[HN Gopher] Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]
___________________________________________________________________
Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]
Author : net01
Score : 169 points
Date : 2025-08-13 12:54 UTC (10 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.youtube.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com)
| joewhale wrote:
| been wearing my apple watch less and less. really miss my old
| pebble. might pull the trigger on this.
| net01 wrote:
| it looks superb. I love the small bezels and E ink display.
| duomo wrote:
| It's not e ink, just an LCD that they misleadingly market as
| "e-paper"
| 4ggr0 wrote:
| wait, what? i specifically ordered a Pebble 2 Duo because i
| wanted an e-Ink smartwatch :(
| yjftsjthsd-h wrote:
| It's kind of a mix. You can update quickly without
| burning battery on changes, but it needs power to keep
| displaying things. On the other hand I'm not sure that's
| a bug on a watch; I don't want it to display the last
| time before its battery died indefinitely. And it does
| work in direct sunlight which is great
| latexr wrote:
| > I don't want it to display the last time before its
| battery died indefinitely.
|
| That seems like an easy fix: Make the software switch to
| something else (like a "charge me" message) right before
| turning off for lack of power.
| zevon wrote:
| If you have not seen a transreflective color LCD in
| person, my suggestion would be to search for reviews of
| the old Pebbles to get a feel for it (or just get one,
| they can be had for very cheap sometimes). It's very
| different that the LCD in a phone - and much more
| readable in sunlight, for example.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| That helps explain all of the mentions of a "backlight" in
| the video.
| teekert wrote:
| I'm going ahead when there is general availability. I would not
| have liked it if I would have missed this design bump _while
| waiting for the older model to still arrive._
| jkestner wrote:
| You can change your preorder without losing your place in
| line.
| kwanbix wrote:
| Love that they are coming back. I still think Pebble 2 Duo is a
| dumb name.
| h1fra wrote:
| Congrats for actually delivering! The design looks straight out
| of star-trek or something super cheap, not a huge fan
| RandomBacon wrote:
| Pebble has a long track record of delivering. As someone who
| preordered and received a Pebble Time Steel before Pebble was
| bought by Fitbit, I can attest that their steel watches are
| very high-quality.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| It's a production sample, not the final quality -- he mentioned
| this in the video
| avanai wrote:
| 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.
|
| *via Apple Home via Homebridge
| mavamaarten wrote:
| Time to cut out the middle man (Apple / homebridge) and speak
| to HA directly? I didn't check the capabilities of Pebble, but
| knowing HA, there's probably a way.
| peterclary wrote:
| Fellow Home Assistant/Apple Home user here.
|
| You may already be aware, but Apple Home/Siri can talk to Home
| Assistant directly using https://www.home-
| assistant.io/integrations/homekit/ which is how I have it set
| up. You can also have HomeKit devices paired directly with an
| instance of the HomeKit Bridge, or expose devices in your Apple
| Home to Home Assistant.
|
| Out of interest, what API access are you missing?
| zevon wrote:
| 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.
|
| 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...
| denismi wrote:
| I've pulled the trigger.
|
| 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.
| poniko wrote:
| 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.
| dingi wrote:
| Pebble Time 2 looks awesome. Shame I just bought an Apple Watch
| not long ago.
| RandomBacon wrote:
| Did you buy it with a credit card that offers an extended
| return period?
|
| I think my credit card offers a 3 month return period (2 months
| longer than an average store's 30 day return period).
| dingi wrote:
| No, unfortunately there was no such offer.
| pnemonic wrote:
| I am so very excited. Feels like Christmas in the 1990s all over
| again and I'm getting my first PlayStation.
| crims0n wrote:
| I _want_ to buy one but told myself I wouldn 't until the Pebble
| 2 Duo shipped, which is presently delayed to late August, early
| September.
| pmlamotte wrote:
| If I wasn't tied to Garmin for the fitness aspect I would be all
| over this. I really miss my original Pebble.
| hyperbolablabla wrote:
| 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.
| jadbox wrote:
| Does it at least have heart rate?
| Rohansi wrote:
| It does
| Anonbrit wrote:
| Just out of interest, what is the benefit of GPS on your watch
| if you already have it on your phone?
| nradov wrote:
| With a GPS (GNSS) receiver on the watch you can get instant
| position and speed data without having to maintain a stable
| Bluetooth connection to the phone. Some athletes prefer to
| record activities on a watch without having to bring a phone.
