Garmin Cirqa Review – Trusted Reviews

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Introduction

Garmin is the latest wearable brand to introduce a screenless fitness tracker.

Coined Cirqa, the tracker is designed to allow you to quietly yet accurately track your key metrics and workouts without distracting you with a shiny screen. But with Whoop leading the market for so many years, and Google’s Fitbit Air receiving a glowing five-star rating from us, where exactly does the Garmin Cirqa fit? 

We’ve been reviewing the Cirqa for the past few weeks to find out whether it stands a chance at entering our best fitness trackers guide.

Design

• Screenless design
• Physical button that’s used to start tracking a workout
• Module sticks out slightly

I’ve waxed lyrical about how screenless fitness trackers are the first to actually keep me motivated, so I was especially keen to get my hands on the Cirqa.

Much like the Whoop and Fitbit Air, the Cirqa is a screenless device designed to quietly track your health data and workouts, then sync all the info to its companion app for you to check later. The idea is that you’re not constantly distracted by notifications, or tempted to see how your metrics are looking while working out.

The module that houses the battery and sensor (which is a Gen 4 sensor and not the newer Gen 5, but more on that later) sits under the fabric strap, and has a physical button at its side. The button lets you quickly start tracking an activity without needing to rely on auto-tracking or dive into the app. Although you can assign only one activity to the button, it’s still very useful and comes in handy.

My biggest issue with the module isn’t that its sensor is an older generation, but that it doesn’t sit neatly under the small/medium-sized strap. Compared to the Fitbit Air and Whoop, its edges stick out slightly, yet the strap is noticeably thicker than the Fitbit Air’s at 24mm. It just doesn’t look quite as sleek or discreet as I’d like. 

Speaking of the strap, the included fabric band, which comes in a choice between four colours, is undoubtedly on the sporty side. It doesn’t look so alarming when I’m exercising, but it doesn’t quite look the part in everyday outfits.

Admittedly, this is down to personal preference, but I’d like to see Garmin offer some less sporty-focused straps. Whoop, for example, offers sleek leather bands while the Fitbit Air has silicon straps that just look nicer than the Cirqa’s. 

Features and App

• No built-in GPS but Garmin’s Connected GPS does offer accurate tracking
• Auto-workout detection is reliable
• Natural Cycles integration

Unlike many of the best Garmin watches, the Cirqa isn’t equipped with built-in GPS but Connected GPS instead, which means the Cirqa uses the GPS signal from your paired phone to accurately track your pace and location. That means you will need to bring your phone with you if you want to track your running route, for example. 

I don’t see this as an issue at all, as I would always bring my phone out for a run with me for a variety of reasons (safety, listening to music and taking a photo of a sunset as an excuse to stop running, in that order). However, if you’ve grown accustomed to leaving your phone at home, then this might be a dealbreaker. 

Even so, I found the location tracking to be pretty accurate, as it clearly follows and correctly maps my routes via the Garmin Connect app. It did once suggest I had meandered into the Thames while on a lunchtime walk into Canary Wharf, rather than walking neatly on the road alongside it, but that seems like an anomaly as I’ve done the route countless times since with no issue.

Auto-workout detection is reliable overall, and the Cirqa does a good job of deciphering when I start and end both walks and runs. It did oddly detect that I was walking when I was sitting on a train into London, which was weird, but again that seems like a strange outlier rather than an ongoing issue.  

One of the newer additions to Garmin is its Natural Cycles integration, an MHRA-registered fertility-tracking app. While this requires a separate subscription, Natural Cycles monitors your skin temperature overnight to determine your fertile and non-fertile days, so you can plan or prevent pregnancy.

I’ve previously used the Natural Cycles band to track my temperature overnight and, although I receive notifications to remind me to pop it on before bedtime, it can be easy to forget – especially when going to bed at different times. That’s where the Cirqa (and other compatible Garmin watches) comes in so handy, as I wear it 24/7, so I don’t need to worry about putting it on overnight. 

