Whoop and Google have a new rival: this is the Garmin CIRQA, the screenless bracelet that does not require a subscription

Garmin has made the CIRQA official, its first screen-free activity bracelet, and with it it directly enters the field that Whoop had been occupying alone for years and that Google has just joined with the Fitbit Air. The proposal is clear: measure all day without anything to look at on your wrist, and without the obligation to pay a monthly fee for the device to work.

The price is 199.99 euros, a figure that places it below the accumulated cost of a year's subscription of its direct rivals and that makes the business model the main commercial argument of the product.

The CIRQA completely renounces the screen. There are no notifications, no dial to consult, no touch interaction beyond the bare minimum. All the information lives in the mobile application, and the bracelet behaves like a discreet sensor that is left on the wrist.

The direct technical consequence is autonomy: up to 10 days per charge, a range that eliminates the battery anxiety that smart watches with always-on displays entail. The design consequence is a thin, light and comfortable device for sleeping, something decisive in a product whose star function is sleep analysis.

The sensor package covers continuous heart rate, respiratory rate, oxygen saturation, skin temperature, stress levels from heart variability, detailed sleep tracking with phases and scoring, hydration recording, women's health and the Garmin ecosystem's own metrics such as Body Battery.

The GPS is connected, not integrated: the bracelet uses the phone's GPS to record routes, a decision consistent with the objective of keeping consumption low and size small. For serious running or cycling, Garmin is still aiming for its watches; The CIRQA is intended for continuous recording of health and general activity.

Here's the direct hit on Whoop. CIRQA works without a subscription: you buy it, sync with Garmin Connect, and access critical metrics without paying anything extra. The advanced layers—more elaborate analytics, long-term reporting, personalized recommendations—fall behind Garmin Connect+, the company's paid plan.

This separation between product and service is the exact opposite of the Whoop model, where hardware is meaningless without active quota. For the user who just wants reliable data without recurring commitment, the difference is substantial.

The bracelet comes in two sizes and four colors, with interchangeable straps that allow it to be adapted to sports or everyday use. The target audience is recognizable: those who want continuous health metrics without adding another screen to their life, those who sleep with the device on, and those who are already within the Garmin ecosystem and are looking for a discreet complement to their main watch.

With CIRQA, the screenless wearables segment ceases to be an experimental niche and begins to have three major players competing for it. The decisive variable will not be the sensor – all three measure well – but rather how much the user is willing to pay each month for their own data.