I just placed my pre-order. I never bought the original Pebble Round because it didn't look that good in my opinion, but this one looks great! I like that there is no huge bezel anymore, and that the battery life is now an estimated 2 weeks instead of 3 days. It looks more classy and less like a smartwatch.
As someone who had the original Pebble Steel, and then moved to the Pebble Round (20mm) until it literally stopped working, I'm super happy you've done this, and incredibly happy that you let me change my pre-order from my Time 2 to the Round 2. Can't wait!
I like everything about Pebble Round 2, except that it's round. I _HATE_ round watches with a passion, it's just form over function for electronic watches. Coincidentally, that's also why I still have an iWatch even though my phone is Android. There are _no_ good rectangular Android watches.
Are you planning something like this but with a rectangular screen? I have Time 2 on pre-order, but I'd love to buy a water-resistant watch.
this is supposed to be the part where i say something about the smart watch. i own a $20 Casio F91 that should cost $3 at retail, which is to say, i'm not really your intended audience. is performative positivity an obligation for interesting questions? is it the only framework to figure out products? do you see?
is positivity the only valid emotion for a product launch?
how do you balance your experience with the rewards of taking risks?
How does the sleep tracking works on the Round? Is it reliable? I'm currently using a Mi Band 7 and it works great with gadgetbridge and it has a heart-rate monitor.
Generally most sleep tracking products use actigraphy (measurements of your movement) to track sleep. Pebble partnered with researchers at Stanford back in the day to produce an algorithm for our operating system, which worked quite well and is now open source!
@erohead: do the new Pebbles still support the strap interface? With the screen now being 1.5" and the resolution being much higher than the original ones, they would make great little retro gaming consoles with the control buttons on the strap. Similar to a funkey-s console.
The specs link directly to the Pebble Appstore, which showcases a bunch of really cool watchfaces that are... all for the square screen. I think it would be wonderful to land the user on a showcase of faces specifically adapted for the round screen.
I had pre-ordered a Time 2, but I switched to the Round 2 because it's cheaper and I don't really care about the features it is missing (heart rate monitor and speaker) or the shape of the face. It's awesome that they let you switch without losing your place in line, very customer-focused of them.
Damn that's a nice looking watch! Really feels like they got to build what they wanted to 10 years ago but the tech wasn't there. Can't wait to build some sleek round watch faces once I get mine (unless there's an emulator already?)
I still consider the original Pebble Time Round to be the best smartwatch ever made, even 10 years on. Until now. This is everything I ever wanted in a watch. I can't wait to get mine! I may have to spend some time doing remakes of my favorite watch faces for the new screen resolution.
The bezel is kinda functional on these watches, also they need it for huge water resistance. This Pebble is more comparable to traditional dress watches which don't have a prominent bezel.
The original round Pebble had an octogonal screen with a big chunky ring overlapping all the edges making it look round. I guess there are rounder display options now so the screen can go to the edge of the case.
I'm sorry for the sour grapes, but the recent ring announcement - disposable, single-charge electronics - soured me on the entire brand in a "never meet your heroes" sort of way. Somehow it makes the idea of wearing one of the watches a negative statement piece.
If you've ever thrown out a single smartphone, by weight you've created more ewaste than a lifetime of those rings. There's more ewaste in a single AA battery, surely you must complain about those in every comment thread they're mentioned?
Totally agree even though it is apparently one of the better rings I can't understand why they don't have a mail-back-to-factory plan for battery service just on principal. It's stories like this that almost make the case for regulation if that wasn't such a slippery slope.
This almost feels like planned obsolescence, with my Pebble Time Steel just recently starting to give up =) I'm joking, the thing has held up amazingly well under all the stress I have put it through for a remarkably long time. It's just pretty well timed, in a way.
I've been holding out for a refresh that can compete with the look of the Time Steel, basically the design of the original Time 2. I might go with this one, but that would mean having to abandon the square watchface I've grown fond of. Maybe there are some nice round ones. The two weeks of battery life and activity tracking are greatly appreciated!
> Touchscreen (but you don’t have to use it!)
What a ride. I hate touchscreens with a burning passion. I hope it can be disabled.
I'm a staunch believer that watches should be small enough to never annoy, always show the time, and never have to be charged but I think this finally does all those things well enough that it's a legitimate option.
What is that warranty though? 30 days is pretty rough for a new and untested product. It's definitely enough to make me hold off for a year just in case.
