Garmin has finally joined the screenless wearable race with the CIRQA Smart Band, a $199.99 fabric-strap tracker that drops the display and, more pointedly, the recurring fee its rivals depend on.
The band is the company’s clearest challenge yet to Whoop, the recovery-focused strap that has spent years defining this corner of the market.
Where Whoop folds its hardware into a mandatory membership that runs between roughly $199 and $359 a year, and Google’s screenless Fitbit Air pairs a cheaper band with a Gemini coach billed monthly, the CIRQA works straight out of the box with no charge for its core tracking.
Garmin has not abandoned subscriptions entirely. Buyers who want deeper analysis can add Garmin Connect+ for $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year, though the headline metrics stay free.
That single distinction is the crux of Garmin’s argument, and it lands in a category Whoop built almost entirely on subscription revenue.The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!
