Garmin Cirqa Hands-On! 39 Things To Know!

Holy smokes, the heart rate being behind a pay wall and the inability to sync to Strava is truly going to be the Achilles heel of what could have been an easy way for Garmin to dominate the entire market.

A heart rate device with no heart rate live data 😂😂😂😂

So wait you can broadcast your heart rate to nearly anything but garmin connect 😂

Finally, the only fitness gear opinion that matters

Goated reviewer

Not being able to see hr and zones in real time is a deal breaker for me

I'm guessing they're just blocking Strava prior to the official release or availability date, to not leak info (since Strava shows the device name).

47mm what in the world where they thinking… this is literally the main thing of these devices to be small. They make a beast that fits only large wrist, same size as their watches and they do not even offer smaller ones like 41mm.

This is a good idea under two scenarios: people that want to wear this with a traditional watch, or those who really enjoy the Apple ecosystem and wear an Apple Watch, but prefer the Garmin ecosystem for health tracking.

The lack of a HR chart is outrageous. We bear the cost of purchasing the hardware, but only receive partial ownership of its capabilities unless we continue paying the manufacturer for stuff that should be included in the first place. It’s exhausting and frustrating and it damages trustworthiness of a company. At this point we’re waiting for a home-grown open source hero to save us from SaaS.

Thankfully, Garmin just posted that they are going to allow live HR data now for the Cirqa on Garmin Connect.

I get the critique on the no live workout in the app but how many people are actually going to buy this as their only device. I would think all initial users all have some sort of Garmin watch or bike computer that will get used for the actual workouts this is just a way to track the rest of the day without having to wear your watch and allow you to wear a normal analog watch

Garmin: ‘You wanted a slimmer watch... Best we can do is… no watch.’”

I wear my fenix to sleep for the sleep tracking and the morning report. Curious if the Cirque will help generate the morning report if i would just wear the Cirque for sleep tracking.

Fitbit air 🔥

Back in 2018 or so when I got a Fenix 5X I would have welcomed the Cirqa to be able to get metrics while wearing a normal watch. Fast forward to 2026, I’m so used to wearing (and sleeping with) a Garmin watch that I can’t see going back to a normal watch now. That said, if I didn’t have the Index sleep monitor I’d consider a Cirqa. Having all three devices doesn’t make sense, especially having been conditioned to sleep with the watch on. Access to the time and flashlight at night is quite useful. I don’t see the benefit of a screen less device for workouts, I certainly wouldn’t want to rely on looking at my phone.

For everyone confused about the lack of ECG: my Fenix 8 AMOLED has a single-lead ECG, which is inherently more limited and prone to noise than a multi-lead ECG. Honestly, I think Garmin mainly added it because Apple made ECG such a major selling point. But the Apple Watch Ultra 3 also only records a single-lead ECG, so it is useful for basic rhythm checks, not detailed cardiac analysis.

Sooooooooo glad I didn't wait for this and got the fitbit when it launched😂

I’ve eagerly anticipated this review all day & look forward to you putting it through your testing. Now to look at the Helio one last time before I pull the trigger.

The main thing missing for me is elevation tracking. I'd love this to be an addition to my FR970. So i could wear FR for activity and this for all day except activities. But if it doesn't track elevation. How am i supposed to reach and track my daily elevation goal. So sad, an easy missed chance. Now maybe wait for Vivosmart 6 if there will ever be... 🤔