Polar Says Consumer-Focused Whoop Competitor Coming This September

June 17, 2025 by |Polar|Comments (21)

More than a year after Polar announced its corporate business-only focused wearable band, the Polar 360, the company is finally announcing that something will be coming in September. That existing product is a wearable band with a Polar optical HR sensor, but lacking any sort of of visible screen. Further, the company leverages their existing online training and analysis platform, Polar Flow, to provide users with a view into their daily metrics.

Now, Polar is saying they’ll be bringing some sort of device to consumers on September 3rd. Here’s what they have to say:

“The upcoming Polar wearable will not only be the brand’s first screen-free wrist device, but it will also be a subscription-free alternative to other health bands and fitness trackers on the market.

 

The new device introduces a fresh, liberating way to stay in tune with your sleep, activity, health, and fitness—without the weight, bulk, or distraction of traditional wearables.

 

By eliminating the need for a screen, this new category of wearables captures accurate insights and data in the background without intruding on users’ daily lives, blending seamlessly into their routines as they go about their day. Users can then check their stats and progress whenever it suits them, staying connected to their sleep, activity, health, and fitness—without it demanding their attention.”

Beyond that, within the press release it was just a bunch of typical rah-rah type wordsmithing to let you know excitement is coming. Otherwise, details were thin.

However, the key bits here would be:

– Screenless activity tracking band for sleep, daily activity tracking, and fitness tracking
– No subscription required
– September 3rd, 2025

But…yeah, thin on details. When asked whether or not they’ll be re-using the same hardware as the Polar 360, Polar declined to comment, saying to wait till closer to release.

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While I can somewhat understand the strategy of putting out a placeholder now, we’re talking nearly 3 months away. Undoubtedly, they’re trying to take advantage of consumer frustrating with Whoop and their recent Whoop 5.0/MG launch, plus also trying to undercut AmazFit’s recent entrance into this market. Atop whatever other rumors are swirling out there.

And I get that, I really do. But I think Polar would be better served providing slightly more details here, especially an actual name of the product. That in and of itself would be a huge marketing coup, because again, every single review this summer of the Whoop & AmazFit products would be compared to it by name. Likewise, while Polar is at least confirming it’s subscription free, having some sort of price range would also be key to driving attention.

Reasons to choose 360 bg desktop.

In any case, Polar’s marketing efforts aside, we’ll simply have to wait till September to see how well this thing works, is priced, and everything else. I’m deeply hoping there’s some sort of app refresh to go along with it. The most common complaint about Polar Flow (the app) is that it’s feeling pretty stale these days. Totally functional (mostly), but definitely behind the times. Still, most people can probably get over that if there’s no subscription cost, and a reasonable device cost.

With that, thanks for reading, and stay tuned, more to come!

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21 Comments

  1. Robin
    June 17, 2025 at 6:28 am #1

    I’d buy a Garmin version of this in a heartbeat.

    Reply
  2. John Tomac
    June 17, 2025 at 6:35 am #8

    Great news! A screenless suscription free device is what a lot of user want. I hope Polar and Amazfit whould be as precise as Whoop.

    Reply
    • Tiago
      June 17, 2025 at 8:54 am #9

      Exactly what I’ve been looking for. I’m sure many prefer, such as I, to wear traditional watches but still want to get health and fitness data. Rings and watches are not suitable to contact sports such as judo or jiu-jitsu. This will be a winner.

      Reply
  3. Ronald
    June 17, 2025 at 7:05 am #10

    Will there be a review on the Garmin Edge MTB? Just noticed it appear on the UK website?!

    Reply
  4. Tiago
    June 17, 2025 at 8:55 am #13

    Exactly

    Reply
  5. Kieron
    June 17, 2025 at 9:35 am #14

    Has DCR (or anyone here) used a Polar 360? I haven’t seen many reviews on it so would be interesting to know if Polar are starting from a good base. Working assumption the new band will be a direct descendant to the Polar 360

    Reply
    • Ray Maker
      June 17, 2025 at 10:24 am #15

      I’ve been meaning to try and order one as a business, literally have a tab open for like 6 months now. I know some regular readers that just straight-up ordered one under the name of their company/etc…

      Reply
  6. ameya
    June 17, 2025 at 9:37 am #16

    i want to buy this band

    Reply
  7. David T.
    June 17, 2025 at 9:56 am #17

    While this is light on details, I think this makes a ton of sense right now. Whoop is update, amazfit has the helio coming, and Garmin has it’s thing. If Polar is jumping into the market, it’s smart to let people know before they commit to any of those.

    I’m pretty excited for this. Garmin’s latest moves haven’t made my very happy and while I still love my Forerunner and Edge, I’m happy to check out Polar 360. I cancelled whoop last year and I’m really glad I did after their new device fiasco too.

    So I want more details but this might be enough to make people wait for more.

    Reply
  8. Xabbar
    June 17, 2025 at 10:35 am #18

    I don’t see any relevant difference compared to VeritySense. An accurate, convenient heart rate device with memory capacity without a screen.
    Perhaps the only difference is that VeritiySense is worn on the upper arm.

    Reply
    • Ray Maker
      June 17, 2025 at 10:39 am #19

      The Verity sense is a traditional HR monitor, which is used for sport usage. That’s it. It can’t capture sleep, steps, etc…

      This is a 24×7 band that is designed to capture sleep, steps/activity, workouts, etc… and do so for many days constantly on.

      Reply
  9. Marton
    June 17, 2025 at 10:39 am #20

    I think this will be very a very good offering if 2 things are achieved:
    – a good name – like Polar Bear, you wrote
    – redesign is done on the Flow app.

    I am a recent Vantage M3 user, the HW is OK – I like larger watches, but have to spare money right now –, the software is OK-ish…? I mean I can find anything, but do I wish I don’t have to google everything I want to find AFTER I read the documentation? Yes. Also the illogical things, like the sleep data display in more pages/views… The Flow app could use a redesign and not just from the how-it-works perspective, because it looks a little like Windows 98/Mac OS 9.

    Reply
  10. Xabbar
    June 17, 2025 at 11:00 am #21

    Garmin also has something for the upper arm?
    Garmin Index Sleep Monitor: A New Arm-Worn Sleep-Focused Tracker is Coming….

    Reply