Garmin Cirqa for Swimmers
Garmin's screenless Cirqa band logs pool swims automatically, but there is no display, no GPS, and no open-water mode. What it does and misses for swimmers.
Garmin's first screenless band launched on July 21 and sold out within days. It auto-detects pool swims and needs no subscription. Whether that makes it a swim tracker is a different question.
The Cirqa is a recovery band that notices you swam, not a swim watch. It logs a pool session automatically and pipes the data into Garmin Connect, which is handy if you want your swims on record without pressing anything. But there is no screen for lap counts or intervals, no GPS, no open-water mode, and no structured workout support. Swimmers who train with any structure still need a watch.
What the Cirqa actually is
The Cirqa is Garmin's answer to Whoop: a 20-gram band with no display that tracks heart rate, HRV, sleep, skin temperature, blood oxygen, respiration, stress, and Body Battery around the clock. It uses the same Elevate Gen 4 optical sensor family found in Garmin's recent watches, broadcasts heart rate over ANT+ and Bluetooth, and claims up to 10 days per charge.
The pitch that made it sell out is the pricing: $199 / €199 once, no subscription. Whoop charges a membership for the same category of data. Garmin puts everything into the free tier of Garmin Connect, the app AquaPlan users already know from their watches. Demand outran supply within days of the July 21 launch, and at the time of writing some configurations show multi-week shipping estimates.
What it deliberately leaves out: a screen, GPS, an altimeter, and support for external sensors. The band auto-detects more than 80 activity types and lets you correct them in Garmin Connect afterwards. That design works for lifestyle tracking. For swim training, the gaps matter more, so let's go through them.
What it does in the pool
The Cirqa is rated 5 ATM, so wearing it in the pool, the shower, and the sauna is fine. Swim in it and the band recognises the activity on its own, or you can start a pool swim from the button before pushing off. Either way, the session lands in Garmin Connect and counts toward your training load and recovery picture.
What you will not get is feedback while swimming. No lap count at the wall, no pace, no interval timer, no vibration alert at the end of a rest period. Garmin also hasn't published a full list of which pool metrics the Cirqa records, so expect a logged session with the basics rather than the length-by-length breakdown, stroke detection, and SWOLF that a dedicated swim watch produces.
The open-water problem
Garmin's spec sheet is explicit: pool swimming only. The band has no GPS, so it physically cannot map an open-water route the way a watch does. If lake or sea swimming is part of your training, the Cirqa records at best a heart rate trace of it.
And that trace deserves scepticism too. In an early open-water test, the5krunner wore the Cirqa through two 15-minute near-threshold efforts. The band averaged 97-99 bpm while a Polar Sense, a Whoop MG, and an Apple Watch Ultra 3 recorded 114-122 bpm on the same swims — an under-read of roughly 20 to 30 bpm. Wrist-based optical heart rate is a known weak point in water for every brand, and one test is one test, but it fits the pattern: cold water and wrist optics do not mix.
DC Rainmaker's land-based testing points the same direction, with the optional biceps band giving consistently stronger readings than the wrist.
To be fair to Garmin: the Cirqa never claims open-water support. The issue is the gap between what a 5 ATM "fitness tracker" sounds like it can do and what it actually does. Swimmers should know the difference before spending €199.
Cirqa vs Forerunner 170: same money, different job
The comparison most swimmers will actually face is the Cirqa against an entry-level swim watch at a similar price, such as the Forerunner 170 . The table shows how differently the two spend the same budget.
1. You already own a swim watch and want recovery data
This is the strongest case. Wear the Cirqa 24/7 for sleep, HRV, and Body Battery, keep racing and training with your watch, and let both feed the same Garmin Connect account. You get a Whoop-style recovery picture with no subscription and no second app.
2. You swim casually and hate wearing a watch
If your swimming is 30 relaxed minutes twice a week and you just want it on record, the Cirqa does that invisibly. You give up lap counts and pace, but you were not checking them anyway.
3. You train with structure — this is not your device
Intervals, send-offs, CSS pacing, open water: all of it needs a screen and a swim profile. Put the €199 toward a proper swim watch instead, or a Swim 2 replacement if that is what you are upgrading from.
Structured training still needs a watch
The Cirqa cannot load a workout, so a set like 8×100 on 1:45 stays in your head or on a soggy piece of paper. If you follow a plan, the workflow that works is unchanged: build the session in the AquaPlan workout generator , export it as a Garmin FIT file, and load it onto a compatible watch. The watch runs the set; the Cirqa, if you wear both, quietly adds the recovery context.
The FIT export guide covers the transfer steps.
Sources and editorial notes
Specifications are taken from Garmin's launch announcement and product documentation as of August 2026. The open-water heart rate figures come from the5krunner's published test and reflect one early sample, not a lab study. Prices and availability change quickly for a sold-out product — confirm current details for your market before buying.
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Written and maintained by AquaPlan Team, Swim Training & Product.
The AquaPlan team builds swim-training software for structured pool workouts, Garmin-compatible FIT export, printable workout PDFs, and progress tracking.
Focus areas: Structured swim workout design, Garmin-compatible FIT file export, Pool training plans and workout-library systems, Swim training tools for web, iOS, and Android.
Editorial standard: AquaPlan is built by lifelong swimmers — 20+ years in the water, competitive racing, and countless hours on deck. Our training guides come from that experience, not a content mill.