Garmin CIRQA Smart Band: Everything We Know About Garmin’s Entry Into the Recovery Band Market
Updated: 27 Jan 2026
Apologies: First published with an incorrect image
The listing is pretty clear. It’s a “smart band” for the “wrist” from Garmin, which can only mean one thing: a Whoop competitor. Garmin’s regular ambassadors have already received these and have been quiet for a few weeks for a reason… testing! Expect a launch soon, with a formal critical review to follow shortly.
Then, as the listing states, there are two band sizes: S/M and L/XL.
If you dig deeper, you can also find a listing of the PART NUMBER and confirmation that it comes in two sizes – Black and French Grey.
Recently Added Whoop-Like Features
Garmin has progressively added features to match Whoop. These are two key ones from late-2025:
- Garmin launched Lifestyle Tagging – This is a core Whoop feature that Garmin has copied (not as well). It allows automatic and manual tagging of key daily events that the watch and other tech can’t capture, such as ‘Had an argument’ or ‘ate at 10 pm’. While these may seem like trivial things to log (they might be), Garmin can correlate their occurrence with changes in your wellness or performance metrics. It’s the correlation that’s important, and it can provide genuine insights into both positive and negative factors in your life.
- Garmin launched Food Logging – this is an alternative to MyFitnessPal as a way to scan barcodes and take images of the food you are about to eat for the app to log calories and macros. This is important data that affects your performance and well-being, and I can’t see how it could be captured any other way.
Known Facts
- Product name: CIRQA Smart Band
- Part numbers: e.g., 010-04675-00 (Black, L/XL), others for sizes/colours
- Sizes: S/M (120-200 mm wrist), L/XL (145-240 mm wrist)
- Colour: Black and French Grey
- Timing: One Garmin site listing reportedly said shipping in 4-5 months (I didn’t see that, I would expect MUCH sooner, i.e. Jan/Mid-Feb 2026)
- Described as a smart band
- Described as for the wrist
A placeholder image was also leaked, but that was an existing camera product for vehicles.
Update
29 Jan 2026 – Dcrainmaker shows an image of himself wearing three bands under a tri suit. One could be CIRQA
08 Feb 2026 – another note from dcrainmaker lists several bands he’s testing by name, and then another band that he acknowledges exists but does not name.
10 Feb 2026 – Deep dive into the newly published FCC filing. Numerous technical details confirm the band format.
Thoughts
This is a highly interesting Garmin product. You can bet your bottom dollar that Whoop’s lawyers are going to be looking at this very closely. If there is any whiff of trade dress infringement (called ‘passing off’ in the UK), they will act as they have against Polar LOOP.
So. The year from Garmin is getting off to a great start with a wholly new product category, admittedly similar to its Index Sleep Monitor from last year, but new nevertheless.
The rationale for this kind of product, to some extent, is to compete with Whoop in its market segment. However, a strap-based, watchless HRM is also a preferred option for many people already invested in the Garmin ecosystem who want a better nighttime wear experience. It’s just a lighter-weight format that emits no light. Other reasons include wearing in contact sports and on the biceps or ankles.
- Q: What would excite me about the tech?
- A: I’m not particularly interested in a tech copycat product. But this looks like something different. Garmin may offer multiple ways to wear the product, which is potentially interesting. They should be able to do better battery life than Whoop and, with a bit of luck, might also make this product double up as a caching HRM for watches (as opposed to a caching HRM for the app, which it must be by definition). Maybe this will be the first emergence of Elevate 6 and, with it, some new heart-related metrics or new things sense (eg stress via sweat – I doubt it)
- Q: What would hack me off about the tech?
- A: If they use Elevate 4, it will be super-annoying. I probably wouldn’t even buy one.
- Q: Will this be subscription only
- A: No, almost certainly not, as that would restrict hardware sales. however there could be pro features that would be for subscribers to Connect+
Last Updated on 10 February 2026 by the5krunner
Reader-Powered Content
This content is not sponsored. It’s mostly me behind the labour of love, which is this site, and I appreciate everyone who supports it.
Support the site: Follow (free, fewer ads) · Subscribe (paid, ad-free) · Buy Me A Coffee ❤️
All articles are written by real people, fact-checked, and verified for originality. See the Editorial Policy. FTC: Affiliate Disclosure — some links pay commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors.
The image is of a dual camera system for trucks.
DEZL Dual View, thank you
How embarassing! It was the one linked to the listing. Garmin is clearly teasing!!
https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/1508367/
yes ty. garmin used that products image as a placeholder for the CIRQA listing.
Sounds interesting – They (Garmin) might as well introduce a ring 💍💍
If the announce gen 6 monitor, that would be great.
Wonder if they will use Connect+, or make data free if you already have a watch.
Almost certainly this will be only fully useful through a Connect+ subscription.
i reckon only paritally
Looking forward to this product category so I can wear an analogue watch without missing out on 24/7 Garmin metrics. When you say “soon”, are you thinking next Tuesday sort of soon, or 4-5 months sort of soon?
You can already – I have been wearing one of the smaller Garmin model (like an FR 255s) with the display turned off on a stretchy velcro strap around the biceps/upper arm, as a quasi-Whoop.
This would finally let me to commit to full-time AWU2 but still have all the Garmin data.
Good point 👍
What about when running? Will you keep your AWU and a Garmin watch or the new band?
I would wear AWU and the new band. RunGap sends the activities to Garmin, so I can keep my history in Garmin. I’m mostly a half marathon runner who has done a decent amount of marathons and for my use case Apple is enough but am also addicted to the stress and BB features of Garmin. Im just looking for the best of both worlds!
I can relate but the problem with being “addicted to stress and BB” (and assuming Training Status) of Garmin is that it can so easily be blown up by one failed activity load.
For example, I went for a long ride and failed to notice beforehand my FR 965 was at 10% at the start of the ride. Unfortunately, despite quickly turning it to low-battery mode (the screen turned off etc) the watch died pretty quickly and I was left using a backup bike computer for the remainder (an old Lezyne device).
Well despite the fact I could upload the full lezyne ride (complete with power numbers), the Training Effect still loaded at 0 which put a gaping hole in my overall Training Status. Since there’s no way to manually adjust this (at least that I know of), it throws off the entire thing.
Maybe Rungap is allowing Garmin to read your AWU activities into Training Status, but the same thing would happen if your AWU lost a run for whatever reason.
@BrainTR Unless it was an absolute _monster_ workout, the impact on load/Training Status/etc is going to be relatively minor and short-lived.
It was my longest ride in 3+ months so that probably would have been nice to have in my Training Status/Effect.
Ironically, on my run this morning my Polar Verity HRM went utterly haywire in the first 15+ minutes registering my bpm near my absolute max for a Zone 1 effort, before settling in and behaving normally. Of course this had the impact on my Training Effect, completely BALOONING the Load measured to at least twice the amount (and pegging my Anaerobic effect too). So I guess in a way, it has all evened out. 😀
THAT is a very good point sir.
Really improntat one. best of the year. there would be a prize if i had one. 🙂
The year just started but I’ll take it. 😀
i’m a miserable so and so. that’ll be my laughds done until june I reckon.
Whatever it is, I’m buying it. Want a replacement for the dreary VivoSmart 5. Something that complements a wristwatch on my other wrist where I’m not wearing my Fenix. I’m expecting most features, including GPS, will be gated behind their subscription service.
oooh. i wouldn’t be expecting GPS 🙂
1% chance. which would make for a unique band format. however it would use too much juice.