When Pebble died I decided that I'd rather less smart and more battery than more smart and less battery, so I got a Withings watch and have been reasonably happy since.
But this looks really good now and I'm happy to support it even if it doesn't win over my wrist space.
Hopefully they sort out Health Connect support on the Pebble Android app by January so that I can at least sync steps between watches if I'm switching between them.
Me as well, I have a drawer of watches and I want to use one but the 1-2 day battery life is just a dealbreaker .. 30 days will probably make me care to put it on again after the charge is done.
I’m always surprised by this, I charge my watch every night when I take it off for bed, I just put it on the magnet snap charger instead of on the wood itself, I’d be taking it off either way. Why is short battery life a deal breaker for people?
Man I loved my Pebble but I’d say the three things I use my Apple Watch for most are: telling time (++), reading notifications (~), and getting Siri to set timers or control my Home Assistant* (—-).
Since Apple simply won’t allow 3rd party apps the full api access they need to do everything, I’m stuck with my Apple Watch if I want all the Apple stuff, and I’m too lazy/annoyed to try to switch ecosystems.
You may already be aware, but Apple Home/Siri can talk to Home Assistant directly using https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit/ which is how I have it set up. You can also have HomeKit devices paired directly with an instance of the HomeKit Bridge, or expose devices in your Apple Home to Home Assistant.
Time to cut out the middle man (Apple / homebridge) and speak to HA directly? I didn't check the capabilities of Pebble, but knowing HA, there's probably a way.
There is a (relatively recent, for the Pebble-verse) Home Assistant app on Rebble that works with the current Home Assistant version. You can even do voice control and stuff.
Lack of GPS is the dealbreaker for me. Otherwise this would be an insta purchase -- I bought the Time in 2014, and was hoping for a "smartstrap" with GPS back then, but when it never came I slightly lost interest.
With a GPS (GNSS) receiver on the watch you can get instant position and speed data without having to maintain a stable Bluetooth connection to the phone. Some athletes prefer to record activities on a watch without having to bring a phone. And in certain races, such as most sanctioned triathlons, phones aren't allowed on the course at all.
Or to put it another way: a Pebble would cover more uses with a GPS. They're clearly not expensive nor necessarily profligate with battery. My now 5 year old Amazfit bip, which was cheap as chips, still gets 3 weeks of battery life with a daily gps-mapped run.
My concern with the Pebble Time 2 is the lower contrast that color e-ink has compared to grayscale. I don't know how bad it is in person, but next to the Pebble 2 Duo in the video it looks much worse. If it were B&W I would have bought it immediately.
>My concern with the Pebble Time 2 is the lower contrast that color e-ink has compared to grayscale
That's not eink technology, it's most likely Sharp Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) LCD display, where the difference between BW and color isn't as bad as in eink technology which uses actual pigment particles inside the pixel cells that "cloud" the contrast.
Preordered! I'm so excited; I had a pebble way back in the day and I remember liking the vibe of it way more than any Apple Watch/fitbit I've owned since. It feels the closest to the watch I would make if I made watches.
Where might I find the SDK or developer docs for how to make apps for this thing?
I hear it all the time in reviews or discussions of tech products. I don't think it really means anything other than "color" or "color scheme", it's just a more product focused way of talking about it.
>I don't think it really means anything other than "color"
I am not a native English speaker, but isn't "color" more ambiguous than "colorway"? If I say "The red color is gorgeous", I could or could not be talking about a product. If I say "The red colorway is gorgeous", I am definitely talking about the color of a product.
That's a good point. Saying you like the red "colorway" would make it clear that you're talking about the overall presentation, rather than commenting only on the red part of the overall product.
It feels to me like the conceptual ancestor of all black-square-display digital watches is the Commodore Watch, which now looks like a timeless classic. Would be cool to see a modern recreation.
Yeah, I agree with that. I really like the classic Pebble look and am disappointed that they have gotten away from that for this watch. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to still get a Time 2 (for the increased durability), or switch to a Duo 2 (to get the look I enjoy).
I'm going ahead when there is general availability. I would not have liked it if I would have missed this design bump while waiting for the older model to still arrive.
If you have not seen a transreflective color LCD in person, my suggestion would be to search for reviews of the old Pebbles to get a feel for it (or just get one, they can be had for very cheap sometimes). It's very different that the LCD in a phone - and much more readable in sunlight, for example.