I have no idea how the 2 major smart watches (android wear, apple watch) have such horrible battery life. Microsoft Band had a 3 day battery life that would've been 5 days if we weren't forced to use a trash accelerometer that drained our battery by a crazy amount.
That aside, Android wear being a complete OS is a waste of power. There aren't any useful apps for it that take advantage of the watch running a full OS.
I'm also miffed that OS updates have dropped by pixel watch's battery life from 3 days down to 1 and a half.
Good on Pebble for taking a reasonable approach to watch OS design. I presume apple decided they are minting money with a 2-ish day battery life so why bother improving things, but it is sad that most companies don't care about doing the right thing anymore.
Withings smart watches are kind of insane with 30 day battery life, but the subscription farming in the app is infuriating.
All I want from a smart watch:
- Waterproof, wireless charging, at least a week of battery life
- Automatically track exercise and sleep, let me update the data if needed.
- Track my fitness trends over time, looking at you resting heart rate
- Optionally, learn a couple of recurring patterns to improve automatic exercise assignment. If I hike twice a week and you see an exercise session with a consistent heart rate profile you better believe I am hiking
Garmin are pretty decent. I have an Enduro 2 which lasts a fortnight on a charge (currently 37% with 6 days of charge left).
It's waterproof. Unfortunately no wireless charging (proprietary cable) but it charges 2 weeks worth in about 2 hours.
It doesn't automatically track exercise, but it does collect a lot more (and higher quality) data than Withings for activity. Automatic sleep. The app has the trends and such, and there's no subscription (they recently added some AI stuff you can pay for but which is optional).
Pixel fan here: I think the Pixel Watch 1, 2 and 3 were a big disappointment in terms of battery life. I was barely getting 1 day out of them, many times less than that. Pixel Watch 4 has significantly improved the situation. Now I routinely get at least 3 days out of it (and this is the 4G LTE variant). Still someways to go, I think the holy grail is one week, but at least it is now quite usable.
PS: why is this even an issue? How hard is it to make straps with batteries in them..
Looks great, but a mere 30 day warranty for manufacturing defects is kind of insane. I'm glad they're planning to fully support notifications on iOS in the EU due to the DMA, but that warranty wouldn't even be legal if they sell directly within the EU.
oof, 30 days is not good. I had a couple early pebbles from a decade ago and both had various issues within 1-2 years of use. the first was the original pebble and the screen basically had broken lines of pixels. can't recall the second, newer one's issue.
Eric's answer is just don't buy it if you're not happy with the warranty [0].
I'm still willing to take the risk because Pebble smartwatches are the only ones I like and wear. I managed to give my OG Steel another life by replacing the battery. Unfortunately that seems to be harder with the Round 2 as there won't be any screws. I'm still a bit split on whether to change my Time 2 pre-order for a Round 2.
Here's my answer (as the founder of Pebble - both eras!) on this. We're a small company this time (standing on the shoulders of giants by using open source PebbleOS - thank you google!).
We are excited to make new devices, but wary about over-promising. We'd rather under-promise and over-deliver. So far, we have only received a few requests for warranty support for our first new watch (Pebble 2 Duo) and we have provided support for everyone who has asked.
Thanks for the reply. Are you therefore not planning to sell within the EU for now?
Just for my understanding: so full notification support would essentially only apply to anyone in the EU willing to import from the US (or directly from the country you're manufacturing these devices in).
Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave their phone at home. I'm not that guy. My phone comes with me everywhere, so why would I want phone-light on my wrist when my phone in my pocket can do it better?
Pebble also gets battery life. Pebble's 2 weeks compared to 1 day on my pixel watch 3. Want to use that cool sleep tracking feature on your smartwatch? Guess what? Its on the charger.
> Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be.
So, why do you think Pebble didn’t succeed? I think that’s because you’re a minority, and demand for a Pebble-like product is too low at the price point where it would be a viable business.
Sorta wish they would ship the last watches before announcing more that are months away. I’m pretty sure I preordered 9 months ago and still have nothing to show for it.
Would buy this in a heartbeat (pun intended) if it came with a heart rate monitor.
I had the first Pebble Time Round and it's my favorite smart watch I've ever owned, but these days the things I want from a watch are to tell the time and collect biometrics. Taking a step back in biometrics feels like a bummer. I also totally buy that it would increase the foot print in a way that would feel way less slim.
