- Garmin is apparently working on a screenless, Whoop-style recovery tracker
- The band is set to launch ‘within two months’ according to leak site The5KRunner
- Details include vibration alarms, LED battery life indicators and tap gestures – just like Whoop
Yes, it’s been rumored before, but it sounds as though we could be seeing a very different style of fitness tracker from Garmin in a couple of months.
Garmin has consistently been known for its smartwatches – it’s why we have a dedicated best Garmin watches list, after all – but the company is reportedly set to debut a Whoop-style screenless tracker “within two months”, according to leak site The5kRunner.
Having apparently seen a confidential source document, The5KRunner refers to it as a “sleep band” stated to provide comfort during use. This is a nice option to have, as Garmin’s chunky watches often aren’t ideal for use during sleep. A buckle mechanism and overlapping adjustable strap makes it sound similar to Whoop.
The comparisons don’t stop there. Features listed include vibration alarm that wakes the wearer, tap gestures to turn off or snooze the alarm, and an LED battery indicator – all emblematic of Whoop.
Sleep tracking is a given, considering the device is said to pack a smart-wake alarm. Smart-wake alarms, a feature recently introduced in the Garmin Vivoactive 6, only work if the wearable is actively tracking sleep stages via heart rate and other metrics.
Whoop’s got some competition
A long time ago, based on my colleague Lance Ulanoff’s findings during CES 2023, I predicted that screenless smartwatches would be the future of fitness.
While that hasn’t strictly proven true until now, 2025 has seen new screenless optical heart rate monitoring fitness tech from Whoop, Coros, and now (apparently) Garmin, not to mention the advent of the best smart rings.
Fitness tracking is going discreet, focusing on the holistic overall benefits of an active lifestyle rather than specifically tracking workouts.
While the best running watches will always have a place, I think an optical armband-based Whoop competitor from a company like Garmin, with an enormous built-in infrastructure for sleep, health and workout tracking, could be a real winner.
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matt.evans@futurenet.com (Matt Evans)
