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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
> We’re planning to release 4 different Pebble Time 2 colourways. These haven’t been finalized yet. No names yet, we still need to pick them!
Would be great if we could vote. I am excited that there's a metallic option, but IMO the silver is too light. A dark gunmetal, or even medium-darkness silver, would be better in my book. The silver comes across as a bit flashy (which is perhaps good for the company), and I'd rather something that fades into the background a bit more.
The color-accented ones are nice, especially with matching bands. But for my taste (and the ability to wear it in more formal/dressy settings), black or metallic options will win out.
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.
> 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".
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.
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.
I love that it doesn't say Pebble on the bezel! I never wanted one before, but now I do. My only issue is that I have pretty small wrists and this watch would likely be too large for me.
What is the use-case now in 2025 for an e-ink watch? I have a Garmin Epix pro gen 2 which gets about a month of battery life and has a gorgeous AMOLED, has profiles for pretty much every sport ever invented, incredibly accurate GPS tracking, all day HR-tracking, ECG etc.
I understand it's about 4x the price, but there's also lower-end Garmin's that are about 2x the price with the same screen, slightly less features and similar battery life
Why do they never show the back of the watch? They are tempting but I'm concerned they went with the usual intrusive heart rate monitor sensor package that jabs into your wrist.
Not sure if this will be answered here. But how is the repair-ability of these new pebble? I have the original pebble time steel and although it still run fine, the battery have degraded a lot without an easy way to replace them. Part of the appeal of traditional watches is that you can open them up yourself and fix them if needed. I don't see why Pebble have go glue everything together and make it so hard to repair.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 75.6 ms ] threadSince 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
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...
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.
Would be great if we could vote. I am excited that there's a metallic option, but IMO the silver is too light. A dark gunmetal, or even medium-darkness silver, would be better in my book. The silver comes across as a bit flashy (which is perhaps good for the company), and I'd rather something that fades into the background a bit more.
The color-accented ones are nice, especially with matching bands. But for my taste (and the ability to wear it in more formal/dressy settings), black or metallic options will win out.
Red and Blue are IMO not needed as you can always add an accent using the band. Probably just makes everything more complicated.
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.
"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".
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.
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.
I understand it's about 4x the price, but there's also lower-end Garmin's that are about 2x the price with the same screen, slightly less features and similar battery life