Garmin CIRQA: No Screen, No Subscription, $199

Garmin has trained us to expect watches that do everything and cost about as much as a used bike. Now it is going the other way. On 21 July the company unveiled CIRQA, its first screenless band, priced at $199.99 (€199.99 in Europe). Sales start on 24 July. This is not a sports watch for swimming and running, it is a device built for a different job entirely. Which is exactly why it is worth understanding what a screenless band is for in the first place.

What it actually is

CIRQA is a lightweight band that monitors health and recovery around the clock. There is no display, you read the data in the Garmin Connect app on your phone. The fibre-reinforced polymer casing weighs about 20 g with the strap. You wear it on the wrist or as an armband, and the fabric straps come in several colours (Black, Captain Blue, French Grey, Mauve, Dark Olive, among others) and two sizes (S/M and L/XL). The battery lasts up to 10 days, so you charge it roughly once a training block rather than every other day.

No subscription, but a Connect+ option

You buy the hardware once and get every core feature with no subscription. In a world where Whoop charges around $30 a month for access to your own data, that is a real argument. Garmin also offers an optional Connect+ plan at $6.99 a month with expanded analysis, but the basic metrics, Training Readiness, HRV Status, VO2max, sleep, are free.

What it measures

Despite having no screen, CIRQA collects exactly the data a triathlete watching their recovery cares about. It tracks heart rate, blood oxygen (Pulse Ox), skin temperature, stress and movement around the clock, and calculates the same metrics known from Garmin’s pricier watches:

Recovery: Training Readiness, HRV status, time to full recovery.
Fitness: VO2max, training status, Acute Load, Load Ratio, Load Focus.
Sleep: sleep stages, sleep score, HRV, breathing, nap detection.
Activity: automatic detection of runs and walks, manual assignment from more than 80 activity types in the Connect app.

In other words, you get the backbone of Garmin’s recovery system in a cheap, comfortable package you can wear at night and at work.

How it works alongside your multisport watch

This is the part that matters most for a triathlete. Data from CIRQA flows into Garmin Connect and merges with the data from your sports watch. DC Rainmaker confirmed this in testing: wearing CIRQA on one wrist and a Forerunner 170 on the other, a Fenix 8 Pro automatically updated its stats with data from the band, including steps and training load.

What does that mean in practice? If you wear, say, a Forerunner 965 for training and CIRQA for the rest of the day, in the office, at night, in the shower, Connect gets a full 24/7 picture. Your 965 realistically lasts about 14 to 18 days on a charge (23 days claimed in smartwatch mode). CIRQA adds another 10 days of continuous monitoring without charging the watch. Together, they close the gaps in recovery and sleep data that appear whenever the watch is off your wrist or on the charger.

Who it makes sense for, and who it does not

Let’s be clear about what CIRQA does not do. It has no screen, so it will not show you pace, power or heart rate on the course. This is not a device for racing, you still need a multisport watch or a bike computer for training and competing in your disciplines. CIRQA will not replace a Forerunner or a Fenix.

It makes sense as a second device dedicated to recovery. Your sports watch handles training and racing, while the rest of the day, at night, in the office, in the shower, a light band that you barely need to charge tracks recovery and sleep. For a triathlete who takes Training Readiness and HRV seriously but does not want to sleep with a heavy watch on their wrist, it is a neat solution.

If you are after your first and only device, one that also needs to track your sessions, this is not it. In that case, spend more on a watch with a screen and sport profiles.

Verdict

CIRQA is a smart move: Garmin takes its proven recovery system, drops the screen, drops the subscription, and brings the price down $199 (€199.99). For anyone already tracking form through Training Readiness and HRV who wants a comfortable round-the-clock sensor, it is one of the more interesting launches of the summer. For anyone who wants a single device for everything, it is too big a compromise.