Garmin CIRQA: the whole Garmin health stack, minus the screen
$199.99 buys Body Battery, HRV status, Training Readiness and sleep staging on a fabric band with a ten-day battery and no subscription. Here is what it reads, what it cannot read, and how its data reaches MyBodyAI.
A screenless Garmin band at $199.99, ten days per charge, no subscription. It reads 18 of the 33 health signals in the comparison catalog, Body Battery, HRV status and Training Readiness among them. What it cannot do: show you anything, find a satellite, count floors or check heart rhythm. Its data reaches MyBodyAI through a file export, not a login.
Garmin sells CIRQA as a tracker without a screen. That framing undersells it. What $199.99 actually buys is the health and training software from Garmin's sub-500-dollar watches, running on a fabric band that weighs about 20 grams, lasts ten days between charges and asks for no subscription.
CIRQA was announced on 21 July 2026 and went on sale three days later. It is Garmin's answer to the membership bands, and the answer is mostly about the bill.
The hardware in numbers
Figures from the Garmin product page and the launch press release, checked on 2026-08-18:
- Price: $199.99 in the US, 4,990 CZK on the Czech Garmin store
- Display: none. One side button starts and stops an activity
- Battery: up to 10 days per charge, about 90 minutes to refill
- Sensors: Elevate Gen 4 optical heart rate with skin temperature, Pulse Ox, accelerometer
- Water rating: 5 ATM, swimming yes, diving no
- Worn: on the wrist or on the upper arm, S/M and L/XL fabric bands
- Size: module 27 x 47 x 9 mm, about 20 g complete
- Connectivity: Bluetooth Low Energy and ANT+, connected GPS through your phone
- Activities: more than 80 profiles
- Subscription: none for health, sleep and training data. Connect+ stays optional
What it reads
CIRQA carries the daily-health set of Garmin's mid-range watches: heart rate around the clock, HRV status, overnight Pulse Ox, respiration, all-day stress, Body Battery, skin temperature, sleep stages with a sleep score and nap detection. On the training side it computes VO2 max, training load and Training Readiness, the score that folds sleep, HRV, recovery time and load into one number that keeps moving through the day. Cycle and pregnancy tracking run off the overnight skin temperature.
Measured against the 33 health signals scored for every device in the catalog, CIRQA reads 18. The row-by-row sheet sits on the CIRQA device page, next to the other 112 devices.
What it leaves out
The gaps are structural, not firmware oversights, so none of them will arrive in an update.
No satellite GPS. Pace, distance and the route come from the phone in your pocket. Run without it and you keep heart rate and duration, and lose the map.
No altimeter. No floors climbed, and no elevation gain on a hilly ride.
No ECG and no AFib screening. Rhythm checks stay on Garmin's watch line. If a doctor has asked you to watch for atrial fibrillation, this is the wrong device.
No blood pressure and no body composition. Those need a cuff or a scale.
Elevate Gen 4, not Gen 5. The optical sensor is the generation Garmin ships in cheaper watches, not the newest one. Wrist-optical HRV is good enough for a personal trend either way, and it is not chest-strap grade on any of them.
The subscription question
This is where CIRQA actually competes. Using the list prices in the catalog, three years of wearing a band works out like this:
- Garmin CIRQA: $199.99 once, no membership
- WHOOP 5.0: hardware is not sold on its own, the band only works with a membership of roughly $199 to $239 a year, so about $600 to $720
- Oura Ring 5: $399 plus about $5.99 a month for the scores, so about $615
- Fitbit Air: $99, no required subscription, and 17 of the 33 signals
CIRQA reads 18 of 33 signals, WHOOP 5.0 reads 16, Oura Ring 5 reads 18. The counts are close. The bill over three years is not.
The trade-off you are buying is the screen: WHOOP has none either, Oura is a ring, and none of them show you a number without the phone. See WHOOP vs Garmin for the full matrix.
Who it is for
CIRQA fits somebody who already trusts Garmin's numbers and wants them without a watch on the wrist: a sleeper who finds a case uncomfortable, a lifter who wants the band on the upper arm, somebody who has a nice mechanical watch and does not want to give up the wrist to a screen. It also fits anybody currently paying a monthly fee for what is, feature for feature, a similar set of numbers.
It is the wrong band if you want on-device feedback mid-run, if you need rhythm screening, or if you count stairs and elevation. And it is not an upgrade from a recent Garmin watch, it is the same software with less hardware.
How CIRQA data reaches MyBodyAI
For transparency, since this runs on the Aiclysm site: MyBodyAI does not connect to Garmin with a login. Garmin has not granted API access, so Garmin data arrives as a file export that you upload yourself, either the full data export from your Garmin account or the quick daily export from Garmin Connect. The importer reads up to 90 days back and parses the daily summary, sleep and the binary HRV and Pulse Ox files. CIRQA writes into Garmin Connect the same way a watch does, so the export looks the same, though I have not yet run one from CIRQA hardware. Polar, Fitbit, Withings and Oura connect with a login instead.
Where to buy
Direct from Garmin. The link below is a plain vendor link and earns no commission.
Sources
Price and specifications: the Garmin CIRQA product page and the launch press release, both checked on 2026-08-18. Sensor generation, the upper-arm band and the missing altimeter come from DC Rainmaker's launch write-up; the module dimensions, band sizes and charging time from the5krunner's CIRQA spec sheet. Signal counts, subscription terms and the rival prices are read out of the 113-device catalog behind the comparison pages, not from vendor marketing.
Photograph: Garmin press image, credited under the picture. No CC0 photograph of CIRQA exists yet.
Frequently asked questions
Does the Garmin CIRQA need a subscription?
No. Heart rate, HRV status, sleep stages and score, Body Battery, stress, Pulse Ox, skin temperature, VO2 max, training load and Training Readiness all land in Garmin Connect for free. Connect+ is an optional paid tier on top and none of the metrics above sit behind it.
Does the CIRQA have GPS?
Only connected GPS. There is no satellite receiver in the band, so pace, distance and the route come from the phone in your pocket. Leave the phone at home and the run still records heart rate and time, but not the map.
Does CIRQA measure ECG or blood pressure?
Neither. There is no ECG electrode and no AFib screening, and no cuff, so no blood pressure. It also has no altimeter, which is why floors climbed are missing from the stats.
How long does the CIRQA battery last?
Garmin quotes up to 10 days per charge and about 90 minutes to fill the cell. There is no display to feed, which is most of the reason the number is what it is.
How much does the Garmin CIRQA cost?
$199.99 on the US Garmin store and 4,990 CZK on the Czech one, checked on 2026-08-18. The upper-arm band is a separate accessory.
Does the Garmin CIRQA work with MyBodyAI?
Through a file export, not a login. Garmin has not granted MyBodyAI API access, so MyBodyAI reads Garmin data from an export you upload yourself, up to 90 days back. Polar, Fitbit, Withings and Oura connect with a login.
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