CEO Won’t Deny Garmin Smart Ring, CIRQA or Smart Glasses: What’s Coming

The most intriguing non-answer of Garmin’s Q4 2025 earnings call on 18 February 2026 came when Longbow Research analyst David MacGregor asked chief executive Cliff Pemble directly about non-traditional wearable form factors — and whether Garmin was planning to move beyond the watch.

Within fitness, thinking about non-traditional form factors — how are you thinking about the opportunity there, and from a timing standpoint how likely are we to see something?

Pemble’s response was as expected, wrapped in a historical reference: “We don’t share our future product plans, and what direction we might go with those. I would point everyone to our history, which is that we explore new product categories and new form factors and deliver really great products to our customers. So that’s what we’ll continue to do, to drive and grow the segment.”

This is standard chief executive deflection. In context, it is considerably more significant. We could speculate that MacGregor would not have raised that specific question on a major earnings call without intelligence suggesting something is in development – perhaps that is the widely reported screenless band CIRQA, or something else. Analysts at Longbow Research closely cover Garmin, and their questions are rarely speculative fishing expeditions. The framing of “non-traditional form factors” is also precise — this is not an enquiry about new watch models, but an explicit challenge about form factors beyond the watch entirely.

The two seemingly obvious candidates are a smart ring and a screenless fitness band, but there are other candidates.

The smart ring market has expanded sharply since the launch of the Oura Ring and Ultrahuman Ring, with health-focused consumers drawn by discreet continuous monitoring, improved sleep-tracking accuracy, and all-day comfort. A Garmin smart ring that carries the company’s HRV, sleep, and stress algorithms — connected to the Garmin Connect ecosystem — would be a formidable proposition. Garmin’s clinical partnership with King’s College London for pregnancy health monitoring, announced in Q3 2025, points toward precisely this kind of discreet, continuous monitoring ambition.

A screenless band — a Garmin equivalent of the Whoop strap — would address the recovery and wellness monitoring segment. Garmin already possesses the sensor hardware and software analytics. The missing element is a form factor designed for all-day wear rather than structured activity tracking or sleep (Index Sleep, 2025).

Pemble’s reference to Garmin’s “history” of exploring new categories merits being taken at face value. The company has repeatedly entered markets where it held no prior presence and produced category-leading products — the Fenix establishing Garmin in the premium adventure watch space, the Descent doing the same in dive computing. The pattern is consistent and deliberate.

The timing signal embedded in Pemble’s answer is the most telling element. He did not confine Garmin’s ambitions to watches for the foreseeable future. He said the company explores new categories and form factors — present tense. Set alongside his separate comment that fitness will drive the strongest growth in 2026, and that new product introductions are central to that growth story, the evidence points toward something non-traditional arriving within the next 12 to 18 months.

For a company that has built its reputation on entering categories late and winning on execution, the question is not whether Garmin is developing a new form factor. It is which one will arrive first?

What do you think?

Last Updated on 20 February 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.