{"id":14414,"date":"2025-03-18T16:50:48","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T16:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=14414"},"modified":"2025-03-18T16:50:48","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T16:50:48","slug":"the-pebble-e-paper-smartwatch-is-back-just-dont-call-it-pebble","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/topat10.com\/?p=14414","title":{"rendered":"The Pebble E-Paper Smartwatch Is Back. Just Don't Call It Pebble"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Nearly a decade after its demise<\/a>, smartwatch maker Pebble is back\u2014sort of. Today, the company’s founder, Eric Migicovsky, has unveiled new hardware running open source PebbleOS. However, since Google owns the Pebble trademark, these are not\u00a0Pebble<\/em>\u00a0smartwatches. Instead, say hello to the first watches from a new brand called Core Devices: Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For a brief history lesson, Pebble skyrocketed to fame in 2012 through a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign<\/a>. The company’s smartwatches<\/a> had e-paper displays and arrived ahead of the first Apple Watch<\/a>, offering wearers the ability to see notifications, create custom watch faces, and even access an app store\u2014all with battery life that lasted a week<\/em> despite an always-on screen.<\/p>\n

But the company scaled too quickly<\/a> and then didn’t meet its sales targets, eventually deciding to sell to Fitbit<\/a>. A few years later, Google bought Fitbit<\/a>, which meant it owned Pebble’s assets.<\/p>\n

The original Pebble smartwatches didn’t die off\u2014Fitbit kept the lights on for some time, and thanks to Pebble’s cult-like fanbase, a coalition of developers and enthusiasts helped launch the Rebble project<\/a> to replace Pebble’s web services<\/a> when Fitbit eventually shut everything down, so that core functions of the watches kept working.<\/p>\n

But what’s enabled Migicovsky to introduce new hardware<\/a> running PebbleOS is Google’s decision to release the source code in January<\/a>. \u201cI asked politely if they would open source the operating system, and they very graciously did,\u201d Migicovsky tells WIRED. \u201cWe wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing now if Google hadn’t done that, so we’re super appreciative.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Leaf<\/h2>\n

That brings us to Migicovsky’s new brand\u2014Core Devices\u2014a nod to the Pebble Core<\/a>, the screen-less wearable that never shipped. This is a very small operation that consists of Migicovsky, another full-time employee, and a few contractors\u2014he says he’s taking things a bit more cautiously this time around. That’s why there will only be roughly 10,000 units available for the Core 2 Duo and a little more of the Core Time 2\u2014preorders are live today<\/a> if you want to reserve one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m intentionally trying to build something that\u2019s sustainable, rather than a fast-growing do-or-die company,” Migicovsky says. “We\u2019re taking small risks, we’re doing a couple of products, one at a time\u2014and cautiously, carefully building this company to be sustainable. If we can do our jobs, build these watches and make people happy, we’ll build more. There’s always more time.”<\/p>\n

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