| And in certain races, such as most sanctioned triathlons,
| phones aren't allowed on the course at all.
| bcraven wrote:
| Sounds like a use case for a fitness watch, not a Pebble.
| akvadrako wrote:
| Running without a phone.
| yobbo wrote:
| 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.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| Hell yeah RGBA LED, I love all the little details Eric shares
| about this whole journey
| apparent wrote:
| > 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.
| JaggerJo wrote:
| I really like the silver.
|
| Red and Blue are IMO not needed as you can always add an accent
| using the band. Probably just makes everything more
| complicated.
| apparent wrote:
| Would you use the silver with a contrasting band, as shown?
| Or would you try to get a band that roughly matches it?
|
| It sounds like the colors don't add much complexity because
| it's just a polycarbonate piece that's sandwiched between the
| metal front and back. It does add complexity and and there
| are surely some fixed costs associated with making these and
| the matching bands. But it's kind of a neat innovation to
| have a pop of color on the side, matching the band. I think
| the red one could actually look nice with a plain black band.
| JaggerJo wrote:
| Yea, I'd pair it with a contrasting band. Or maybe with one
| that adds another accent.
|
| True. It might be just me but I think the color makes it
| look cheap.
| bronlund wrote:
| 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.
| _ink_ wrote:
| Maybe. I still enjoyed my Pebble till it died. I think I will
| enjoy the new one just as much.
| bronlund wrote:
| The first Pebble was kind of cutting edge when it came in
| 2013 and it looked awesome. This new one looks like an
| electronic tag and is just a medium priced smartwatch with
| limited capabilities.
| potatolicious wrote:
| I'm a bit lost here, and to be fair my memory from that long
| ago is a bit hazy... but I was a initial Pebble kickstarter and
| also got whatever the metal one was called.
|
| They were totally fine products, I enjoyed using them. I am no
| longer using them, but such is the nature of consumer gadgetry.
|
| I don't recall getting rogered at any point in that process?
| bronlund wrote:
| I too was part of the initial Kickstarter and I had both the
| first and the second version.
|
| When FitBit bought Pebble in 2016, some may argue that this
| was a good thing, the development of the watch and the OS
| just stopped - it was dead. FitBit had no intention of
| keeping the Pebble and just wanted to implement the software
| into it's own ecosystem.
|
| Google bought FitBit in 2019 and released the source code for
| PebbleOS this year - but that is kind of late now, isn't it?
| platelminto wrote:
| > some may argue that this was a good thing
|
| I don't think anyone was arguing this - Pebble simply went
| bankrupt. FitBit just bought some of their IP/assets I
| think. There was no expectation of them buying it and
| continuing support or development.
| bronlund wrote:
| Some say that if FitBit hadn't bought them, the
| Kickstarter supporters that still hadn't received their
| devices, wouldn't gotten their money refunded from
| Pebble.
|
| If this is true or not, I have no idea.
| potatolicious wrote:
| I remember that part too, I just don't feel like any of it
| was particularly egregious. Disappointing sure, but I
| suppose I disagree that anything about it was untoward.
|
| I'm generally pretty hostile to companies being acquired
| and breaking their past customers' products. Shutting down
| various required cloud services, making software
| undownloadable, etc.
|
| But I don't think that happened? The roadmap simply ended,
| but every watch that was out there kept working as-
| advertised for a good long while?
| zevon wrote:
| Same attitude here (personal animosity against companies
| who fuck you over and do malicious sellouts but no such
| memories of the process Pebble went through in their last
| company iteration).
|
| In fact, I still wear a Pebble daily. Both my Time and
| Time Steel still work great and I still _strongly_ prefer
| the whole concept and the UI /UX to any other watch. As
| soon as they release the iOS app, my Pebble Time will
| become my "work watch", paired to my job-issued iPhone.
| summermusic wrote:
| I thought Fitbit bought them out and then after the sale
| announced that they were shutting it down instead of doing
| anything with it. I'm happy to be proven wrong if this isn't
| the case.
| bronlund wrote:
| They did. Google bought FitBit in 2019 and released the
| source code to PebbleOS in 2025.
| dmonitor wrote:
| aren't they going with open source firmware / OS this time
| around? even if it gets sold, user support will be possible
| BlueTemplar wrote:
| I sure hope so : Android was still a reasonable option for
| the old Pebbles, but not any more...
