Garmin this September: the best coach may already be on your wrist

Barbecues, drinks with friends, late nights, shifted schedules and physical activity sometimes put on hold: summer has its pleasures, and it would be a shame to regret them. But as September starts to loom, so does the urge to find a bit of rhythm again. Gym sessions, running, cycling, swimming, golf, hiking or simply a daily walk: the new season can be the right moment to get the body moving again. And in this exercise, a Garmin watch can become much more than a distance counter.

Summer is gently coming to an end. Not entirely, of course. A few evenings on the terrace still hold out, the last departures cross paths with the first returns, and some may still be lucky enough to stretch their holidays a little longer. But something is already changing. The alarm goes off a bit earlier. Schedules start filling up again. School bags reappear. Gyms welcome back their regulars, and running shoes, left at the back of a closet for a few weeks, start staring insistently at their owner again. After the barbecue, the rosé and the slightly short nights comes the time of the new season. Not one of punishment. One of rediscovered balance. And it is precisely at this moment that a Garmin watch can become useful again.

Getting back into it, yes. But getting back into it intelligently

The great mistake of September is probably wanting to regain, within a few days, the fitness level of June. After several weeks with less structure, picking up exactly where you left off is not always the best idea. The body has its own calendar. You need to rebuild habits, reconstruct regularity and accept that sleep, recovery or the overall level of fatigue contribute to progress just as much as the session itself. This is precisely where the sports smartwatch has evolved considerably.

It no longer just counts steps or displays heart rate during a run. The most advanced Garmin models now cross-reference physical activity, sleep, stress, heart rate variability, recovery and various energy or training readiness indicators. On the fēnix 8 Pro AMOLED 47 mm that Passion Horlogère featured in its pages, Garmin brought together advanced sleep tracking, Body Battery, stress, HRV and training readiness score.

The nuance matters. A watch replaces neither a doctor nor a coach when one is needed. Garmin’s wellness tools should not, moreover, be considered diagnostic medical devices. But it can bring something particularly valuable: continuity. And sometimes, when getting back into physical activity, regularity matters more than a single feat.

Garmin fēnix 8 Pro: for those who want to rebuild a genuine sporting dynamic

We asked the question when it was unveiled on Passion Horlogère: is the Garmin fēnix 8 Pro AMOLED 47 mm the best multisport smartwatch in the world? The answer obviously depends on who is wearing it. But for a regular athlete, it has serious arguments in its favor.

Running, strength training, hiking, racket sports, outdoor activities… it brings together, within a single environment, data from very different practices. In our previous test, strength training exercises could notably be accompanied by small animations showing how to perform the movements. The watch therefore does not just record the session: it can help structure it. Its value appears above all when the comeback is built to last.

The morning report, sleep quality, HRV, Body Battery or training readiness help put the day’s session into perspective. A bad night, a busy week or insufficient recovery become factors that can be taken into account rather than stubbornly following a program blindly. And when the first autumn weekends arrive, TopoActive mapping, multi-band GNSS, navigation, altimeter or LED flashlight extend its use toward hiking and outdoor activities. The fēnix 8 Pro naturally speaks to athletes who are already committed, but it can also become a formidable tool for progress for those who want to bring more structure to their practice.

Vincent’s experience: when the watch changes the way you train

Technology, however, truly makes sense once it leaves the spec sheets behind.

Previously, Passion Horlogère met Vincent, 24, a triathlete, who trained five to six times a week with a Garmin Epix Pro generation 2, 51 mm. His account said a lot about the evolution of the sports watch. Vincent had not started triathlon surrounded by complex instruments. It was as he progressed that he felt the need to better understand his training. His Epix Pro then allowed him to bring together swimming, cycling and running, while tracking heart rate and recovery within a single ecosystem.

His experience sums up quite well what Garmin can bring to the demanding athlete: data is only useful when it helps make a decision. Speed up. Slow down. Recover. Change a session. Or sometimes accept doing nothing. For a competitor, this information can help optimize a program. For the amateur, it can simply help avoid confusing motivation with haste. In both cases, the watch becomes a tool for understanding the body as much as an instrument of measurement.

Garmin Venu X1: when fitness meets everyday life

Not everyone is training for a triathlon, however. And not everyone wants to wear a watch on their wrist whose aesthetic is immediately associated with the outdoors. This is probably what makes the Garmin Venu X1 particularly interesting for a September comeback.

Unveiled in June 2025, it visually distances itself from some of Garmin’s traditional sports products. Its rectangular case is only 8 mm thick, with a titanium case back, sapphire glass and, above all, a large 2 inch AMOLED display. Garmin claims up to eight days of battery life in smartwatch mode. This large display deserves to be highlighted. Because data is only useful if it is readable.