It's kind of a mix. You can update quickly without burning battery on changes, but it needs power to keep displaying things. On the other hand I'm not sure that's a bug on a watch; I don't want it to display the last time before its battery died indefinitely. And it does work in direct sunlight which is great
I love the idea of having it, but as with every watch I ever had, I wear it, put it to charge and then eventually forget it exists. I have a couple of "smart" watches just taking space in the drawer.
Probably one I worn the most was just the Casio F-91W. I think the idea of having to charge the watch (means taking it off and not wearing it for a while) breaks the "connection".
Then another thing is that I always have a phone with me, so I just reach for it to check what time it is.
* Because its battery lasts 30 days you can use as an alarm clock that doesn't wake your wife. Unlike the Apple watch, you don't need to leave it charging overnight and you can configure it to emit light only when you press a button.
* Because you're wearing it at night and can control its light you can use it as a flashlight if you need to go to bathroom.
* Because its screen is reflexive you can store barcodes from the library and gym cards on the watch and use it to authenticate on those places.
* Reading and replying messages while driving, control music from your phone and making phone calls while driving and not getting a ticket for distracted driving.
And then there are all the other health related things: heart rate monitor, step counter that you can also use to measure swimming strokes, etc
Pebble has a long track record of delivering. As someone who preordered and received a Pebble Time Steel before Pebble was bought by Fitbit, I can attest that their steel watches are very high-quality.
Why would anyone support this knowing how it went the last time?
Eric isn't in this because he want you to have a better watch, he is in this so he can sell you out at the first opportunity. It may not be FitBit or Automattic this time, but that's just what he does.
Hard disagree. For one thing, no one is "supporting" this. It's not a Kickstarter, it's pre-orders. You can get your money back (including the credit card fee, if you ordered early) before it ships.
Secondly, he has said that he's trying to build an enduring company. And thirdly, he has said that he's building these in part because he wants to have a watch for himself. That aligns incentives and means that there will be ongoing manufacturing.
Lastly, he has gotten all the software open sourced, which means that if he closes up shop in a year, then anyone else can come in and build a competitor.
I'm a bit lost here, and to be fair my memory from that long ago is a bit hazy... but I was a initial Pebble kickstarter and also got whatever the metal one was called.
They were totally fine products, I enjoyed using them. I am no longer using them, but such is the nature of consumer gadgetry.
I don't recall getting rogered at any point in that process?
I too was part of the initial Kickstarter and I had both the first and the second version.
When FitBit bought Pebble in 2016, some may argue that this was a good thing, the development of the watch and the OS just stopped - it was dead. FitBit had no intention of keeping the Pebble and just wanted to implement the software into it's own ecosystem.
Google bought FitBit in 2019 and released the source code for PebbleOS this year - but that is kind of late now, isn't it?
I don't think anyone was arguing this - Pebble simply went bankrupt. FitBit just bought some of their IP/assets I think. There was no expectation of them buying it and continuing support or development.
Some say that if FitBit hadn't bought them, the Kickstarter supporters that still hadn't received their devices, wouldn't gotten their money refunded from Pebble.
I remember that part too, I just don't feel like any of it was particularly egregious. Disappointing sure, but I suppose I disagree that anything about it was untoward.
I'm generally pretty hostile to companies being acquired and breaking their past customers' products. Shutting down various required cloud services, making software undownloadable, etc.
But I don't think that happened? The roadmap simply ended, but every watch that was out there kept working as-advertised for a good long while?
Same attitude here (personal animosity against companies who fuck you over and do malicious sellouts but no such memories of the process Pebble went through in their last company iteration).
In fact, I still wear a Pebble daily. Both my Time and Time Steel still work great and I still strongly prefer the whole concept and the UI/UX to any other watch. As soon as they release the iOS app, my Pebble Time will become my "work watch", paired to my job-issued iPhone.
The first Pebble was kind of cutting edge when it came in 2013 and it looked awesome. This new one looks like an electronic tag and is just a medium priced smartwatch with limited capabilities.
I thought Fitbit bought them out and then after the sale announced that they were shutting it down instead of doing anything with it. I’m happy to be proven wrong if this isn’t the case.
> Why would anyone support this knowing how it went the last time?
"How it went"? Seriously?
What about this: the Apple Watch Series 0 up to 3 no longer work with modern iPhones (or Android, anyways). Series 2 and 3 were released after Pebble went out of business.
And I still can use my old Pebbles with Android's latest phones.