| Anonbrit wrote:
| One big difference this time is that the source code is all
| open. That's the main reason I was happy to give them my money
| again.
| diego_moita wrote:
| > 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".
| aidenn0 wrote:
| 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.
| colingauvin wrote:
| They are making a b&w one as well.
| aidenn0 wrote:
| Which I preordered. However, the case looks a lot nicer on
| the PT2 than the P2D, and there's no HRM on the P2D.
| FirmwareBurner wrote:
| _> 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.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| My Pebble 2 definitely had better contrast than my Pebble
| Time Steel. Not sure if that's still the case with modern
| screens.
| herval wrote:
| I admire this dude a lot. Clearly obsessed about this
| product/space
| maxglute wrote:
| NGL, kind of looks bad compared to blocky P2D. Doesn't feel
| charming at all, and there's budget Chinese smart watches with
| smaller bezels.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| Yeah, I agree with that. I _really_ like the classic Pebble
| look and am disappointed that they have gotten away from that
| for this watch. I 'm trying to decide if I'm going to still get
| a Time 2 (for the increased durability), or switch to a Duo 2
| (to get the look I enjoy).
| unclad5968 wrote:
| Yeah, I don't like the rounded corners.
| criddell wrote:
| 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.
| modeless wrote:
| I have one on order and can't wait, but I'm also hoping that
| they are successful enough to justify developing a successor to
| the smallest smartwatch ever made (to this day, which is wild),
| the excellent Pebble Time Round. Which, of course, should be
| named the Second Time 'Round.
| kiddico wrote:
| I absolutely agree on that naming convention lol
| wlesieutre wrote:
| I ordered one (the screen just fell off my Apple Watch
| anyway) and if they do another Time Round I'd be tempted to
| get one of those too.
|
| Had a Pebble Time back when those were new and after using
| Apple Watch for a while I think it's time to try a return to
| that minimalism.
| RandomBacon wrote:
| Please Eric, if you are reading this, do not put branding on it
| where it is visible.
|
| We have enough distractions in our lives that we don't need
| more advertising pushed in our faces, especially for something
| we already own.
| numpad0 wrote:
| For those confused like I was: - Pebble 2 Duo:
| $149, B&W, original Pebble look - Pebble Time 2: $225,
| color, new round square look * both with intended IPX8,
| 30-day battery, "e-paper" aka gameboy style LCD, suite of
| sensors, Pebble app compatibility
| steve_adams_86 wrote:
| > new round square look
|
| I really like the term "squircle"
|
| "The new pebble time 2 sports the chic squircle aesthetic"
| bowsamic wrote:
| That sounds way too American
| mikepurvis wrote:
| I'm shocked they think they can get such long battery life with
| a heart rate monitor running all the time.
| yellingdog wrote:
| I would expect an extremely infrequent heart rate sample rate
| at idle. I believe the current-gen watches only sample every
| 10 minutes unless activity is detected.
| swiftcoder wrote:
| There are a bunch of weird smartwatches that get pretty close
| to this - for example, the Amazfit Bip S Lite claims 30 days
| of battery with a similar transflective screen (albeit I
| think the heart rate monitor drops to once every measuring 5
| minutes in battery saver mode).
|
| Similarly, the Withings Scanwatch claims the same, although
| as a hybrid smartwatch, it is not driving such a power-hungry
| screen.
| user_7832 wrote:
| I had the OG Bip and got extremely close to 3 months at one
| point. Unfortunately I don't remember if I had the HR set
| to 5 minute intervals but if it was on, I _think_ that was
| the setting.
|
| Even with 1 minute intervals though, battery life was
| absolutely stellar. I'd often lose my charger, and in few
| days after I saw the battery dropping/low battery alerts,
| I'd find it too (before the watch died)!
| tills13 wrote:
| it'll probably pulse on / off. The main draw would be the
| display but since it's e-ink it only draws when changing.
| mikepurvis wrote:
| I guess so. I've had two previous fitbits and I _believe_
| those track every second during exercise and every five
| minutes otherwise. But those watches would still only get
| 5-7 days of battery life.
|
| Hence my skepticism that this feature can be offered and
| still get 4x more life than that.
| nixosbestos wrote:
| Clicked 6 links, googled stuff, couldn't figure this out. Makes
| me so, so, so irrationally upset. I do not get it. It's just
| basics? Thanks for sharing this.
