A certification filing confirms Garmin is building a CIRQA Smart Ring. It follows the CIRQA Smart Band, a screen-free wrist tracker Garmin launched in July. This page tracks what’s known and will update as more evidence comes in.
What is the CIRQA ring?
The ring would likely do much the same job as the band: track sleep, heart rate variability and Body Battery, then send the data to Garmin Connect to be merged alongside data from any other Garmin device. The main benefit is that you could leave your watch off at night. For existing Garmin users, that’s simple: the same app, the same training data and the same recovery numbers, with a second device built for comfort while you sleep.
How many sizes will it come in?
Regulatory filings now point to ten variants of the same model family. Brazil’s ANATEL certified ten closely related model numbers, A05124 through I05124 plus AA5124, all registered on the same day with four certified in China from the same family, C05124, E05124, G05124 and H05124.
Note: Oura Ring 5 ships in 8 sizes, and Oura Ring 4 shipped in 12, so a ten-size Garmin lineup makes sense.
Who would it be for?
The CIRQA band could rely on Garmin’s reputation for sports tracking, since it used the same Elevate sensor as Garmin’s watches. A ring is different. Its strength would likely be tracking health and recovery at rest and overnight, where a finger-worn sensor performs well. That makes it a good fit for existing Garmin users wanting better sleep data, and for anyone shopping specifically for sleep and wellness tracking, a market already led by Oura, which consistently defends its Intellectual Property for smart rings.
When could it launch?
The timing points toward the holiday shopping season. A certification filing in mid-August gives Garmin roughly two to three months before a typical October product cycle, and October is about the latest a new product can launch and still give retailers time to stock it before Christmas. September’s Brazil and China filings reinforce that window rather than shift it. The alternative is CES 2027 in January, which would give Garmin a bigger stage for entering a new category if it prefers to skip the holiday rush.
What could it cost?
The CIRQA Smart Band launched at $199.99, £179.99 and €199.99, with no subscription. A ring priced around $199 to $249 (probably $299 is the ceiling) would sit close to that mark and undercut Oura, whose rings cost $299 to $349 plus a $5.99 monthly fee. A one-off price, which Garmin is likely to hold to, would be one of the ring’s strongest selling points.
Why this is a change of position
Garmin has said a firm “No!” to a ring before, more than once. At its 2024 Health Summit, Garmin executives confirmed that a ring wasn’t coming, citing sensor accuracy and user experience as the reasons. That position held through February 2026, when Garmin’s new Thailand factory was confirmed for automotive and smartwatch components, explicitly not rings. A separate piece the same month, prompted by a Longbow Research question on Garmin’s earnings call about “non-traditional form factors,” judged a ring “widely speculated but unlikely,” with this site’s own view at the time that Garmin had ruled it out for good due mainly to the need for a different sensor, manufacturing line, and retail distribution channels.
A certification filing doesn’t overturn any of that on its own, but it’s a concrete signal that the position has likely shifted.
Timeline
- September 2024: Garmin executives ruled out a smart ring at the company’s Health Summit, citing sensor accuracy and user experience as the reasons.
- 19 February 2026: Garmin confirmed a new Thailand manufacturing plant on its Q4 2025 earnings call, and this site reported the plant would build automotive and smartwatch components, explicitly not rings.
- 20 February 2026: A Longbow Research question on Garmin’s earnings call about “non-traditional form factors” prompted this site to judge a ring “widely speculated but unlikely,” noting Garmin had ruled it out for good.
- July 2026: Garmin launched the CIRQA Smart Band, a screen-free wrist tracker, at $199.99.
- 12 August 2026: Garmin filed a CIRQA Smart Ring for certification with Indonesian authorities, under certificate number 125338/DJID/2026.
- 13 August 2026: Garmin pulled that certificate from the database.
- 1 September 2026: China certified four related Garmin model numbers from the same family, filed by Garmin’s Taiwanese entity and described only as a Bluetooth device.
- 6 September 2026: Brazil certified ten closely related Garmin model numbers under one filing, the strongest evidence yet that the CIRQA Smart Ring is moving toward launch.
Is a ring more accurate than a watch?
At rest, a finger sensor can outperform a wrist sensor: the dense network of blood vessels close to the skin gives PPG sensors a strong, clean signal for resting heart rate and HRV. During exercise, blood is redirected toward the working muscles, which weakens that same signal. Whether Garmin can close that gap during workouts is the real test of a ring’s sports credibility, and it’s the same accuracy question Garmin cited in 2024 as its reason for staying out of the category.
Quick answers
Is the Garmin CIRQA Smart Ring confirmed?
