Without wanting to sound like a tech hipster, I wore smartwatches before they were… well, if not cool, then at least socially acceptable.
I can’t date it exactly, but it must have been late 2013 when I bought an original Pebble smartwatch from an early adopter on Ebay. This was a time when wristwatches weren’t widely worn — at least not in the UK, where I am anyway — and when they were, they certainly didn’t have Bluetooth.
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In fact, my watch was so unusual that I remember having to explain to a colleague that I wasn’t rudely checking the time when I glanced at my wrist mid conversation (I was, in fact, rudely reacting to a message notification, which I think is marginally better?).
I loved my Pebble and it was a great glimpse into what the future would hold when Apple would make the smartwatch mainstream two years later.
That said, the initially underwhelming smartwatch gold rush coincided with me changing careers into the world of technology journalism in 2015. For the first few years, I would test smartwatch after smartwatch, wondering exactly how they managed to miss the secret sauce that made Pebble quite so appealing.
But — and this is a depressing sentence for me to type — that was a decade ago, and the wearable landscape has matured considerably.
Pebble may be back from the dead, nine years after being stripped for parts by Fitbit (which was in turn gobbled up by Google in the merciless big-tech food chain circle of life), but even with my most rose-tinted of pink spectacles, I can’t see it making a ripple, let alone the big splash it made back in 2012 when it became the biggest Kickstarter campaign in history.
Lots of big names have dropped off the wearable map in the last decade (pour one for Sony, LG, Fossil, Asus and Motorola) demonstrating what a tough market it is to be a part of, and I worry that Pebble has little more than nostalgia going for it in 2025.
Pebble reborn
To be clear, the news that Pebble was returning made me very happy indeed. More competition in the smartwatch market is good, especially with annual updates from Samsung and Apple offering little in the way of innovation each year.
Pebble is essentially picking up from where it left off in 2016, with the Pebble 2 Duo continuing the legacy of the Pebble 2, with a 1.26-inch black and white e-paper display nestled in a lightweight polycarbonate frame.
But it’s had a glow up too, with more reliable buttons, a speaker, a barometer, a compass, a Nordic nRF52840 BLE chip (for better Bluetooth) and a stronger motor. Most importantly, the already impressive seven-day battery has more than tripled to 30 thanks to “massive improvements in Bluetooth chip power efficiency over the last ten years.”
There’s also a sequel to the Pebble Time, which features a 1.5-inch color e-paper touch screen (for possible touch-based complications) and adds both a heart-rate monitor and a metal frame. Both watches will run the 10,000+ apps and watchfaces made by the community, as long as their web architecture is still up and running.
That’s all excellent, and if it were 2016, I’d be sorely tempted to get my Pebble on again. Unfortunately, while the first few years of smartwatches were underwhelming, they’ve now matured to a point where I can’t see myself turning back.
After reviewing dozens of the best smartwatches in the last few decades, I’ve settled on an Apple Watch 7 as my daily driver, and despite being four years old, it has features that Pebble hasn’t attempted to match.
The bright, colorful always-on OLED screen looks great (especially with the adorable Snoopy watchface), it syncs up with Strava to monitor my weekly runs tracked via the built-in GPS, and is passively tracking my health via a series of discreet sensors. True, the battery life lasts 3% of Pebble’s estimated time, but even that doesn’t bother me when I have a handsome charging dock on my desk.
That’s fine, you might say: the Apple Watch is overencumbered with too many features, and you want something simpler. The trouble is that Pebble doesn’t even win on simplicity anymore. In the years since Pebble first left the scene, hybrid watches have become a thing.
Wearables like the Withings ScanWatch 2 and Garmin Vivomove Trend look like regular classic timepieces, but still offer Bluetooth connectivity, delivering notifications via a tiny OLED screen in the middle of the watch face. The limited tech hides in plain sight for a really classy look.
Pebble can’t win on cost, either — unsurprisingly, given the economies of scale. The Pebble 2 Duo costs $149, which is nearly double the price of the $79 Amazfit Bip 6. Alternatively, you could buy a Nothing Watch Pro 2 for each wrist, and still have $11 left for a fancy strap. The Pebble Time 2, meanwhile, comes in at $225, closing in on the $329 OnePlus Watch 3.
All of this leaves Pebble in a tricky spot. It’s not the most advanced, nor the simplest, nor the cheapest. So where does it win, exactly?
Not for everyone
If you’re reading this and shaking with anger about me so quickly dismissing the new Pebble, let me be clear that while it’s definitely not for me, it may well be right for you, Digital Trends reader. Especially if you like to tinker.
Indeed, in the post announcing Pebble’s unexpected rebirth, creator Eric Migicovsky was very clear that this is set to fill a niche, not to seek world domination. “These watches are not made for everyone,” he wrote.
According to him, the Pebble has five key selling points, and while some brands hit as many of three of them, nobody else hits them all:
- Always on e-paper screen
- Long battery life
- Simple and beautiful design
- Physical buttons
- Hackable
“We want to be upfront with you about what to expect,” Migicovsky added, while highlighting the early adopters should expect “some rough edges (literally)”, delays, possibly broken features and more.
“The only thing we can guarantee is that it will be awesome and a lot of fun!,” he concluded. “Every time you look down at your watch, you will smile.”
If that — and the ability to play with a truly open-source operating system — appeals to you, then more power to you. I suggest you get an order in quickly, as Migicovsky says the team will be building fewer units than the number of people who’ve already expressed an interest.
As for me, I’m happy I owned an original Pebble, but content to look back fondly on the experience, rather than try to rekindle my fandom. Thanks for everything, Pebble.