| tacticalturtle wrote:
| Did they give up on the "Core" branding?
|
| When I was looking at this a month ago it was the "Core 2 Duo"
|
| https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watch...
|
| Maybe Intel had a word?
| amirhirsch wrote:
| This is awesome Eric! I'd want to give something like this to my
| kids, any way to add a tracker?
| deanc wrote:
| 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
| zevon wrote:
| It's not e-ink but a transreflective LCD.
|
| As to "why": I'm not interested at all in Garmin's sports and
| health features and their cloud stuff. Pebbles work well, get
| out of the way and have a nice, friendly and slightly quirky
| interface. There are many apps and watchfaces out there. As of
| the new ones, the OS is open source. Reasons enough for me. ;)
| JeremyNT wrote:
| Absolutely.
|
| I likely will continue to use my Garmin watch because I rely
| heavily on the fitness stuff that they do so well, but
| outside of that the Garmin is "just OK."
|
| If you want a fitness tracker that is also a smartwatch the
| Garmin is a great choice. If you want a smartwatch and don't
| care about fitness tracking then you're wasting a lot of
| money on stuff you don't care about with Garmin, for just an
| OK and extremely locked down device.
| bornfreddy wrote:
| What is not e-ink? GP said that Garmin is AMOLED and
| according to [0] pebbles are e-ink/e-paper. Can you clarify?
|
| Otherwise I agree. I would love an opensource fitness watch
| though, but I understand why this is not (yet?) possible.
|
| [0] https://store.repebble.com/
| PlatinumHarp wrote:
| e-ink is not a synonym of e-paper. Reflective LCDs are a
| type of e-paper.
| ac29 wrote:
| To clarify, e-ink is e-paper, but e-paper is not
| necessarily e-ink (there are other technologies).
| KetoManx64 wrote:
| 4x the price to start off with, 51x51x15mm size, Only 11 days
| battery life if you use the always on display according to
| their site, completely locked down OS and ecosystem that puts
| you at 100% their mercy when it comes to EOL and updates, no
| idea what their privacy policy is, but you probably have to
| accept it if you want to use it and just put up with the fact
| that all your data, location, heart rate, and everything else
| is sent and stored and most likely used for training different
| AI models, and probably getting sold to different companies.
| blacksmith_tb wrote:
| Hmm, looks like your Garmin has somewhere between 30h (with
| everything turned on) to 11d of battery life, which is not bad
| for needing to power a bright screen. I wear a Skagen Jorn
| hybrid, which has physical hands over a round e-ink display,
| which lasts ~3w on a charge for me. I also like e-ink better in
| daylight, AMOLED has gotten pretty good, but it's still harder
| to read in bright conditions (though obviously easier in dark
| ones!)
| jsbisviewtiful wrote:
| Garmins are incredibly expensive and not everyone wants a
| fitness tracker. Garmin's UX is also very disjointed between
| devices for how expensive they are. Plus, battery life tends to
| be garbage for smartwatches. I just sold my Apple Watch for a
| Coros because I was tired of trading battery life for features
| I didn't want/use and Garmins also require _yet another_
| subscription for some features. As someone who just spent the
| last month deciding on a new fitness wearable, much of the
| market is full of bloated devices that don 't do everything
| right, but instead do a handful of things right with a laundry
| list of caveats.
|
| There's still a strong market for dumb watches too, so a long-
| lasting "smart" device that does some things but not as much as
| an Apple Watch, Garmin, Coros, etc while still serving as a
| general information displaying wearable sounded enticing.
| Unfortunately Apple's lockdown of the iPhone for the previous
| Pebbles (which I think might still be a thing) and my need for
| fitness tracking are what prevented me from buying a Pebble.
| gffrd wrote:
| Are we talking about the same Garmin?
|
| I have an Instinct 2 that cost me under $200 new, goes 2+
| weeks between charges, and handles all activities I throw at
| it quite well.
|
| I agree: their launching of a subscription service is
| disappointing, because (1) it was wonderful having a no-
| recurring-cost ecosystem before, and (2) presumably that's
| where they'll be investing their product dollars. But, it's
| not required, and to date, it's not particularly high value.
