Garmin’s Record Growth Is Driven by Volume, Not Price Rises — Exactly What Customers Want to Hear

When a company reports 42% revenue growth in a single quarter, the first question I would ask is: how much of that is just charging us more? For Garmin’s fitness segment in Q4 2025, the answer is surprising — almost none of it. Kudos to Garmin.

Today, JPMorgan analyst Joseph Cardoso asked CEO Cliff Pemble directly whether pricing increases had helped wearables revenue growth in 2025. Pemble’s answer was unambiguous: “Our 2025 results in fitness and outdoor were influenced heavily by wearables, and definitely volume was the driver. There’s some minor impact from ASP (average selling price), but most of it was really volume driven.”

The phrase “some minor impact” is best interpreted as Garmin selling slightly more expensive products than before, reflecting a natural mix shift toward higher-end devices such as the Forerunner 970 and the Fenix range. But the overwhelming driver of the 42% Q4 growth and 33% full-year growth was simply selling many more units to many more people.

That is good news for Garmin loyalists suffering from price-hike fatigue elsewhere amid inflation. It means Garmin has not been using its market dominance to raise prices above historical levels. This indicates the competitive environment is keeping prices disciplined, perhaps even causing them to fall in real terms, adjusted for inflation.

Pemble went further on who those new buyers are: “We’re still seeing most of our new customers are new to Garmin (sic). So that’s a very encouraging thing, and we see strong pull-through rates on registrations, showing that as products go into the channel, they’re selling out, and customers are activating those.”

This is particularly relevant to the running and cycling community. New-to-Garmin customers are not people upgrading from a Forerunner 255 to a FR970. They are people switching from Apple Watch, Samsung Galaxy, or cheap fitness trackers — or buying their first serious sports watch. That is a genuine expansion of the customer base, not just recycling the existing one.

Cardoso pressed further, asking about the split between new customers and existing customers upgrading. Pemble acknowledged the distinction but framed the message positively: “We feel very positive about the customer trends and very positive about the retail landscape.” Garmin CFO Doug Boessen added that the Americas region had, for the first time, exceeded $1 billion in quarterly revenue in Q4 2025 — a milestone that speaks to the scale of the volume surge.

For 2026, Pemble’s guidance is that Fitness will be “the strongest contributor to 2026 consolidated growth,” driven by “demand for our current product lineup and contributions from new product introductions.” That new product pipeline — details of which remain undisclosed — is what will determine whether the volume story continues or plateaus.

If Garmin launches compelling new Forerunners and Edge 1060 products in H1 2026, and the Fenix 9 or equivalent arrives in H2, the volume momentum has a clear path to continuation. If the pipeline disappoints, the company now has no pricing lever to pull — having committed itself to a volume-driven, value-for-money growth story that its customer base will hold it to.

Our Take

Garmin’s messages today seem to resonate with growing voices in the Garmin ecosystem that price increases have reached breaking points for affordability across the board. Whilst we might think prices are too high, they clearly are not, as people are buying the product in great numbers. “Too expensive for me” isn’t the same as “too expensive”. A fair take is that current price levels can’t be too far below the optimal level.

If that is the case, then the future strategy should focus on growing unit sales, matching competitors’ price increases, and capturing market share at every opportunity.

Such a strategy only works if you continually innovate. Handily for Garmin, the company spends a small fortune on R&D and inevitably has a great product pipeline for us to look forward to. Innovation is a byword for Garmin.

I take a deep look at new products and technologies (here), but you can be pretty sure this year will be exciting with new range leaders like Edge 1060 and Fenix 9, and range fillers further down the product pecking order. as to ‘grabbing market share’, perhaps Whoop needs to watch out with the likely imminence of Garmin’s alternative – the CIRQA band.

Last Updated on 16 March 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

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.