A certification filing suggests Garmin is developing a CIRQA Smart Ring, following the screen-free CIRQA Smart Band that launched in July. Garmin previously ruled out a ring in 2024 and again as recently as February 2026.
When might the Garmin CIRQA ring launch?
There is no confirmed date. The certification filing’s timing points toward a launch before Christmas, with October as a possible outside date based on normal retail lead times.
Who is the Garmin CIRQA ring for?
Existing Garmin users wanting sleep and recovery tracking without a watch at night, and buyers focused on sleep and wellness over sports accuracy, alongside Oura Ring 5 as an established alternative for that second group.
What would the CIRQA ring likely cost?
There is no confirmed price. Based on the CIRQA Smart Band’s $199.99 launch price, a ring costing $199 to $249 is possible, undercutting an Oura ring that also requires a monthly subscription.
Source and original research by: the5krunner and Garmin News.
Last Updated on 11 September 2026 by the5krunner
My favourite kit and nutrition
- Garmin Fenix 9 Pro — I’ve just bought one.
- Injinji – Runners protect your toes. Avoid discomfort and minor injury. Run more. Run faster. I use them.
- Garmin 90-degree charging adapter — A small keyring adapter you can use anywhere. Essential when away. I use one.
- Garmin charging puck — the fastest and most reliable way to top up your Garmin before a session. I use one.
- Ravemen FR300 — Front light that mounts directly under your Garmin or Wahoo head unit. Keeps your bars clean and your beam pointed where it matters. I use one.
- Body Glide – The blue anti-chafe stick that all swimmers and many runners use. I use it.
- Maurten — The race nutrition trusted by elite athletes. Gels and drink mixes engineered to be easy on the stomach. I use them.
- Garmin Varia RTL515 — A radar rear light that alerts you to vehicles approaching from behind. Pairs with your Edge or Wahoo. I use this model.
- Favero Assioma Pro RS2 — The power-meter pedals most serious cyclists choose. Accurate, easy to move between bikes. I use this model.
- Garmin Forerunner 970 — A serious choice for a pro-grade triathlon watch. I use this.
- Polar H10 — My daily driver for accurate, waking HRV readings.
- Wahoo ELEMNT Roam 3 — The bike computer that has the feature Garmin lacks: usability. I use mine on most rides.
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. ID
I just hope it can be paired with your watch so you can wear both and they complement each other, just like a HRM. So you can get better health and sleep data while still be able to start/stop activities, use the flashlight when you get up without lookin for your watch on the bedside table or check time. In case the ring is just like the Cirqa sans button, let’s hope it perform better then the band or the sleep monitor (according to the Garmin forum).
yes i wonder how garmin will handle when ring and watch are worn together. in theory better live data from the ring should be presented ‘immediately’ on the watch – I suspect not, unless via Connect, even then which is the best quality data? how is that determined?
“Garmin Cirqa Ring: What We Know” is an impressively confident title for an article whose main ingredients appear to be speculation, inference and an AI-generated picture. Still, why let the absence of facts get in the way of a perfectly good headline?
it will be updated as new facts emerge.
will the ring be able to count steps?
If we’re speculating wildly — which seems entirely appropriate for CIRQA at this stage — I’d be genuinely surprised if it couldn’t count steps.
Garmin already has extensive experience with step counting from its watches, so the basic capability presumably isn’t the hard part. The more interesting question is what Garmin would do with that data.
My guess: CIRQA wouldn’t simply add another step counter to Garmin Connect. It could provide the missing 24/7 activity layer for people who don’t wear their Garmin watch all day.
Your watch captures the run, ride or workout. CIRQA quietly captures everything else: walking around the office, shopping, airports, standing, general movement and all those little bits of activity that disappear when your watch is sitting on the bedside table.
And there may even be an advantage to having the sensors somewhere other than the wrist. Garmin’s own documentation acknowledges that wrist-based step counting can be affected by things like pushing a stroller or repetitive arm movements.
So perhaps the really interesting feature isn’t “CIRQA counts steps”, but “CIRQA gives Garmin another, potentially better, source of continuous movement data.”
From there, who knows? Steps could feed into Body Battery, recovery, Training Readiness or whatever other algorithmic wizardry Garmin has planned.
Of course, this is pure conjecture. We don’t actually know that CIRQA will count steps.
But if Garmin is positioning this as the wear-it-when-you-don’t-want-to-wear-your-watch device, leaving out something as fundamental as step counting would seem rather odd.
My completely speculative prediction: yes, it counts steps — but the step count itself may end up being the least interesting thing Garmin does with the data.
probably