| gangstead wrote:
| I want to join in with a Garmin rant. I also made the switch
| to a Coros after owning 3 Garmin watches. Each Garmin seemed
| to last almost exactly 3 years before abruptly dying. Each
| time I wanted to buy essentially the same watch only to find
| the new watches had more features and a higher price. The
| last round the "upgrade" more smart watch features, fewer
| sport watch features, and less battery life. The lower priced
| watches were always carefully missing select features that I
| wanted. I was doing triathlons which I guess Garmin thought
| they could coerce me into buying separate bike/run/swimming
| devices or paying 3-4X to get that extra 4mm of screen to
| show an extra data field. Garmin priced and segmented
| themselves out of a customer.
|
| The new Pebble is very similar to the Coros Pace but without
| the GPS but with hackability and that makes me very
| interested.
| Demiurge wrote:
| Just for context, your watch seems to cost $1,099.99 USD
| roflmaostc wrote:
| my Garmin Fenix 6 used to survive with 21 days of display
| always one but lowest brightness, if I didn't use any GPS. Now,
| after 3 years it is somehow down to 10 days. No chance of
| debugging where it comes from as I haven't changed anything on
| my side.
| deanc wrote:
| I turned that off immediately. I don't see the value when the
| gesture to wake it up works almost flawlessly.
| datadrivenangel wrote:
| That sounds like battery degradation. If they aggressively
| use less than ideal batteries, ~50% degradation after 3 years
| is bad but not uncommon.
| neogodless wrote:
| Agree with sibling comments, but I think it's a bad choice of
| comparison.
|
| I'm a Garmin Venu fan, but... apparently it was a $350
| watch[0], and now there's a $450 version[1] and an $800
| version[2]. There's still an older one[3] available for $250
| (or ~$185 on Amazon). Though I got my original Venu
| "refurbished" for under $100 (and it still had all the plastic
| wrap, etc. so was truly "like new.")
|
| 10-11 day battery when new (mine gets 6-7 days after several
| years of use, but I have never used always-on-display.)
|
| If I can get a Venu 2/2S/2S Plus/3/3S as a refurbished watch
| for ~$200-250, then I would go that route over an inexpensive
| Pebble 2 Time. Love that OLED screen. But I totally get the
| hacker ethos favoring the Pebble OS over Garmin. (Garmin does
| have a pretty good watch OS, and most things work without a
| subscription, which was a major factor in my purchase.) For
| $450 (or more...) it is not comparable to Pebble's offering.
|
| [0] https://www.techradar.com/reviews/garmin-venu
|
| [1] https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/873008/
|
| [2] https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/1510465/
|
| [3] https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/801643/pn/010-02701-00/
| Karawebnetwork wrote:
| Personally, I try not to use screens for a few hours before
| going to bed. Before bedtime, I limit myself to my e-ink book
| reader.
|
| The idea of having a screen on my wrist doesn't particularly
| appeal to me.
|
| My partner has one and when they turn over in bed, I am
| sometimes blinded by the screen which still glows brightly even
| at the lowest setting in complete darkness.
|
| That's why I'm considering a e-ink watch. The reason I didn't
| commit yet is that I fear that notifications and such before
| bedtime could be just as harmful to my nightline peacefulness.
| 51Cards wrote:
| You may also find interesting that in this release update he
| mentiones that the backlight LED is now RGB and they are
| toying with ideas like making the backlight blue light aware
| at nights, etc.
| Karawebnetwork wrote:
| This would be interesting. I was gifted a Kindle with
| backlighting recently after my old first generation one
| broke. The backlight is useless to me because it shines
| blue, so I just use a candle.
| RandomBacon wrote:
| > notifications and such before bedtime could be just as
| harmful to my nightline peacefulness.
|
| If you have an Android, you can set Do Not Disturb mode on a
| schedule.
| teekert wrote:
| "Focus" achieves the same thing for iOS.
| saltcured wrote:
| This is off topic, as the Pebble doesn't really aim at a use
| case I care about. Navigation and tracking of hikes and other
| daytime outdoor activity is my use case.
|
| Automatic illumination has never worked well for me on any
| watch. It seems I just don't roll my wrist to view the screen
| the way other people do, so this heuristic fails badly for me.
| I often read my watches via ambient light and the light hasn't
| triggered or comes later after I've already seen what I want.
| And on the other hand, I get annoyed by false-positives where
| it just lights up randomly in my peripheral vision. So I often
| disable the automatic light feature.
|
| So, I enjoy the always-on but passive aspect of a transflective
| LCD display. It is practical like a conventional watch with
| physical hands. It works well in bright sunlight, well enough
| in other decently lit environments, and at least copes with
| dark via the backlight. I wish it was even more reflective for
| low light, but the recent LCDs are not bad.
