Garmin Is Launching the fēnix 9 — Here's the Livestream

Garmin is finally launching the fēnix 9

Garmin is holding a livestream on Tuesday 25 August 2026, titled Play Harder. A dedicated livestream is unusual for Garmin — new hardware normally arrives by press release — and the last time they did one was for the fēnix 8 launch in August 2024. So this is the fēnix 9.

How to watch

The stream starts at 11:00 UTC — that's 13:00 CEST, 12:00 in the UK, and 7:00 AM Eastern. It stays up afterwards, so if you're at work you can catch it later.

Watch the Garmin livestream →

All Garmin has shown so far is a teaser: a surfer, and the line "engineered on the inside for life on the outside", with hints at extended seawater resistance.

What's already leaked

A Czech retailer listed 18 fēnix 9 configurations ahead of the event, which tells us the shape of the lineup:

• fēnix 9 AMOLED — 43 mm, 47 mm and 51 mm
• fēnix 9 Pro AMOLED — all three sizes, with or without inReach satellite messaging
• fēnix 9 Pro MIP-Solar inReach — 47 mm and 51 mm only

There's no 43 mm MIP-Solar in any listing, which makes the smallest size AMOLED-only. Converted from the Czech prices, the range works out somewhere around $1,170 to $1,570 — so yes, expensive, and likely a step up from fēnix 8 pricing.

Worth noting: neither the Enduro 4 nor a fēnix E successor appeared in those listings, so Tuesday may cover the fēnix 9 line only.

The feature I'm actually hoping for

Realistically, expect a brighter display, a faster processor, incremental battery gains — the kind of upgrade that's genuinely boring if you already own a fēnix 8.

The one thing that would make this interesting is a new Elevate Gen 6 optical sensor with cuffless blood pressure trends, derived from pulse arrival time rather than a cuff. That's been rumoured for a while, but none of the 18 leaked listings mention any new sensor, and Garmin has confirmed nothing. Treat it as a hope, not a spec.

Why it matters even if you'll never buy one

Here's the part I'd keep in mind while watching: Garmin's flagship features always trickle down. Not as marketing spin — you can trace it.

• Wrist-based lactate threshold arrived in 2022 on the fēnix 7 and Forerunner 955. It's now on the Venu 4, the vívoactive 6 and the Instinct 3.
• Multi-band GPS was a flagship-only bullet point. It's now standard on a Forerunner 265.
• Training Readiness started at the top of the range. It's on a $299 Forerunner 170 today.
• ECG began on the premium models and has been spreading through the Venu line ever since.

So whatever sensor shows up on Tuesday at $1,200, the realistic question isn't whether you'll buy it. It's which Forerunner or Venu will have it in two or three years at a third of the price.

And if you were about to buy a fēnix 8

Wait until after the stream. The moment the 9 is announced is when discounting starts on the outgoing flagship — and a fēnix 8 doesn't get any worse the day its replacement appears. Either you want the new one, or you get today's flagship for a lot less. Both are wins.

More on why waiting is the smart move →

Whatever gets announced, the useful next step is the same: see how it actually stacks up against what you already own, or against the models about to get cheaper.

Compare Garmin devices →