What you need to know
- Garmin’s rumored Cirqa tracker could become the most expensive screenless fitness band yet at around $510.
- The leaked Garmin Cirqa reportedly features a fabric band design with no screen and full-day health tracking.
- Garmin’s Whoop rival is expected to track sleep, heart rate, calories, and other health metrics 24/7.
It’s clearly the season of screenless fitness trackers, and while Google recently launched the Fitbit Air, it now looks like Garmin also wants to join the list.
Whoop has been making screenless fitness trackers for well over a decade at this point, but now almost every major fitness brand seems interested in this category. We recently saw the launch of the Fitbit Air, which follows the same concept: 24/7 health tracking, no display, and up to a week’s worth of battery life.
Now it looks like Garmin could be next. A Ukrainian retailer has seemingly leaked Garmin’s upcoming screenless fitness tracker (via Notebookcheck), revealing its design, features, and an unexpectedly high rumored price tag.
According to the listing, Garmin’s Whoop competitor will reportedly be called the Garmin Cirqa. Similar to other screenless fitness trackers, it features a minimal fabric band with no display and is designed for passive health tracking throughout the day.
The listing also suggests that the Cirqa will be available in two sizes, S/M and L/XL, along with black and gray color options. Like other fitness trackers in this category, it will reportedly track heart rate, sleep, steps, calories, and other health metrics continuously.
What really stands out, though, is the rumored price. The retailer listing claims the Garmin Cirqa could cost around 22,399 Ukrainian hryvnia, which converts to roughly $510. If true, that would make it the most expensive screenless fitness tracker currently on the market.
Android Central’s take
I love that more brands are entering the screenless fitness tracker space, but $500 for a passive fitness tracker honestly sounds pretty wild. Garmin really needs to justify that price with something much more than just better fitness tracking.
For comparison, the Fitbit Air starts at around $100, with an optional Google Health Premium subscription costing $10 per month. Whoop, meanwhile, follows a subscription-based model ranging between $199 and $359 per year.
So if this Garmin pricing turns out to be accurate, the Cirqa would sit well above both the Fitbit Air and the Whoop.
Of course, this still isn’t official pricing, and things could easily change before launch. It’s also worth remembering that this information comes from a Ukrainian retailer, so U.S. pricing could end up being very different.