TL;DR: Pebble's "sell you out" worked better than Apple's "sticking with you".
I've pulled the trigger.
When Pebble died I decided that I'd rather less smart and more battery than more smart and less battery, so I got a Withings watch and have been reasonably happy since.
But this looks really good now and I'm happy to support it even if it doesn't win over my wrist space.
Hopefully they sort out Health Connect support on the Pebble Android app by January so that I can at least sync steps between watches if I'm switching between them.
Me as well, I have a drawer of watches and I want to use one but the 1-2 day battery life is just a dealbreaker .. 30 days will probably make me care to put it on again after the charge is done.
I’m always surprised by this, I charge my watch every night when I take it off for bed, I just put it on the magnet snap charger instead of on the wood itself, I’d be taking it off either way. Why is short battery life a deal breaker for people?
Man I loved my Pebble but I’d say the three things I use my Apple Watch for most are: telling time (++), reading notifications (~), and getting Siri to set timers or control my Home Assistant* (—-).
Since Apple simply won’t allow 3rd party apps the full api access they need to do everything, I’m stuck with my Apple Watch if I want all the Apple stuff, and I’m too lazy/annoyed to try to switch ecosystems.
*via Apple Home via Homebridge
Fellow Home Assistant/Apple Home user here.
You may already be aware, but Apple Home/Siri can talk to Home Assistant directly using https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit/ which is how I have it set up. You can also have HomeKit devices paired directly with an instance of the HomeKit Bridge, or expose devices in your Apple Home to Home Assistant.
Out of interest, what API access are you missing?
Time to cut out the middle man (Apple / homebridge) and speak to HA directly? I didn't check the capabilities of Pebble, but knowing HA, there's probably a way.
HA now supports MCP ( https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/mcp_server/ ), so just connect it directly to one of the assistants.
There is a (relatively recent, for the Pebble-verse) Home Assistant app on Rebble that works with the current Home Assistant version. You can even do voice control and stuff.
You can also do timers, reminders, web searches and similar basic assistant things with Bobby - another recent addition to what the Pebbles can do: https://rebble.io/2025/03/24/introducing-bobby-our-new-pebbl...
Lack of GPS is the dealbreaker for me. Otherwise this would be an insta purchase -- I bought the Time in 2014, and was hoping for a "smartstrap" with GPS back then, but when it never came I slightly lost interest.
Just out of interest, what is the benefit of GPS on your watch if you already have it on your phone?
With a GPS (GNSS) receiver on the watch you can get instant position and speed data without having to maintain a stable Bluetooth connection to the phone. Some athletes prefer to record activities on a watch without having to bring a phone. And in certain races, such as most sanctioned triathlons, phones aren't allowed on the course at all.
Sounds like a use case for a fitness watch, not a Pebble.
Or to put it another way: a Pebble would cover more uses with a GPS. They're clearly not expensive nor necessarily profligate with battery. My now 5 year old Amazfit bip, which was cheap as chips, still gets 3 weeks of battery life with a daily gps-mapped run.
Running without a phone.
Quite. Phones & watches are mutually exclusive from my pov. The whole point of the watch (especially when running) is not to have to carry a phone.
Does it at least have heart rate?
It does
My concern with the Pebble Time 2 is the lower contrast that color e-ink has compared to grayscale. I don't know how bad it is in person, but next to the Pebble 2 Duo in the video it looks much worse. If it were B&W I would have bought it immediately.
They are making a b&w one as well.
Which I preordered. However, the case looks a lot nicer on the PT2 than the P2D, and there's no HRM on the P2D.
>My concern with the Pebble Time 2 is the lower contrast that color e-ink has compared to grayscale
That's not eink technology, it's most likely Sharp Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) LCD display, where the difference between BW and color isn't as bad as in eink technology which uses actual pigment particles inside the pixel cells that "cloud" the contrast.
My Pebble 2 definitely had better contrast than my Pebble Time Steel. Not sure if that's still the case with modern screens.
It looked like there was higher contrast on the posted video, but it's very hard to tell what the magnitude is on camera.
Preordered! I'm so excited; I had a pebble way back in the day and I remember liking the vibe of it way more than any Apple Watch/fitbit I've owned since. It feels the closest to the watch I would make if I made watches.
Where might I find the SDK or developer docs for how to make apps for this thing?
250 bucks to ship one to Brazil, yikes. I really wanted to try one, but this pricing plus customs tariffs make it very prohibitive.