|
| I vastly prefer my Garmin FR255 which seems like the last of
| its breed. Garmin may have lost me as a repeat buyer with the
| changing products. I think I'd like their Enduro line, but not
| at those prices. I don't like many of the compromises of the
| Instinct line either, but it seems the only option left.
| usrusr wrote:
| Same. Amoled watches feel like TEXT IN ALL CAPS to me,
| screaming for attention when all they should do is make
| information available, vs force-feeding data. For attention,
| there's the vibration buzzer (which I absolutely love, so
| much more personal than a phone jumping around on the table)
| leokennis wrote:
| Wait an AMOLED with 30 days of battery life?
|
| Why/how can my Apple Watch barely make it through 24 hours?
|
| What's the fundamental difference between these two
| smartwatches that accounts for a 30x decrease in battery life?
| MOARDONGZPLZ wrote:
| My Garmin doesn't get 30 days but does routinely get 2 weeks,
| which is fine with me. The battery life is probably the only
| reason I have never tried the Apple Watch, and I check every
| generation to see if there has been an improvement. Even the
| large sport / epic one only gets pathetic 36 hours. It's mind
| boggling how Garmin can be so good at this and Apple cannot.
| ezst wrote:
| Just guessing, maybe Apple doesn't want that, so to not
| compete in a niche of demanding users with excessively
| utilitarian needs?
| jerlam wrote:
| The Apple Watch feels like it's designed as a very small
| iPhone. It has a lot of unnecessary functionality on-device,
| like email, a separate iMessage client, and its own Focus
| settings, which can sync to the iPhone, possibly as a
| requirement to make the watch operate independently. All
| these things take up battery power.
|
| Also, Apple sees no benefit having their watches last longer,
| so they're adding features instead of optimizing them, as
| long as it hits 18 hours or so.
| micromacrofoot wrote:
| > has profiles for pretty much every sport ever invented,
| incredibly accurate GPS tracking
|
| I don't need any of this
| legitster wrote:
| The Pebble battery life is with the display always on.
|
| It's squarely aimed at people who want the watch functionality
| to be first and foremost - no dorky wrist flicks or the
| distraction of the screen coming on and off all the time.
| coffeecoders wrote:
| I have owned a Fenix for years and have been wanting to
| upgrade, but I can't make sense of the hundreds of models.
| paxys wrote:
| "What's the use case for a $150 watch when you can just buy a
| $1000 watch instead?"
| delecti wrote:
| I recently switched to an AMOLED Garmin from a watch with an
| always-on screen (and before that, a pebble), so maybe I can
| weigh in.
|
| The use-case for a transflective watch are the same as they
| were in 2013. I don't really care if my watch has a beautiful
| vibrant display, I want it to show the time, every single time
| I look at it. The Garmin's wrist turn gesture detection is
| decent, but far from perfect. I need to either poke the screen,
| push a button, or very deliberately raise my wrist to trigger
| the gesture detection. Also, it emits light every time the
| screen wakes, whether I'm looking or not, and whether the light
| from the watch will be disruptive or not.
|
| None of that sounds convincing? Then this product probably just
| isn't aimed at you. And I don't mean that to be snarky,
| preferences around smartwatches are just really particular to
| the individual.
| marricks wrote:
| > https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/subscription-plans/
|
| Garmin introduced a subscription and you can guarantee that'll
| pave the way for the base experience to get shittier over time
| as they funnel people to it. If it works other fitness watches
| will follow.
|
| As soon as someone makes a good enough fitness app for that it
| becomes a way better option, it could actually get better over
| time without breaking.
| officeplant wrote:
| 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.
| svl7 wrote:
| It's visible at ca 6:47 in the video.
| officeplant wrote:
| Thanks, I went straight to the ordering page hoping for more
| product photos and didn't watch the video.
| Karawebnetwork wrote:
| You can see it here:
| https://youtu.be/pcPzmDePH3E?si=qIbTk_6yaxXE5sIB&t=220
| pfooti wrote:
| Yeah it looks pretty similar to the pebble 2 (2016) in that
| regard. I had an original pebble and a pebble 2, and the
| heart monitor on the 2 was super uncomfortable, to the point
| where I mostly just kept wearing my original pebble. I
| currently have a pixel watch, and the body is fatter but it
| is also way more smooth of a transition into the hr sensor.
