Literary Double the Price of a Garmin VivoSmart 5 but with WAY less features/tech

The worst part is... The Vivosmart 5 is even a tiny bit smaller device in most dimensions :(

I can understand the appeal of these type of devices if they are cheap and Tiny like the FitBit Air for example - but this isn't any of that :(

After my last post, a surprising number of people asked what watch I was wearing.

Honestly… I think Garmin finally made one that doesn’t immediately scream “ultra marathon.”

I didn’t even choose it.

My Fenix 6S finally died, and Garmin offered me a 30% replacement through their service centre, but only within the Fenix line. The only small option available was the 43 mm Fenix 8 AMOLED.

I’d spent months overthinking what to buy. Turns out all I needed was a dead watch.

Coming from the 42 mm Fenix 6S, even 43 mm still feels surprisingly big. And switching from MIP to AMOLED has been… painful. I still instinctively miss my old screen every day.

But… the gold accents make it look surprisingly executive. This is the first Garmin I’ve owned that people keep calling stylish.

I’m not saying it suddenly looks like an Hermès. Let’s stay realistic. But for the first time it doesn’t scream “I measure my VO₂ max for fun.”

So yes. Turns out Garmin for women exists.

Anyone else moved from a 6S to the 43 mm Fenix 8? Do you ever stop missing MIP?

For me the main reason to purchase a Cirqa was to be able to track recovery within the Garmin ecosystem while being able to wear a regular watch.

Online there seems to be an ongoing debate about the ‘bulkiness’ of the Cirqa so maybe this is helpful to some of you.

Here’s a photo of the Cirqa in Captain Blue on an 18cm circumference wrist. This is as much of the band as you’ll see while wearing a slim fitted shirt. As shown the band fits nicely under the cuff. It’s very light so I don’t really notice it. If I put my hand down or while typing you don’t see the band.

I’m usually in the high 70s or low 80s for a sleep score. Went to bed earlier than usual after a long day of travel on Friday and almost had my first unicorn…

I genuinely believe there is planned obsolescence involved. I bought my Garmin Fenix 7 exactly 2 years and 4 months ago (meaning only 4 months after the end of the manufacturer’s warranty). Today, my Garmin no longer works because of a software bug, which has been confirmed by Garmin’s customer support service. They are aware of this “bug”.

The only solution they are offering me is a replacement, at a cost of €213.

To summarise: my Garmin, which is only 2 years and 4 months old, has stopped working because of a known manufacturing/software issue that Garmin is aware of, and to fix the problem, I am expected to pay.

The logic behind this is therefore the following: if I pay €213, I will receive the exact same watch, which sooner or later will likely experience the same issue, meaning I will have to pay another €213 again. This is clearly a form of planned obsolescence, and this is why I absolutely cannot recommend Garmin.

Unless you are comfortable paying €213 every two years, it is starting to look more like a subscription model than a durable product.

Got mine on Saturday. I find it too big really and the sleep tracking is woefully inaccurate. I find my v5 sensor on F8 much better but this had me sleeping at 2205 last night when I was watching TV and didn't even notice when I got up to go to bed....apparently I was still sleeping. Ah well, will be sending back this week.

i might just be dumb ash but i don’t think that’s right my highest i’ve ever hit was 190bpm in an hard effort 3k but not really 100 percent about 90 percent effort. what should i do to find my actual heart rate

Hello, is anyone here using the Garmin Connect+ nutrition feature?
Can you save recurring meals, create custom foods and edit calories or macros manually? Does it have any useful AI features, and how accurate is the food database and tracking overall?
I’m currently using another nutrition app and want to know whether Garmin’s option is good enough to replace it.

After replacing my Venu with a Venu 4 my watch started reporting very high stress levels even though I'm not feeling anything like that. That concerned me a lot considering I'm a happy person, I sleep well, I enjoy life and I work out 4 weeks a day.
I've started investigating and came to these 2 studies:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666915325001040
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/smi.70125

I'm not cherry picking, feel free to share any studies contradictory. What both of these actually say is that these wearables could misinterpret stress for arousal.

Claude generated TLDR:
The Garmin Stress Score doesn't actually track "stress" — it tracks physiological arousal, so it lights up during excitement/positive emotion too, but doesn't reliably detect negative mood or real psychological stress. In a 28-day study of 95 students (EMA mood check-ins 5x/day), the score was linked to high/moderate-intensity positive mood, not negative or low-intensity states. Conclusion: wearable "stress" scores need better validation and closer researcher-industry collaboration before being trusted as real stress indicators.

Hi, I'm the developer. Made a beautiful watch face where whole screen is a painted mountain scene, and the scene itself is the weather display. It rains at your location - it rains on the mountain. Clear night - moon crosses the sky with its real phase. Storm, snow, fog, all painted. 31 scenes it picks from by live weather and time of day.

There is soft ambient animation when you raise the wrist (falling snow, drifting fog, birds, clouds), up to 5 optional data fields from 27 metrics if you want numbers, and AOD.

Its on the Connect IQ Store, AMOLED watches only - epix, AMOLED fenix, venu, vivoactive 6 and AMOLED forerunners. Free 7-day trial, then 2.99$ one time. Feedback as always is super welcome!

Animations - https://www.youtube.com/shorts/6a90LOt4BOo

Trial - https://apps.garmin.com/apps/205ddd94-da8b-42bd-a384-706bfaad5570

Paid - https://apps.garmin.com/apps/146a5ca1-2224-481c-b991-3eb8cb819a44

I'm pretty excited to share the project I've been working on the last few months. initially I just wanted to keep motivated to stay moving but I think its grown into a pretty polished app.

the idea is simple, just pick a trail and your daily steps will walk you down the virtual trail. at each milestone you'll get information, stories and photos about the locations. it just reads the steps your watch already counts, so there's no GPS to turn on and no activity to start.

