit.com
• Hammerhead Karoo is here: link to Hammerhead.io
• Lezyne is here: link to Lezyne.com
• WatchOS 5 is here: link to Apple.com
• WatchOS 6 is here: link to Apple.com
• WatchOS 7 is here: link to Apple.com
• WatchOS 8 is here: link to apple.com
• WatchOS 9 is here: link to apple.com
• WatchOS 10 is here: link to apple.com
• WatchOS 11 is here: link to apple.com
• Stages DASH is here: stagesdash.com
• Sigma Rox 12.1 here: sigmasport.com
• Mio Cyclo: mio.com
• Coros: link to Coros
• Bryton: Facebook page for announcements
• Magene: magene.com
• iGPSPORT: igpsport.com
• Coospo: coospo.com

Please let me know if I’ve missed anything, like the Pixel Watch!

It is also helpful for checking compatibility with new ANT+ devices. Very occasionally, a special ‘leak’ might appear on that site by accident. As of Q1.2025, Garmin is rolling back on ANT+, so expect this site to eventually not be updated.

• thisisant.com
• ANT+ Specification updates here: thisisant.com

Subscriber-Only Content

The following link discusses emerging and new trends, including payments, GPS, OHR, Safety, Mapping, and much more.

Recommended Reading: Endurance Technology Trends

END, thank you for your support. This all takes a considerable amount of time, and ad revenues are extremely low.