Like a Rock
January 27, 2025 7:11 PM Subscribe
The original Pebble smartwatch launched in 2013 on the back of a last-ditch Kickstarter that ended up raising over $10 million, the largest ever at the time. Though a bit clunky-looking, its crisp e-paper display, week-long battery life, and delightfully hackable OS captured the hearts of tech geeks everywhere, inspiring a vibrant ecosystem of watchface creators and app builders. Another crowdfunding round in 2015 doubled their resources, leading to new models like the versatile Time, the businesslike Steel, and the elegant Round. As powerful competitors like Apple and Samsung entered the scene, though, Pebble struggled with budget crunches and manufacturing challenges, and the company's assets were eventually sold off to rival Fitbit. Undaunted, a dedicated community of open-source developers kept the faith over the years, organizing the Rebble Alliance project to maintain support for the watch's app store, firmware, and cloud services. That Pebbler passion has been finally rewarded, as former CEO Eric Migicovsky has announced the surprise return of Pebble watches, including a Rebble-sponsored hackathon (and foundation) made possible by Fitbit owner Google open-sourcing the full Pebble OS (now available on Github).
I recently got myself a cheap dumb wristwatch.
The best thing about it is that I no longer use my phone as a pocket watch.
It stays in my pocket a whole lot more.
A pebble or similar device that told me time & weather, or time & next bus arrival, would be even better for my screen addiction.
posted by ocschwar at 7:33 PM on January 27 [4 favorites]
The best thing about it is that I no longer use my phone as a pocket watch.
It stays in my pocket a whole lot more.
A pebble or similar device that told me time & weather, or time & next bus arrival, would be even better for my screen addiction.
posted by ocschwar at 7:33 PM on January 27 [4 favorites]
I loved both the pebbles I had, and would totally buy into a new version. Signed up!
posted by gemmy at 9:06 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]
posted by gemmy at 9:06 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]
Me too!!! I backed all the Kickstarters. Had several. E-ink displays are the very best technology for so many applications.
I really loved my OK pebbles. Not obtrusive. Didn't demand my attention. Just had nice watch faces and some other stuff when you wanted it.
posted by chasles at 10:32 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]
I really loved my OK pebbles. Not obtrusive. Didn't demand my attention. Just had nice watch faces and some other stuff when you wanted it.
posted by chasles at 10:32 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]
It's important to note that some proprietary code was removed from this codebase, particularly for chipset support and the Bluetooth stack. This means the code being released contains all the build system files (using the waf build system), but it will not compile or link as released.
Hmm.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:13 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]
Hmm.
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 11:13 PM on January 27 [1 favorite]
It’s not 2015; if you want an e-ink open source smartwatch you can have one right now. Back when pebble launched it was first to market, but there’s a lot of competition in the low-end, no-frills smartwatch area now. I don’t think the other businesses that the pebble guy was involved in did so well - hardware is difficult - and so returning to pebble as a brand with name recognition is a good idea.
posted by The River Ivel at 12:08 AM on January 28 [6 favorites]
posted by The River Ivel at 12:08 AM on January 28 [6 favorites]
This is amazing! I've had the inPulse predecessor of the Pebble as well as several Pebbles and really liked them. I'm always disappointed however when I hear about an e-ink watch and it turns out to have a transreflective LCD. The Sharp Memory Display in the pebble and watchy is nice and fairly low power, but it is not e-ink.
(My Skagen Hybrid is an actual e-ink plus analog hands and I love the mix of high and low tech)
posted by autopilot at 1:24 AM on January 28 [2 favorites]
(My Skagen Hybrid is an actual e-ink plus analog hands and I love the mix of high and low tech)
posted by autopilot at 1:24 AM on January 28 [2 favorites]
They weren't allowed to open-source code they licensed from others, but there are open-source alternatives to those pieces nowadays, or the new project can license the code (the released code is Apache2, which means it can be used in closed-source applications just fine). I've signed up!
posted by pmb at 5:23 AM on January 28
posted by pmb at 5:23 AM on January 28
The River Ivel: if you want an e-ink open source smartwatch you can have one right now.
True, but I want a colour screen. Pebble still works fine for me, thanks to the intrepid Rebblers and the people who ported the Rockwork app to Ubuntu Touch so I can pair and connect it with ease.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:50 AM on January 28 [2 favorites]
True, but I want a colour screen. Pebble still works fine for me, thanks to the intrepid Rebblers and the people who ported the Rockwork app to Ubuntu Touch so I can pair and connect it with ease.
posted by Too-Ticky at 5:50 AM on January 28 [2 favorites]
I was given one of the early chunky ones in white. When I wore it in public people were drawn to it like a moth to flame. I bought one of the later generation ones but it fell apart.
posted by mmascolino at 8:50 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]
posted by mmascolino at 8:50 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]
what the goog did to my fitbit app was and still is a crime in my eyes.
Agreed. In principle I'm interested in this. But I want more assurance that Google can't do its usual Google thing and fuck everything up like they did last year, when their over-the-air software update fully bricked my 2-year-old Fitbit (which I'd also coincidentally just paid for a year of Fitbit Premium on!) and left me without an activity-tracker watch until I broke down and bought a Garmin that *knock on wood* hopefully lasts me much longer.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:59 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]
Agreed. In principle I'm interested in this. But I want more assurance that Google can't do its usual Google thing and fuck everything up like they did last year, when their over-the-air software update fully bricked my 2-year-old Fitbit (which I'd also coincidentally just paid for a year of Fitbit Premium on!) and left me without an activity-tracker watch until I broke down and bought a Garmin that *knock on wood* hopefully lasts me much longer.
posted by Strange Interlude at 9:59 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]
→
They're generally lovely, but their persistence without power is a problem if you want to be sure that what you see is current. Otherwise, it's a “What time is it, Eccles?” problem
posted by scruss at 10:04 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]
E-ink displays are the very best technology for so many applications.
They're generally lovely, but their persistence without power is a problem if you want to be sure that what you see is current. Otherwise, it's a “What time is it, Eccles?” problem
posted by scruss at 10:04 AM on January 28 [1 favorite]
I was one of the earliest backers on the Kickstarter. I used it for about six months - then it got bricked during a failed update, and Pebble never provided any support whatsoever. I later tried again when better third-party utilities became available, with no luck.
It sits in a drawer now, battery dead for roughly a decade, a memento to tech that really worked to expand the creative envelope, but ended up biting off more than they could handle.
posted by mystyk at 12:05 PM on January 28
It sits in a drawer now, battery dead for roughly a decade, a memento to tech that really worked to expand the creative envelope, but ended up biting off more than they could handle.
posted by mystyk at 12:05 PM on January 28
The FAQ is delightful:
Will it be exactly like Pebble?posted by autopilot at 12:44 PM on January 28
Yes. In almost every way.
Aren’t you the guy who screwed this up last time?
Yes, the one and only. I think I’ve learned some valuable lessons.
As others have noted the "e-paper" display in a Pebble is really basically a transflective LCD rather than anything e-ink based, and as far as I know it doesn't retain an image if it's unpowered. It's got amazing battery life for a smartwatch tho which is why I've hung onto my Pebble Time for so long. The Watchy thing is interesting, though I do like the color display on my Time. Really hoping for a proper Pebble-like replacement so I don't have to wonder as hard about what I'll do when my Pebble Time inevitably conks out.
posted by Aleyn at 4:56 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]
posted by Aleyn at 4:56 PM on January 28 [2 favorites]
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