Pebble Watches Are Coming Back (Sort Of)

Posted on March 19, 2025 by resourcefulman

You can now pre-order the latest Pebble Watch . This sentence may confuse many people and encourage others. Pebble was one of the first smartwatches, released before the first Apple Watch. We wrote about this here on Lifehacker in 2013. Now it’s back in two versions priced at $149 and $225, both of which are expected to go on sale later this year.

Some information about Pebble

Pebble was one of the first smartwatch brands to feature an e-ink display (similar to what you see on e-readers). Its launch on Kickstarter broke records for the platform. I heard that Pebble Time was the most successful project on Kickstarter at the time of its launch, so I checked the list of the 12 most funded Kickstarter projects to see if it still holds that title. The three generations of Pebble are ranked 2nd, 6th and 12th. People loved these watches.

And they continued to love it even after the company was bought by Fitbit in 2016 . A project called Rebble has done its best over the years to maintain the functionality of older watches, providing app store updates and replacing some older cloud services. Over time, the Pebble became more and more difficult to use. Android and iPhone apps have disappeared from official phone app stores and guides for setting up the new Pebble have become more complex, but some users persisted.

Google now owns Fitbit, and Pebble users successfully convinced Google to open source the Pebble OS, opening the door to a new Pebble watch.

Who makes the new Pebble watches and why?

Pebble founder Eric Migicovski is leading the project. He wrote: “I’ve tried just about every smartwatch on Earth, but I still wear my Pebble every day – nothing else comes close to its performance and long battery life. I was really, really, really hoping someone else would create a decent replacement, but none have come close and my stock of old Pebbles is dwindling!”

In an AMA on the Pebble subreddit, Migicovski mentioned several times that the team is small and that they try not to bite off more than they can chew. Since the OS is now open source, several feature questions have received answers like “No, but that sounds like a good feature to add to the open source PebbleOS!”

However, the new watch will not be sold under the Pebble brand as Google still owns the trademark. They are called Core Time 2 and Core 2 Duo. A Redditor asked what the “duet” was in this, and Migikovsky replied: “Dou-over ”

Core 2 Duo ($149) “like Pebble 2, but better”

The Core 2 Duo will have a black and white screen and a plastic (polycarbonate) frame in black or white. Its deliveries are expected to begin in July. Its appearance will be the same as the old Pebble 2 , although some internal components have been upgraded and the buttons are more durable.

Other features include the following (I’ve highlighted differences from Core Time 2 in bold):

1.2″ always-on e-paper screen
30 day battery life
Microphone and speaker, although voice calls will not be supported natively.
IPX8 waterproof (8 typically means the device can be submerged in at least 3 meters of water, but X means it hasn’t been tested for dust resistance)
Step tracking and sleep tracking
Physical buttons
Standard watch band 22mm wide.
Bluetooth connection
No Wi-Fi or cell service.
No GPS
No NFC payments (“Sorry, it’s too complicated for a small company.”)
No heart rate monitor
This model has a barometer and compass , which the Core Time 2 does not have.

Core Time 2 ($225) “like Pebble Time 2, but better”

The Core Time 2 is larger than the Core 2 Duo and will have a color touchscreen and a metal frame. Not only is the screen larger than its sibling, it’s also “53% larger and has 88% more pixels” than its predecessor, the Pebble Time 2. It’s expected to go on sale in December 2025.

Core Time 2 has almost all of the Core 2 Duo’s features listed above, except it won’t have a compass and barometer (those were included in the Core 2 Duo as a favor to a friend, Migikowski said in the AMA). On the other hand, it will have a heart rate monitor.

1.6″ always-on e-paper screen
64-color display
Touch screen
30 day battery life
Microphone and speaker, although voice calls will not be supported natively.
IPX8 waterproof (same as Core 2 Duo)
Step tracking and sleep tracking
Physical buttons
Standard watch band 22mm wide.
Bluetooth connection
No Wi-Fi or cell service.
No GPS
No NFC payments
No barometer and compass
This model has a heart rate monitor , which the Core 2 Duo does not have.

Full specifications for both watches can be found here . Note that while the watch won’t have GPS, Migikovsky noted that developers could use the phone’s GPS for mapping or fitness purposes. This is a common approach for minimalist wearables, including Whoop and some Fitbits.

Your old Pebble charger will work, as will a modern USB-C cable.

Migikovsky noted in the AMA that the new watch will use the same charger as previous Pebble watches. (“Take this, everyone who said I should throw away my box of 10-year-old chargers,” said one Reddit user.)

The charger that comes with your new watch will have a connector that plugs into a USB-C cable, so you’ll still need to take that connector with you when you travel, but you won’t have to carry a whole dedicated charging cable. This is the same approach that Coros took with its Pace Pro, and I even bought a similar charging adapter for my Garmin watch – it’s a convenient format.

The company intends to stay, but is making no promises about future products.

When asked about other colors, features or future products, Migicovski has repeatedly stated that they are going to focus on what they can do now. It doesn’t make any promises about when the new models will be available to order, so if you want to be sure of getting one of the new watches, it makes sense to pre-order now.

The new watch’s operating systems will be open source, and developers will be encouraged to add features they would like to see. There is a Discord to organize the effort, and Migikovsky contacted it, saying, “All development happens on Discord ( https://discordapp.com/invite/aRUAYFN ) and github ( https://github.com/pebble-dev/pebble-firmware ).”

“We are a gadget company,” Migikovsky said. “We make cool gadgets that we want, and then we sell them. There are no plans to make them for a wider audience.” But he also added: “The goal is sustainability: the company is designed to potentially last forever.”

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