Otherwise, as a screenless tracker, its companion app is naturally crucial. Enter Garmin Connect. The app, which is available on both iOS and Android, is easy to use with all your health and fitness metrics clearly labelled and listed. The At a Glance section is customisable, so you can pick and choose which metrics you can see instantly. 

Unlike Whoop, a subscription isn’t required to make the most of the Cirqa, but you can choose to sign up to its Garmin Connect Plus plan. This unlocks Active Intelligence, Garmin’s AI-powered feature that provides personalised insights, nutrition tracking and Garmin Coach. It’ll set you back either £69.99 a year or £6.99 a month, and could come in handy for those who want access to Coach and AI. 

Health and Fitness Tracking

• Tracking for over 80 workouts
• Body Battery monitoring
• Excellent sleep tracking

Aside from its design, arguably the reason to opt for the Garmin Cirqa is its excellent health and fitness tracking features. Thanks to its Gen 4 sensor, the Cirqa can track metrics such as heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, stress levels, HRV, VO2 Max, and more. 

However, it’s worth noting that Garmin has since introduced the Gen 5 sensor, which promises overall better responsiveness, the ability to take an ECG, and skin temperature sensing. Garmin explained its decision to use Gen 4 over the newer Gen 5 was because it’s smaller and would sit more discretely than the latter.

In fairness, I do understand the reasoning, and definitely wouldn’t want a larger sensor than this one, but it’s a shame nonetheless.

Even so, the Cirqa still offers accurate monitoring that aligns with my Whoop MG (a device that can take an ECG). For example, both devices give me an average HRV reading of between 74 and 75. 

What’s especially interesting is its sleep tracking. Each morning you’re given a score out of 100 to reflect how well you slept, alongside a breakdown of your sleep cycle, restless moments and how sleep improved your Body Battery score over the night.

You can then visit the Sleep Coach tab, which advises you on how long you should sleep. Its data generally lines up with Whoop, though there are a few inconsistencies I’ve noticed, such as wake-up times and the exact sleep stages. 

The Cirqa also shines with its activity tracking. Its auto-detection is incredibly accurate, which means I haven’t had to worry about reaching for my phone. Although the Cirqa isn’t fitted with built-in GPS, auto-workout detection still uses your smartphone’s GPS to provide accurate distance and location data.

Regardless of whether you’ve manually tracked a workout or let the Garmin auto-detect it, the Cirqa will provide you with a GPS map overlay so you can see how your pace, heart rate and elevation changes while out on your run or walk.

I also used the Cirqa to track a couple of light Yoga sessions, which provided an accurate overview of my heart and respiratory rates. However, I was surprised to see just one pose logged. After doing some digging, you’re actually meant to manually add in each pose that you do after the workout, which feels pretty laborious. 

Otherwise, Training Readiness is available on the Cirqa, which helps advise you on what level of workout intensity you should do. Your score, out of 100, takes into account last night’s Sleep Score, your Acute Load, HRV status, and recent stress and sleep levels.

Generally, I had no disputes with my Training Readiness score during my review period, as it aligned with how I felt. Now, whether I took heed of its advice and ran a 10K is a different story. 

Battery Life

• Garmin’s claims of up to 10 days are accurate
• Charging takes under two hours

Garmin claims that the Cirqa should see around 10 days of battery life, which puts it right between the Fitbit Air and Whoop, with the former promising up to seven days while the latter offers up to 14.

In my experience, I’ve found the Cirqa lives up to Garmin’s claim, as I last charged it six days ago and am currently sitting at 52%. That suggests it could surpass its 10-day promise and maybe edge towards the two-week mark.

You could probably eke out a bit more juice by switching on the Battery Saver option, which disables heart rate monitoring, auto-activity detection, the start activity function, and pulse oxygen monitoring. However, I doubt anyone would really need to, as even with the option turned off and all tracking settings enabled, I’ve still found that the Cirqa has a solid battery life.

I do wish there were on-wrist charging, like the Whoop, as it’s just so convenient. Instead, it uses Garmin’s usual proprietary cable, which I found took just over an hour to recharge the Cirqa.

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