I admire this dude a lot. Clearly obsessed about this product/space
The word "colorway" just reminds me of a dabacle with a certain browser.
Does it mean anything more than "color" or "color scheme"? Do humans use the word in real life? I've never heard it outside of marketing copy.
I hear it all the time in reviews or discussions of tech products. I don't think it really means anything other than "color" or "color scheme", it's just a more product focused way of talking about it.
>I don't think it really means anything other than "color"
I am not a native English speaker, but isn't "color" more ambiguous than "colorway"? If I say "The red color is gorgeous", I could or could not be talking about a product. If I say "The red colorway is gorgeous", I am definitely talking about the color of a product.
That's a good point. Saying you like the red "colorway" would make it clear that you're talking about the overall presentation, rather than commenting only on the red part of the overall product.
"The red one is gorgeous" would be the idiomatic way of saying that. Adding the word "colour" is redundant.
"Colourway" is just marketing-speak that is not common outside of tech reviewers.
It feels to me like the conceptual ancestor of all black-square-display digital watches is the Commodore Watch, which now looks like a timeless classic. Would be cool to see a modern recreation.
Love that they are coming back. I still think Pebble 2 Duo is a dumb name.
NGL, kind of looks bad compared to blocky P2D. Doesn't feel charming at all, and there's budget Chinese smart watches with smaller bezels.
Exactly. I was considering it, but not if it’s ugly like this.
I don’t even care about colours. If the other one had a heart rate sensor I would’ve ordered it.
Yeah, I don't like the rounded corners.
Yeah, I agree with that. I really like the classic Pebble look and am disappointed that they have gotten away from that for this watch. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to still get a Time 2 (for the increased durability), or switch to a Duo 2 (to get the look I enjoy).
I want to buy one but told myself I wouldn't until the Pebble 2 Duo shipped, which is presently delayed to late August, early September.
If I wasn't tied to Garmin for the fitness aspect I would be all over this. I really miss my original Pebble.
I am so very excited. Feels like Christmas in the 1990s all over again and I'm getting my first PlayStation.
been wearing my apple watch less and less. really miss my old pebble. might pull the trigger on this.
I'm going ahead when there is general availability. I would not have liked it if I would have missed this design bump while waiting for the older model to still arrive.
You can change your preorder without losing your place in line.
it looks superb. I love the small bezels and E ink display.
It’s not e ink, just an LCD that they misleadingly market as “e-paper”
That helps explain all of the mentions of a "backlight" in the video.
wait, what? i specifically ordered a Pebble 2 Duo because i wanted an e-Ink smartwatch :(
If you have not seen a transreflective color LCD in person, my suggestion would be to search for reviews of the old Pebbles to get a feel for it (or just get one, they can be had for very cheap sometimes). It's very different that the LCD in a phone - and much more readable in sunlight, for example.
It's kind of a mix. You can update quickly without burning battery on changes, but it needs power to keep displaying things. On the other hand I'm not sure that's a bug on a watch; I don't want it to display the last time before its battery died indefinitely. And it does work in direct sunlight which is great
> I don't want it to display the last time before its battery died indefinitely.
That seems like an easy fix: Make the software switch to something else (like a “charge me” message) right before turning off for lack of power.
I need Pebble Time Sports.
That backlight might be good for stargazing, could set to red.
Hell yeah RGBA LED, I love all the little details Eric shares about this whole journey
Pebble Time 2 looks awesome. Shame I just bought an Apple Watch not long ago.
Did you buy it with a credit card that offers an extended return period?
I think my credit card offers a 3 month return period (2 months longer than an average store's 30 day return period).
No, unfortunately there was no such offer.
I love the idea of having it, but as with every watch I ever had, I wear it, put it to charge and then eventually forget it exists. I have a couple of "smart" watches just taking space in the drawer. Probably one I worn the most was just the Casio F-91W. I think the idea of having to charge the watch (means taking it off and not wearing it for a while) breaks the "connection".
Then another thing is that I always have a phone with me, so I just reach for it to check what time it is.
What would you use this watch for?
Checking the time and specific notifications without getting distracted by apps :)
> What would you use this watch for?
* Because its battery lasts 30 days you can use as an alarm clock that doesn't wake your wife. Unlike the Apple watch, you don't need to leave it charging overnight and you can configure it to emit light only when you press a button.
* Because you're wearing it at night and can control its light you can use it as a flashlight if you need to go to bathroom.
