Garmin’s New Venu 4 Challenges Apple Watch for Health & Fitness Supremacy

Smartwatches are getting more advanced as Garmin debuts the Venu 4 with habit tracking and precision metrics, while Apple pushes closer toward healthcare

The smartwatch battle is heating up as Garmin recently announced the Venu 4 with habit tracking, circadian sleep alignment and accessibility features, while Apple leans on medical-grade alerts and satellite safety in its Series 11 and Ultra 3.

When wearables first appeared on the fitness scene, they were simple step counters and heart rate monitors. Now a multibillion-dollar industry, devices are more like portable health clinics than accessories.

Companies like Whoop, Oura, Garmin,and Apple are all racing to seize market share.

Garmin Goes Deep on Fitness & Wellness Features

Garmin’s latest launch, the Venu 4, demonstrates a focus on lifestyle context, accessible design and performance-driven coaching.

The Venu 4 builds on Garmin’s reputation for precision metrics but also goes further in connecting everyday behaviors to health outcomes. The watch monitors heart rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature and blood oxygen levels during sleep, and then flags when those measures shift from a user’s baseline.

The Venu 4’s lifestyle logging feature allows users to record habits like caffeine or alcohol intake and track how those choices affect sleep quality, stress levels and recovery. This creates a feedback loop between action and outcome, which Garmin hopes will create lasting behavioral changes.

Sleep remains a central battleground in the wearables market, and Garmin has added features aimed at deeper personalization. The Venu 4 introduces sleep alignment, a metric showing how closely a person’s rest matches their circadian rhythm and sleep consistency, which tracks bedtime regularity over the course of a week.

Combined with the new Garmin Fitness Coach, which delivers daily, adaptive workouts across 25 activities based on recovery, past training and sleep, the device positions itself as a personal coach.

Garmin is also pushing the conversation forward with accessibility. The Venu 4 offers a spoken watch face that audibly delivers the time and health data, along with customizable color filters designed for people with various forms of color blindness. These features sit alongside practical touches like a built-in LED flashlight, speaker and microphone and a sophisticated metal design in two sizes. Garmin also promises up to 12 days of battery life in smartwatch mode.

Apple Pushes Closer Toward Healthcare

Apple, meanwhile, is leaning harder into medical-grade features and ecosystem strength.

With watchOS 26, the Series 11 debuts hypertension notifications, an FDA-cleared feature that passively analyzes heart data over 30 days to flag signs of chronic high blood pressure.

Sleep has been streamlined into a single score that blends duration, continuity and timing, rivaling sleep-focused competitors like Oura. The Ultra 3 extends battery life to 42 hours, adds a brighter outdoor display and incorporates emergency SOS via satellite. Garmin has long been known as the outdoor adventurer’s watch, but Ultra 3 is hoping to break into the space more. Workout Buddy provides real-time, AI-driven coaching that integrates with Apple’s fitness app and broader ecosystem.

The Venu 4 will be available on Monday, September 22, starting at $549.99. Apple’s Series 11 begins at $399, the SE 3 at $249 and the Ultra 3 at $799.