The new Pebble Watch looks great, but I’m not giving up my Apple Watch for this nostalgia trip
The new Pebble Watch looks great, but I’m not giving up my Apple Watch for this nostalgia trip
By | Published: 2025-11-01 16:00:00 | Source: Digital Trends
Without wanting to sound like a technophile, 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 purchased the 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’m from anyway – and when they were, they certainly didn’t have Bluetooth.
In fact, my watch was so unusual that I remember having to explain to a colleague that I had rudely not checked the time when I glanced at my wrist during the conversation (I was, in fact, rudely reacting to the message notification, which I guess is a little better?).
I loved my Pebble watch and it was a great glimpse of what the future will hold when Apple makes the smartwatch mainstream in a couple of years.
However, the initially disappointing gold rush in the smartwatch space coincided with a career change to the world of technology journalism in 2015. For the first few years, I was testing smartwatch after smartwatch, wondering exactly how they had managed to miss the secret sauce that made the Pebble so attractive.
But — and this is a frustrating statement for me — that was a decade ago, and the wearable scene has largely matured.
Pebble may be back from the dead, nine years after being stripped for parts by Fitbit (which in turn was acquired by Google in the unforgiving circle of life in the big tech food chain), but even with my rose-tinted glasses on, I can’t see it making a ripple, let alone the huge buzz it caused in 2012 when it became the biggest Kickstarter campaign in history.
So many big names have abandoned the wearable map in the last decade (pour one for Sony, LG, Fossil, Asus and Motorola) that it’s a tough market to be a part of, and I’m afraid Pebble has little more to offer than nostalgia in 2025.
Pebble reborn
To be clear, the news of Pebble’s return actually made me very happy. Having more competition in the smartwatch market is a good thing, especially with annual updates from Samsung and Apple offering a little bit of innovation every year.
The Pebble is essentially picking up 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 housed in a lightweight polycarbonate frame.
But it was also glowing, with more reliable buttons, a speaker, a barometer, a compass, a Nordic nRF52840 BLE chip (for better Bluetooth) and a more powerful motor. Most importantly, the impressive seven-day battery life has more than tripled to 30 thanks to “tremendous improvements in Bluetooth chip power efficiency over the past 10 years.”
There’s also a sequel to the Pebble Time, which features a 1.5-inch color touchscreen (for potential touch-based complications) and adds a heart rate monitor and metal frame. Both watches will run over 10,000 community-created apps and watch interfaces, as long as their web architecture remains up and running.
This is all excellent, and if this were 2016, I’d be very tempted to run the Pebble again. Unfortunately, while the first few years of smartwatches were disappointing, they have now matured to the point where I can’t see myself going back.
After reviewing dozens of the best smartwatches of the past few decades, I’ve settled on the Apple Watch 7 as my daily driver, and despite being four years old, it has features that Pebble hasn’t tried to match.
The bright, colorful, always-on OLED display looks great (especially with the cool Snoopy watch face), it syncs with Strava to monitor my weekly walks tracked via built-in GPS, and it passively tracks my health via a series of discreet sensors. It’s true that battery life lasts 3% of the Pebble’s rated time, but even that doesn’t bother me when I have a nice charging dock on my desk.
That’s okay, you might say: the Apple Watch is overloaded with too many features, and you want something simpler. The problem is that Pebble no longer even wins with simplicity. In the years since Pebble first left the scene, hybrid watches have become a reality.
Wearables like the Withings ScanWatch 2 and Garmin Vivomove Trend look like regular classic watches, but they still offer Bluetooth connectivity, and deliver notifications via a small OLED screen in the middle of the watch face. Limited technology hides in plain sight for a truly stylish look.
Pebble can’t win on cost either, which is not surprising, given economies of scale. The Pebble 2 Duo costs $149, which is almost double the Amazfit Bip 6’s $79 price. Alternatively, you can buy the Nothing Watch Pro 2 per wrist, and still have $11 left over for a fancy strap. Meanwhile, the Pebble Time 2 comes in at $225, approaching the OnePlus Watch 3’s $329 price.
All this leaves Pebble in a difficult position. It’s not the most advanced, nor the simplest, nor the cheapest. So where exactly does he win?
Not for everyone
If you’re reading this and trembling with anger because of me being so quick to dismiss the new Pebble, let me point out that while it’s definitely not for me, it might be for you, Digital Trends reader. Especially if you like doodling.
In fact, in After announcing the unexpected birth of Pebblecreator Eric Migicowski was very clear that this was made to fill a niche, not seek world domination. “These watches are not made for everyone,” he wrote.
According to him, Pebble has five main selling points, and while some brands achieve as many as three of them, no one achieves all of them:
- Always on e-paper display
- Long battery life
- Simple and beautiful design
- Physical buttons
- Hackable
“We want to be honest with you about what to expect,” Migicowski added, highlighting that early adopters should expect “some rough edges (literally),” lag, possibly broken features and more.
He concluded, “The only thing we can guarantee is that it will be great and a lot of fun!” “Every time you look at your watch, you’ll 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 the order quicklyThe team will build fewer units than the number of people who have already shown interest, says Migicowski.
For me, I’m glad I owned an original Pebble, but I’m happy to look back on that experience fondly, rather than trying to revive my fanbase. Thanks for everything, Pebble.
(Tags for translation)Wearables
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