Garmin CIRQA First Image Appears But Probably Fake
A detailed Garmin CIRQA listing has appeared on mijia-shop.com, a grey-market electronics retailer in Kazakhstan. It includes full specifications, a price of 36,900 roubles (around 480 dollars), and a June shipping estimate. It looks like a leak. It is probably not one.
Why the listing does not add up
The site is an independent reseller with no ties to Garmin, and it routinely pre-lists rumoured products. The unreleased Google Fitbit Air sits in the same catalogue and receives the same treatment. The CIRQA description reads as marketing copy built from existing rumour coverage rather than anything sourced via Garmin.
The specifications give it away.
The listing claims SmO2 muscle-oxygen tracking, a metric Garmin does not yet measure optically on any wearable, and one that has not appeared in any app teardown or regulatory filing (although it may follow later in a different form factor based on a leaked Trademark). It is the kind of impressive-sounding detail these listings invent. The product image appears unique and new, but it is of a cheap-looking band not suited to the $480 supposed price tag and is unverified, likely a mockup rather than a real render.
The price is a reseller figure with regional markup, not a Garmin recommended price. Treat the whole listing as fake. CIRQA may well launch within weeks, but nothing on this page confirms it.
For the full analysis of where CIRQA is likely to be priced, see the CIRQA price analysis.
Source: Garmin News
For the full picture on what CIRQA is expected to do, its likely price, and how it sits against Whoop and Fitbit Air, see Garmin CIRQA: Everything We Know.
Last Updated on 1 June 2026 by the5krunner
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Everybody seems to expect a high pricing for the Grmin Cirqa (or whatever the name will be) and maybe even a full functionality behind a paywall. We will see. With an high pricing it would become a niche product (my guess). But perhaps that is Garmin’s goal?! I will perhaps have a look at the Amazfit Helio strap or it expected successor. Amazfit has made a serious development to become a serious competitor. Until now, they have not been taken seriously by many—often met with a condescending smile and, at times, not even evaluated objectively (at least, that is my personal perception).
$250 minim i would say (depending on Connect+ link)
Garmin is in business to make high margins for shareholders…so…
Yes, it seems (sometimes?) that they are more working for the shareholders than for the customers…
that is literally/legally their job!
A price higher then the recently released from 70 is only justified if it can do more. Would they make more by selling many at a low price or a few at a high price? I’m pretty sure they have to under cut whoop unless there is some major new metric.
Is this targeted at current Garmin users who already use Garmin devices as activity trackers and wear it 24/7 or is this aim at people who aren’t wearing Garmin devices 24/7?
Seems highly unlikely they expect owners of high end and probably mid range devices to wear two devices so has to be under the venu pricing
Hi Eli, you’re right to start with the target customer over features or price. That’s the right thought process.
Venu 4 sits at £439. At least in (large) part Cirqa will be complementary—aimed at premium Garmin users (e.g. Fenix owners) who already wear devices 24/7. Garmin won’t EXPECT any customers to wear two devices, so it must also undercut Venu pricing while offering new metrics to justify any premium.
Whoop is predominantly a one-device, premium, lifestyle focussed subscription offer. I dont see Garmin targetting that as the main thrust. Obvosuly some whoop customers dont realyl fit the whoop product and they are perhaps the ones we hear thinking of switching.
Garmin focuses on high margins (~50%) by adding unique features where possible. Expect something new; that’s their pattern. If they fail to do something new and go for volume (eg vs Air) they will fail commercially, Garmin knows this. That is not Garmin’s busiess model and won’t ever be.
Ah yes, good point/question. The Cirqa seems to be more an stand alone device and people who are wearing their watches 24/7 will probably have no need to buy an additional device. I don’t think people will take their watch off and put the Cirqa on before they go to bed…Which is the target audience for that? Perhaps Garmin will release it only because their competitors have already something like this and the shareholders are just expecting it…Perhaps it will be released in a bundle with a Marq 3 watch for just about $/€ 3.500 (j/k).
I forgot to ask: wouldn’t it make more sense for a user to use a Helio/Oura etc. ring instead of this wrist band/device? They are small and more comfortable, I think. If I had to choose, I would take a ring.
a ring is a good alterantive but it wont work for any kind of sports recording (but that’s why we have watches!)
I just read a few German reports speculating that Garmin intends to market the CIRQA as a companion device for watches like the Fenix 8—on the grounds that it can detect and start an activity more accurately than the watch itself (and use the watch gps), despite the latter costing over $1,000? Surely that’s nonsense… right?
The key word is speculation 😉
1. It is very likley it will be marketed as a companion device
2. auto start/stop – IDK. I would imagine that WOULD be a feature of the CIRQA but only intended for when the person isn’t wearing a watch as well.
It would be very Garmin to enter a segment with a premium product at a higher price point than everything else on offer. The problem is that Garmin’s existing sports watches already do everything that Whoop does. How do you sell a $400 band while you’re also offering watches for a similar price that do everything the band does, plus a lot more?
I think Cirqa makes a ton of sense. Lots of people would love to reserve their sports watches for doing sports, while still getting all the 24/7 data. The more I talk to people who wear Garmins 24/7, or even Apple Watches, they say they do it for the health monitoring, not for the smartwatch features. Existing Garmin users are a huge market for this thing, at the right price. I’d buy one in a heartbeat.
As for Whoop users who don’t already have Garmin watches, I think there are basically two ways to compete. The obvious one is price, being a non-subscription device. Whoop is a good enough product that nobody is going to be wowed by Cirqa in a 1 to 1 comparison, particularly considering that there’s a learning curve to Garmin’s metrics, and Connect is clunky. But people who are annoyed with the subscription fees might switch.
The other thing Garmin might be able to do is beat Whoop at its own game. While there are a lot of positive things you can say about Whoop’s software, I think the bottom line is that Whoops have become fashion accessories that are associated with elite athletes. People are very proud of their Whoops. It shows they take their health and fitness seriously. It’s entirely possible that Garmin could do the same thing, but instead of relying on pro athletes, they could rely on organic adoption by serious amateurs. If people see that the most serious athletes at the gym or their office are wearing Cirqas, they might decide that’s the one to buy. Also, there’s a natural lifecycle to fashion, and it would be the most natural thing in the world for people to decide that Whoop is no longer the cool thing.
Hi JR
you asked a question then answered it 😉
there are always going to be wholly new customers coming to their first screenless band and switchers and people with different price and ecosystem preferences. There is no one answer. The issue is the magnitude of the various answers at all the various points.
talking about impact on whoop
1. Fitbit Air with no subs must make a tiny dent on Whoop
2. Whoop MG with some of the clever stuff wont be hit by Air even with the subs
3. the middle whoop tier has Air and Whoop better aligned for comparison. Whoop is better but Air has then lost quite a bit of its cost advantage with the subs
then, what is the price of the coolness factor. Whoop excells there as a lifestyle choice. that cant be underestimated. Fitbit Air looks cheap. fitbit Air would be out of place in an F1 pit lane.
CIRQA
1. It was never going for the $99 no subs market against Air
2. As you answer yourself, there is a great case for it as a complementary device. lots of readers here including me (we are all unusual tho) will buy one for that as a simple capturing device. That grows the market and doesn’t materially diminish whoops sales, tho it does lower their market share.
I think the secret to all these comparisons being made lies in the subs. what they bring and what they equate to in annual cost. These comparisons are being made but then hidden by silly comments along the line of “But it’s $99 and will kill Whoop, it’s soooo much cheaper”