|
| I can see myself buying one of these new pebbles, but not the
| one with the hr sensor. I really just want it for the
| notifications support.
| kevinwang wrote:
| Oooo, that looks a lot better than the initial designs!
| tmchu wrote:
| 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.
| modeless wrote:
| In the podcast Eric said that in the current design the back is
| fastened with screws and no adhesive. They may end up having to
| add some adhesive (presumably for water resistance) but
| hopefully not.
| __jonas wrote:
| I wish I could get the specs of the time 2 in the design of the 2
| duo, this just looks very generic to me design wise.
|
| The 2 duo is at least a little bit fun aesthetically, but I would
| like a heart rate monitor if I'm gonna be wearing a smart watch.
| user_7832 wrote:
| (My personal perspective or views below.)
|
| To misquote Bernie, I am once again ~~asking~~ requesting for a
| single watch to have both heart rate/health tracking, as well as
| compass and barometer in a single watch.
|
| I had an Amazfit Bip which, just like a Pebble, also had a
| transflective screen and between 1 to 2.5 months of battery life.
| However, it _did_ have a compass along with a barometer,
| alongside HR /activity/sleep tracking.
|
| I was (and still am) sad when my watch broke (screen pops out,
| known failure mode).
|
| Since then I got a basic Band (7), and very recently, the Amazfit
| Active 2.
|
| The latter is amazing on many aspects. Every sensor mentioned
| above of course, but a few nice add ons like continuous barometer
| readings for storm warnings, a thermometer, and so on.
|
| What it notably does _not_ have, s nither the transflective
| screen, nor the week to month(s) long battery life.
|
| I searched a good bit for transflective watches, and it seems
| garmin is the only half-decent brand in town, and they appear to
| paywall nicer features to their expensive products.
|
| In the absence of much of a budget, my choice was easy. But I
| _really_ hope Pebble makes something in a single package that
| makes my next watch purchase a real dilemma if not an outright
| purchase :)
| fullstop wrote:
| > I had an Amazfit Bip
|
| I still have mine. The front fell off, but I glued it back on.
| The battery life is not as good as it was when I got it in
| 2019, but it still keeps a charge for over three weeks. I keep
| looking for replacements, but haven't found anything that can
| match that lifespan while also not being huge. Maybe this
| Pebble is the ticket.
| jmcphers wrote:
| Same, Bip S over here. The battery life is starting to really
| go downhill, so I checked Amazfit and was sad to discover
| that they appear to have abandoned transflective watches
| entirely. :-( I pre-ordered one the cheaper Pebble.
| zevon wrote:
| I was also initially disappointed by this but if I'm reading
| the announcement right, both models will now have a compass, at
| least.
| klooney wrote:
| What do you use the barometer for?
| Y_Y wrote:
| Measuring pressure
| com2kid wrote:
| I'm sad that no product since the Microsoft Band has put a UV
| sensor on a watch. I'm biased because I largely designed the UV
| experience, but damn I miss having sunscreen reminders.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Is having a sensor on the watch substantially better than
| just retrieving the UV index for your location and time of
| day?
| mattlondon wrote:
| Yeah because it tells you (I presume ) your actual UV
| rating in terms of exposure, and not just semi-useless "hey
| it's sunny out!" Yep we know the UV is high on sunny days
| but how much UV have _I_ had so far?
| jerlam wrote:
| The Apple Watch (and other smartwatches) probably could
| estimate UV exposure seeing as it has both a light
| sensor, used to estimate daylight time; and constantly
| updated UV weather information.
| diego_moita wrote:
| I already have 7 Pebbles.
|
| Now I'll have 8.
|
| There, Eric. Take my money..
| cyberax wrote:
| Is there a possibility to add NFC payments, like on Apple/Android
| devices? Is it even feasible?
|
| This is really a killer feature for me. GPS tracking would be
| nice to track runs, but I can live without it.
| rvz wrote:
| Yeah, I would wait a while for the Pebble to gain those
| sensors. But there is a need for a watch with a color e-ink
| screen.
|
| Until then, I'm sticking with the Apple Watch.
| ZeWaka wrote:
| The technology exists to embed the NFC chips in the bands, but
| in the US this is limited to certain banks, and from what I
| know is largely discontinued.
| iAMkenough wrote:
| The payment processors would be your biggest hurdle.
