Garmin launched the CIRQA in July as the anti-smartwatch: a $199.99 band with no screen, no GPS, and, at least at launch, no subscription. Three months later it has become the most interesting problem in the company's wearable lineup.
On Wednesday's Q3 earnings call, CEO Cliff Pemble was asked how the new products are ramping. His answer was that Garmin cannot build them fast enough.
"We are still catching up on some of the initial demand, especially on CIRQA, although Fenix is also very, very strong," Pemble said. "We are working hard to fill that backlog of demand we have for those new products."
The press release only said initial demand was very strong. The call went further: Garmin is still working through a backlog, gave no unit numbers, no revenue split, and no shipping timeline, which means the demand is real but unquantified. What it did confirm is that the constraint is manufacturing capacity rather than demand.
"A happy problem"
Pressed later on whether CIRQA buyers drift up to screened Garmin models once they see how little more it costs to get a display, Pemble pushed back on the premise.
"It is a very, very popular product," he said. "I think people that are looking at CIRQA are looking at it for a specific reason, which is the screenless approach, and they want the ability to have flexibility with other devices that they might wear."
Then came the phrase Garmin would not have used in a bad quarter: "The demand that we have been experiencing for CIRQA is very strong and definitely exceeded our expectations, which is what I like to call a happy problem. So we are working hard to expand our production and to fill all the orders that we have."
Garmin is running close to its current capacity, and the relief valve is not close. The new Thailand manufacturing facility is still on track to start producing in the first quarter of 2027, which means the holiday shopping season runs on the capacity Garmin has today.
The subscription twist
Here is the part that matters more than the backlog. Garmin has spent two years arguing that Connect Plus is optional, and the CIRQA was the purest expression of that pitch: buy the hardware, get the health data, pay nothing monthly.
Pemble said CIRQA owners are signing up anyway.
"Connect Plus has outgrown the general rates of the underlying segments where those products can benefit from Connect Plus," he said. "It's growing from a smaller base, but Connect Plus has outpaced our expectations and the renewals and the commitments after the free periods have been very strong for those people that sign up for it. And even products that you wouldn't suspect would be of interest for Connect Plus, particularly CIRQA. People are also signing up for Connect Plus to get more out of CIRQA."
Connect Plus costs $6.99 per month or $69 per year in the US after a 30-day trial, and Garmin said renewals after that free period have been stronger than it expected. Asked whether new products might ship with features that are only available through the subscription, Pemble confirmed the company is already doing it with nutrition tracking and gave the clearest statement yet of where the line sits.
"In general, our approach to the market has always been to offer rich features on our products that delight our customers and satisfy them," he said. "And if they want more, we'll offer more with Connect Plus."
None of that changes the core promise. Every core CIRQA function still works without paying, and Garmin still describes Connect Plus as optional rather than essential. But a screenless band that quietly converts into a recurring revenue stream is a very different product from the one that launched in July, and it explains why Garmin is comfortable spending on production capacity for a $199 device.
Who is actually buying
The call also drew a clean line between the two halves of Garmin's wearable business.
Fenix 9 buyers, according to Pemble, are overwhelmingly existing Garmin owners upgrading from watches more than one generation old. First-time buyers are arriving through CIRQA, the Vivoactive line, and the entry-level Forerunners like the Forerunner 170 and 470.
"I think the new user profile outside of Fenix is very, very strong, heavily weighted towards new users," he said. "Products like CIRQA, products like Vivoactive, the entry level running products like the 470 and 170 all attract significant numbers of new users to the Garmin ecosystem."
That is the strategic case for a screenless band, and it is the reason a $199.99 device without GPS matters to a company whose flagship watches sell for several times that. The CIRQA is not competing with the Fenix. It is competing for the wrist of someone who would otherwise buy nothing, or buy a Whoop.
What it means if you want one
Garmin did not say how long backorders will take, and it did not put a number on how far behind production is. Two things are clear from the call.
- Supply stays tight into 2027. The Thailand plant does not start producing until Q1 2027, so anything bought for the holidays comes from existing lines.
- No price cut is coming to clear inventory. There is no inventory to clear. Products with backorders do not get discounted, and the pricing commentary on the same call leaned the other way.
If you are weighing the CIRQA against a Whoop or a Fitbit Air, the decision has not changed on hardware. Our CIRQA vs Whoop vs Fitbit Air comparison still lands where it did in September, and our full CIRQA review covers what a week of screenless tracking actually feels like. What has changed is the subscription math: budget for Connect Plus being genuinely useful, then decide whether the free tier is enough.
Bottom Line
Garmin built the CIRQA to prove it could sell a tracker without a screen, and it accidentally proved it could sell a subscription on top of one. Demand beat the internal forecast, the backlog runs into the holiday season, and extra capacity does not arrive until the first quarter of next year.
For a device that launched as the simplest thing Garmin makes, that is a surprisingly complicated result. It also means the next CIRQA, whenever it comes, will be built on very different assumptions than this one.
Sources: Garmin Q3 2026 earnings call transcript (Motley Fool and Gloom, independently transcribed, quotes cross-checked), Garmin's Q3 press release and investor guidance, Gadgets & Wearables' call coverage, and our own July 2026 CIRQA launch coverage. Garmin has not disclosed CIRQA unit sales.