* Because its screen is reflexive you can store barcodes from the library and gym cards on the watch and use it to authenticate on those places.
* Reading and replying messages while driving, control music from your phone and making phone calls while driving and not getting a ticket for distracted driving.
And then there are all the other health related things: heart rate monitor, step counter that you can also use to measure swimming strokes, etc
Now if only they'd extend their warranty to something longer than 30 days.
Congrats for actually delivering! The design looks straight out of star-trek or something super cheap, not a huge fan
Pebble has a long track record of delivering. As someone who preordered and received a Pebble Time Steel before Pebble was bought by Fitbit, I can attest that their steel watches are very high-quality.
It's a production sample, not the final quality — he mentioned this in the video
Why would anyone support this knowing how it went the last time?
Eric isn't in this because he want you to have a better watch, he is in this so he can sell you out at the first opportunity. It may not be FitBit or Automattic this time, but that's just what he does.
Hard disagree. For one thing, no one is "supporting" this. It's not a Kickstarter, it's pre-orders. You can get your money back (including the credit card fee, if you ordered early) before it ships.
Secondly, he has said that he's trying to build an enduring company. And thirdly, he has said that he's building these in part because he wants to have a watch for himself. That aligns incentives and means that there will be ongoing manufacturing.
Lastly, he has gotten all the software open sourced, which means that if he closes up shop in a year, then anyone else can come in and build a competitor.
I'm a bit lost here, and to be fair my memory from that long ago is a bit hazy... but I was a initial Pebble kickstarter and also got whatever the metal one was called.
They were totally fine products, I enjoyed using them. I am no longer using them, but such is the nature of consumer gadgetry.
I don't recall getting rogered at any point in that process?
I too was part of the initial Kickstarter and I had both the first and the second version.
When FitBit bought Pebble in 2016, some may argue that this was a good thing, the development of the watch and the OS just stopped - it was dead. FitBit had no intention of keeping the Pebble and just wanted to implement the software into it's own ecosystem.
Google bought FitBit in 2019 and released the source code for PebbleOS this year - but that is kind of late now, isn't it?
> some may argue that this was a good thing
I don't think anyone was arguing this - Pebble simply went bankrupt. FitBit just bought some of their IP/assets I think. There was no expectation of them buying it and continuing support or development.
Some say that if FitBit hadn't bought them, the Kickstarter supporters that still hadn't received their devices, wouldn't gotten their money refunded from Pebble.
If this is true or not, I have no idea.
I remember that part too, I just don't feel like any of it was particularly egregious. Disappointing sure, but I suppose I disagree that anything about it was untoward.
I'm generally pretty hostile to companies being acquired and breaking their past customers' products. Shutting down various required cloud services, making software undownloadable, etc.
But I don't think that happened? The roadmap simply ended, but every watch that was out there kept working as-advertised for a good long while?
Same attitude here (personal animosity against companies who fuck you over and do malicious sellouts but no such memories of the process Pebble went through in their last company iteration).
In fact, I still wear a Pebble daily. Both my Time and Time Steel still work great and I still strongly prefer the whole concept and the UI/UX to any other watch. As soon as they release the iOS app, my Pebble Time will become my "work watch", paired to my job-issued iPhone.
One big difference this time is that the source code is all open. That's the main reason I was happy to give them my money again.
Maybe. I still enjoyed my Pebble till it died. I think I will enjoy the new one just as much.
The first Pebble was kind of cutting edge when it came in 2013 and it looked awesome. This new one looks like an electronic tag and is just a medium priced smartwatch with limited capabilities.
I thought Fitbit bought them out and then after the sale announced that they were shutting it down instead of doing anything with it. I’m happy to be proven wrong if this isn’t the case.
They did. Google bought FitBit in 2019 and released the source code to PebbleOS in 2025.
aren't they going with open source firmware / OS this time around? even if it gets sold, user support will be possible
I sure hope so : Android was still a reasonable option for the old Pebbles, but not any more...
> Why would anyone support this knowing how it went the last time?
"How it went"? Seriously?
What about this: the Apple Watch Series 0 up to 3 no longer work with modern iPhones (or Android, anyways). Series 2 and 3 were released after Pebble went out of business.
And I still can use my old Pebbles with Android's latest phones.
TL;DR: Pebble's "sell you out" worked better than Apple's "sticking with you".
Not sure about Series 0 to 2 but my mom uses a Series 3 with an iPhone 16 and it works just fine. The rest of your point is sound though.