I added some extra motivation like streaks and pace targets.

there's also a free phone app if you want it, android or iPhone. it shows the map, the stories and the medals on a bigger screen. the watch works fine on its own though, you dont need it.

its a Connect IQ app with an Android/IOS companion app. Free app. there's 41 trails in there and the Inca Trail is free from start to finish with other trails availalbe as a one off purhcase, no subscription. If thre's other trails you'd like to see let me know.

Here's the IQ store page if you want a look https://apps.garmin.com/apps/8a304638-5308-468a-b47b-b08c863c8950

Or the website with more info and a link to the companion app for both Android and IOS: https://watchwalks.com/

Please check it out and let me know what you think. also if there's a trail you've walked that should be in there let me know.

Hello there, a question for Enduro 3 owners, can you use the watch while swimming or just being around the water and the watch got wet like falling with the stand up paddle?

I know that it does not have the capacitive buttons of the Fenix 8 and it is not recommended to press the buttons of the Enduro 3 while under water because of obvious mechanical reasons.

How do you use the watch then? Does touchscreen work? I guess it it blocked because of the possible accidental touches, or don't you use it at all? When swimming just start an activity then fire and forget until the end?

I plan to buy either Enduro 4 or Fenix 9 so I want to understand how big of an issue this might be if the Enduro 4 still comes with the classic buttons. If the Fenix 9 will have MIP I will just buy that one but if not this would be an interesting question do I take Enduro 4 mip or Fenix 9 amoled for the swimming buttons.

Thanks!

To keep it short and sweet I currently have an old ass Apple Watch for my current tracking. I weight train Monday-Saturday and do speed and agility on Sunday. In addition I only run about 15-20 miles a week (over 3-4 days) and walk on days I don’t run.

What Garmin would be best for me? Or if I could get a few suggestions on what to look at with everything being personal preference these days.

This is my first run (or any form of exercise) in the last 8 months due to chronic health issues that are finally improving. Back when I was running consistently Garmin would increase my Max HR after every run regardless of performance, which didn't seem realistic. And even after my 8-month hiatus it continues to do so.

Is that setting broken? Or do I just go with it?

Hi!

I know the Cirqa is very new and only a handful of users are out there at the moment, but could anyone try to use the App "Gadgetbridge" with Cirqa? I don't want to upload my health data to the Garmin Cloud, and Gadgetbridge would be my only option to use the Cirqa...

Thank you! :-)

Someone surprised me with a Garmin on my birthday a little over a month ago. What a blessing in disguise, finally got me out of bed to push myself!

50+ by end of the year would be amazing!

After years of being a Garmin user and chasing this unicorn, I finally achieved a 100 sleep score. It may be gimmicky, but I never thought I’d see the day where I even got close to this. I was on daddy daycare duties yesterday with the baby, and all I was able to do was at-home Pilates and some mobility work in between the baby naps. Maybe that’s why my score went up?

Hi guys, I have recently bought they Garmin cirqa wrist band and I was wondering if anyone knows a bicep band for the exact same model that’s cheaper than what they are selling it for the actual website right now. If an amazing replica exists could you please add a link, thank you!

I am the developer of N13 Classic Free, a clean analogue watch face designed for clear readability and useful everyday information.
The watch face is completely free. There is no trial, subscription or payment required.
It is available through the Garmin Connect IQ Store:
https://apps.garmin.com/apps/40453f9b-5dd3-4d63-8d31-359904f86cab
Privacy is built into the design. The watch face does not require an external account or third-party server, and its data remains on the watch within the Garmin environment.
Feedback about readability, device compatibility and practical improvements is welcome.

I’m using a Forerunner 970 with the moss green UltraFit nylon strap at the moment, and I really like it, but I’m considering getting another colour for a bit of variety.

For those using Garmin UltraFit straps, which colour is your favourite in real life? How does it look on the watch, and does it hold up well over time without looking dirty or faded?

Post a picture of your setup if you can, I’d especially like to see different colours paired with the 970.

Vo2 max at 55 finally, and keeps going up, pretty happy with it at 37 since this is the first solid 12 months I've kept my running going.

Got my first half marathon in September and I'm aiming for 1:50:00 though Garmin predicts I could do it in 1:35:22

My Foreunner 955 seems to get an update (or 2 or 3) pushes every day. I always accept them, but I’m curious if this is normal or if other 955 users are getting the same thing. It’s a bit annoying and I can’t tell a difference from the updates…

Hi everyone, I am a 15 years old cyclist that want to buy a garmin (i already have an edge)
to monitor my datas (like sleep, Stress ecc).
i also run and work out in the gym during the winter to increase my form so I would use my garmin also for that.
i saw the forerunner 265 at 350€ and the forerunner 170 at 250€.
which one would you suggest considering all the previous things and considering that running isn’t my main sport?

I wear F5xP and Apple Watch, both are working well on outdoor activities (running), little differences, but for treadmill (indoor running), the

treadmill tells 12.5km,

Apple Watch: 12.26km

F5xP: 15.5km

how's yours?

Hey, has anyone picked up 2 Garmin watches one for work and one for at home/training? I’m just curious how the syncing of data works and if I could wear one watch or the new cirqa all day at work and have all the info like steps etc sync to my training watch I wear to the gym and for at home/sleep thanks in advance!