Maps, training statistics, heart rate, notifications and health information all benefit here from a generous display surface. Garmin even allows the font size to be adjusted, a detail that may seem minor but makes the product easier to live with for users of very different ages. The Venu X1 can thus suit those who want to run two or three times a week, get back to the gym, walk more, monitor their activity level or simply regain better lifestyle habits, without necessarily entering the highly specialized world of ultra trail running.

Its slimness and ComfortFit nylon strap also make continuous wear easier, from the office to the workout and even through the night. Its screen can display, among other things, heart rate, step count or training readiness level. A speaker, a microphone and an LED flashlight complete this very everyday approach. A Garmin that does not necessarily wait for its wearer at a starting line. It can simply wait for them at the bottom of the stairs.

Approach S44 and S50: getting back into sport can also mean returning to the green

Getting back into sport does not necessarily happen within four walls or on an athletics track. For some, it will happen on a golf course. In early 2025, Garmin launched the Approach S44 and S50, two watches designed to support golfers, with an AMOLED display and mapping of more than 43,000 courses.

The S44 represents the most direct approach: distances to the green, hazards, layups, shot tracking and connected features. The S50 adds a dimension that interests us more in the context of this September comeback: it does not stop at golf.

Heart rate, sleep, stress, Body Battery and numerous sports activities also make it possible to work on overall physical condition, mobility or physical preparation off the course. This may well be another interesting lesson.

Getting back into an activity does not necessarily mean running a half marathon. Walking several kilometres on a course, regaining mobility, working on strength training, getting back on a bike or returning to the pool are all part of exactly the same approach: putting movement back at the center of everyday life.

CIRQA: a sporty comeback without giving up your mechanical watch

And then there are those for whom a question remains almost existential: How can you enjoy Garmin without giving up your mechanical watch?

It is precisely to them that the Garmin CIRQA Smart Band is addressed, unveiled in July 2026 and which we discussed recently on Passion Horlogère. The principle is almost paradoxical for a smartwatch specialist: removing the screen.

The CIRQA thus becomes a discreet sensor that can be worn on the wrist or around the arm. It records information and then relays it in Garmin Connect, without trying to visually take the watch’s place. Garmin claims up to ten days of battery life, and no subscription is required to access the main features. For the mechanical watch enthusiast, the proposition is remarkable. It becomes possible to wear a favorite diver, chronograph or dress watch while still keeping continuity in Garmin tracking. And the CIRQA is far from limited to step counting.

Garmin states that it can track more than 80 activity types, with automatic detection of several of them, and that it gives access to indicators such as training readiness, HRV, VO2 max, recovery time, Body Battery, sleep or stress. It also takes into account certain data related to women’s health, notably menstrual cycle tracking, and, when worn during sleep, skin temperature information that can improve certain estimates offered by Garmin. This may well be the product that best reconciles the two worlds dear to Passion Horlogère: the watch as an object of passion and the wearable as a measurement tool.

A watch for athletes. But above all for those who want to move

What ultimately stands out when looking at the Garmin ecosystem today is the extraordinary breadth of its range.

A young athlete may find in a fēnix a playful assistant capable of structuring their training and encouraging them to stay consistent. In our feature devoted to the fēnix 8 Pro, Esteban’s experience showed precisely how the strength training, tracking and recovery features could contribute to that motivation. A triathlete like Vincent will look for precision, endurance and analysis in it. A golfer will choose an Approach. A user more interested in wellbeing and daily activity may prefer the slimness and large display of the Venu X1. A mechanical watch collector, meanwhile, can choose the CIRQA and keep enjoying their traditional timepieces.

And what about someone who does not do any sport yet? Perhaps that is exactly the person for whom the tool can be most valuable. Because September’s first victory is not necessarily running ten kilometres. It can be walking for thirty minutes. Taking the stairs again. Going to the pool once. Signing up for that class you have been putting off for six months. Then going back the following week.

The real goal of the comeback: rediscovering regularity

Smartwatches love numbers. Kilometres, calories, heart rate, VO2 max, recovery time, step count, hours of sleep… But the essential thing is perhaps not found in the most spectacular of them. It is found in repetition. The appointment kept. The session completed. The night properly slept. The day when you accept to recover. Then the one when you set off again.

In this way, Garmin has gradually turned the sports watch into something more interesting than a simple performance counter. It becomes a witness to everyday life, able to put effort, recovery and lifestyle habits into perspective. Summer perhaps needed a few excesses. September, on the other hand, does not need penance. Only a little movement. And for that, September’s first coach may already be strapped to our wrist.

To discover Garmin’s full lineup for getting back into sport

Frequently asked questions