I'm an og Pebble fan, I owned every one of the originals, but I'm PISSED because last year they ran a Kickstarter for the recently released Pebble Time 2 and Pebble 2 Duo; I spent $300+ to get both even though I'm not really that thrilled about them I just wanted to support the project. Now after those two have started shipping and I just got the 2 Duo they announce THIS which is way better! Wtf why didn't they tell us in the beginning that they were planning the Round 2? I would have just held off and only ordered that instead. Feels like I got scammed
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[ 1810 ms ] story [ 1959 ms ] thread(Pebble founder)
Are you planning something like this but with a rectangular screen? I have Time 2 on pre-order, but I'd love to buy a water-resistant watch.
is positivity the only valid emotion for a product launch?
how do you balance your experience with the rewards of taking risks?
You can read the code and see how the sleep tracking algorithm works here - https://github.com/coredevices/PebbleOS/blob/main/src%2Ffw%2...
Still, I'm sure this will appeal to many people.
Maybe I'm looking at the wrong image, but I see a silver bezel going all around the watch screen.
I thought "no bezel" on a screen means the screen goes all the way to the edges of the device.
Still want one tho.
I'm expecting that by the time I use up the first version ring's battery, a better version (maybe rechargeable) will be released.
I've been holding out for a refresh that can compete with the look of the Time Steel, basically the design of the original Time 2. I might go with this one, but that would mean having to abandon the square watchface I've grown fond of. Maybe there are some nice round ones. The two weeks of battery life and activity tracking are greatly appreciated!
> Touchscreen (but you don’t have to use it!)
What a ride. I hate touchscreens with a burning passion. I hope it can be disabled.
What is that warranty though? 30 days is pretty rough for a new and untested product. It's definitely enough to make me hold off for a year just in case.
That aside, Android wear being a complete OS is a waste of power. There aren't any useful apps for it that take advantage of the watch running a full OS.
I'm also miffed that OS updates have dropped by pixel watch's battery life from 3 days down to 1 and a half.
Good on Pebble for taking a reasonable approach to watch OS design. I presume apple decided they are minting money with a 2-ish day battery life so why bother improving things, but it is sad that most companies don't care about doing the right thing anymore.
All I want from a smart watch:
- Waterproof, wireless charging, at least a week of battery life
- Automatically track exercise and sleep, let me update the data if needed.
- Track my fitness trends over time, looking at you resting heart rate
- Optionally, learn a couple of recurring patterns to improve automatic exercise assignment. If I hike twice a week and you see an exercise session with a consistent heart rate profile you better believe I am hiking
It's waterproof. Unfortunately no wireless charging (proprietary cable) but it charges 2 weeks worth in about 2 hours.
It doesn't automatically track exercise, but it does collect a lot more (and higher quality) data than Withings for activity. Automatic sleep. The app has the trends and such, and there's no subscription (they recently added some AI stuff you can pay for but which is optional).
PS: why is this even an issue? How hard is it to make straps with batteries in them..
My Amazfit lasts weeks on a single charge, and besides I don't need an app store on my phone.
It's illegal in advanced societies, but americans call these things "communism" (the rest of the world uses "regulations")
I'm still willing to take the risk because Pebble smartwatches are the only ones I like and wear. I managed to give my OG Steel another life by replacing the battery. Unfortunately that seems to be harder with the Round 2 as there won't be any screws. I'm still a bit split on whether to change my Time 2 pre-order for a Round 2.
[0] https://bsky.app/profile/ericmigi.com/post/3maubss6mqc25
We are excited to make new devices, but wary about over-promising. We'd rather under-promise and over-deliver. So far, we have only received a few requests for warranty support for our first new watch (Pebble 2 Duo) and we have provided support for everyone who has asked.
Just for my understanding: so full notification support would essentially only apply to anyone in the EU willing to import from the US (or directly from the country you're manufacturing these devices in).
Pebble also gets battery life. Pebble's 2 weeks compared to 1 day on my pixel watch 3. Want to use that cool sleep tracking feature on your smartwatch? Guess what? Its on the charger.
So, why do you think Pebble didn’t succeed? I think that’s because you’re a minority, and demand for a Pebble-like product is too low at the price point where it would be a viable business.
But no heart rate monitor.
I had the first Pebble Time Round and it's my favorite smart watch I've ever owned, but these days the things I want from a watch are to tell the time and collect biometrics. Taking a step back in biometrics feels like a bummer. I also totally buy that it would increase the foot print in a way that would feel way less slim.