It appears like a Pebble, it really works like a Pebble, however don’t name it a Pebble. Eric Migicovsky, the unique creator of the Pebble smartwatch, simply unveiled two new smartwatches — referred to as the Core 2 Duo and the Core Time 2.
These religious successors to the Pebble smartwatches can be found for pre-order, costing $149 and $225 respectively.
If you aren’t aware of Pebble, the Palo Alto-based startup was one of many first breakthrough successes of the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform — all the best way again in 2012. The firm created smartwatches earlier than the Apple Watch and Android-based smartwatches existed.
While Pebble managed to promote over two million units, the corporate abruptly closed in 2016. After an insolvency course of, what was left was acquired by rival Fitbit (now a division of Google, in fact).
Fast ahead to 2024, Migicovsky had a daring thought: what if we may return to these less complicated instances and less complicated tech units? What if we may convey again the spirit of the Pebble?
Google has been surprisingly useful on this course of because the tech large is open-sourcing PebbleOS, the working system that powered the unique Pebble smartwatches.
While Google acquired Fitbit a couple of years after Fitbit acquired Pebble’s property, it seems that Pebble’s IP wasn’t price a lot to Google, so the corporate determined to provide it again to the group of Pebble fanatics.
Now, Core Devices, Migicovsky’s new firm, has unveiled two new smartwatches that may run PebbleOS.
The Core 2 Duo is basically a brand new Pebble 2 operating the unique Pebble software program.
It has an always-on E Ink show with a couple of buttons on the facet of the gadget. Compared to different 2025 smartwatches, it’s fairly primary. That E Ink display is a non-touch, black-and-white show. But the smartwatch helps alarms and timers — groundbreaking, I do know.
The wearable pairs along with your cellphone utilizing Bluetooth in order that it may show notifications and connect with the web. You can even management the music in your cellphone due to the Bluetooth connection.
But the 2 issues that made the Pebble stand out from its successors are nonetheless true right this moment. First, the battery life is great. The firm guarantees as much as 30 days of battery life. Second, it’s a enjoyable, hackable gadget. There are 1000’s of watchfaces and it’s simple to create small apps for the gadget.
“This mission is a labour of affection relatively than a startup attempting to promote tens of millions of watches,” Migicovsky wrote in a weblog put up saying the units. “There could also be some tough edges (actually). Things will get delayed. Some options is not going to be prepared at launch. Things may break. Things couldn’t final so long as you’d like.”
“The solely factor we are able to assure is that will probably be superior and quite a lot of enjoyable! Every time you look down at your watch, you’ll smile 🙂,” he added.
The different smartwatch Migicovsky’s firm introduced right this moment, the Core Time 2, primarily shares the identical specs because the Core 2 Duo, however it has an even bigger, 64-color show in a metallic casing. It’s additionally a contact show, however Pebble apps don’t help contact interactions for now.
Migicovsky says shipments for the Core 2 Duo ought to begin in July.
The Core Time 2 will take a bit longer to provide and ship; it’s slated to be out there in December.
