Garmin and the screenless rumor
Leaks say Garmin is about to launch a new wearable in March — possibly a CIRQA Smart Band or a next‑gen running watch that might be screenless and aimed at Whoop rivals (notebookcheck.net) (techradar.com). The wearables market is also heating up with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Wear Elite promising AI boosts for future smartwatches and companies touting needle‑free glucose monitoring and real‑time heart‑irregularity detection (techeconomy.ng) (onoff.gr).
Product pages for a device labeled “CIRQA Smart Band” briefly appeared on multiple Garmin web stores on January 25–26, 2026 and included an Add‑to‑Cart button before being pulled; the listing showed part number 010‑04675‑00. (wiki.garminrumors.com) (gadgetsandwearables.com) The leaked pages listed two band sizes — S/M and L/XL — with reported wrist ranges and two colourways (Black and French Grey), and one regional listing explicitly stated “Available to ship in 4–5 months,” a timing cue that points toward May–June 2026 if accurate. (wareable.com) (smartwatchinsight.com) An FCC record associated with Garmin (FCC ID IPH‑04378) has been flagged by researchers as related to the leak, and deep dives into that filing note standard wearable radios — Bluetooth and Wi‑Fi — with filings suggesting no full cellular modem. (fccid.co) (the5krunner.com) Analysts point to Garmin’s use of 010‑series part numbers as an indicator of final retail hardware in the company’s catalog, and Garmin filed some 61 wearable device variants with the FCC in 2025, underscoring an active device pipeline. (the5krunner.com) (gadgetsandwearables.com) Coverage diverges on timing: Notebookcheck reported a March 2026 launch window, but the “4–5 months” ship note on Garmin’s own listing contradicts a March date and instead implies a late‑spring rollout. (notebookcheck.net) (t3.com) Separately, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform at MWC 2026 — a 3nm wearable SoC with an integrated Hexagon NPU for on‑device AI, 5G RedCap and Wi‑Fi improvements, and named partners including Google and Samsung — a platform vendors could adopt for next‑gen watches or AI wearables. (qualcomm.com) (notebookcheck.net) Regulatory and clinical advances in adjacent wearable health tech include Biolinq’s De Novo FDA classification for its needle‑free Shine glucose sensor on September 25, 2025, and the EQUAL trial (reported Jan. 21, 2026) showing smartwatch‑based AFib screening improved new‑onset AF detection in high‑risk older adults. (biospace.com) (acc.org) Early coverage of the CIRQA pages also flagged a likely positioning as a recovery‑focused, screen‑minimal band and noted speculation it may ship without a subscription model, a contrast frequently drawn with incumbent Whoop devices. (t3.com) (wareable.com)