| ethersteeds wrote:
| Yes, features like this are what leads to DRM and locked
| bootloader requirements. It's a shame.
| cyberax wrote:
| Intuitively, segregating the payment processing into its
| own secure enclave seems to be feasible?
|
| As I understand, the "secure" nature of iWatch means that
| the signature requirement is waived when you pay with it.
| Regular contactless cards still require you to sign (in the
| US).
| ncruces wrote:
| Is the color pixel arrangement still the same as the older
| pebbles?
|
| I was working on a subpixel rendering algorithm for it at the
| time, but then it was killed, and I shelved it.
| modeless wrote:
| The screen is the very same one that the Pebble Time 2 was
| going to use. I'm pretty sure it's the same as the other
| Pebbles.
| neom wrote:
| Looks great! The very first Pebble was actually instrumental in
| building digitalocean - I met them at MLH hackathon at CalTech
| and forced one of the founders to sell me a demo unit- all I used
| it for was notifications on the digitalocean twitter and outages
| pushed from slack, I tried to reply to every single tweet at us
| immediately. A little memento of when I hired Mikeal Rogers:
| https://s.h4x.club/4guEJN95
|
| Funny, now in 2025, 10 years later, I'm not a fan of smart
| watches due to their enabling bad habits, think I'll pick up this
| pebble and leave notifications turned off this time. :)
| telesilla wrote:
| Agreed. I'd kill for a watch that you could hold all
| notifications until you decided to receive them all, ideally at
| a slow pace over a period of time. For now, I disable
| notifications but it's a shame I can't access them when I'm
| ready to do so. I have hopes for this pebble!
| tills13 wrote:
| I mean that's the killer app for a watch like Pebble that is
| at it's core open source.
|
| > a watch that you could hold all notifications until you
| decided to receive them all
|
| build it. _Even if_ you wouldn't know where to start I think
| a modern LLM could get you 90% of the way there.
| bibanez wrote:
| My Garmin watch on Do Not Disturb accomplishes this. I always
| forget to look at them though!
| modeless wrote:
| PebbleOS has always had a feature called "Quiet Time" which
| does the same thing as "Do Not Disturb". Hopefully the new
| app will also respect the phone's native "Do Not Disturb"
| setting which has a bunch of nice automation features to
| e.g. turn on during meetings or at night automatically.
| ricardobeat wrote:
| Apple does this with evening summaries.
| svachalek wrote:
| Apple's Focus settings let you set up special allow/deny
| lists for notifications and the notifications come in when
| you disable the focus. Unfortunately they don't have separate
| watch/phone settings on this although you can block apps from
| being able to notify on watch at all, ever. This is how mine
| is set, pretty much I only allow watch notifications for
| navigation, phone calls/DMs from known contacts.
| MortyWaves wrote:
| Having a real https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion
| moment! Somehow I never knew the word "colorways" existed until a
| few days ago and now I'm seeing it all over.
| gsibble wrote:
| That is one ugly watch.
| jmcphers wrote:
| I'm surprised more hasn't been made of the difference in screen
| resolution between this device and other Pebbles (and even the
| "new" Pebble 2 Duo). Old watchfaces and apps are not going to
| render without black borders, and given the niche market and
| limited run of this new model, it doesn't seem likely to attract
| much in the way of developer attention, so a healthy marketplace
| of new faces/apps may not surface.
|
| If I could design _my_ dream watch (to borrow Eric's phrase), I'd
| put a larger version of the black and white MIP display in Time
| 2's case -- not more pixels, just bigger and easier to read.
| daemonologist wrote:
| I think they're working with a _very_ limited selection of off-
| the-shelf MIP displays. (The 2 Duo itself is using new old
| stock of a custom display manufactured for the Pebble 2.)
|
| There is one bright spot, which is that I believe the new Time
| 2's higher resolution display matches the original Time 2
| specification and therefore has been supported by the SDK for
| years already. There were only a handful of physical
| prototypes, so no users of course, but some developers probably
| did build support for it.
| 51Cards wrote:
| It doesn't really need to surface. This is PebbleOS, so all the
| faces developed for all of the previous models will also work
| here. There is already a huge library of faces and I see people
| still making new ones.
| infotainment wrote:
| You'd be surprised how many of the old devs are coming out of
| the woodwork to fix their old watchfaces and apps. It seems
| like a lot of people who were excited enough about Pebble in
| the past to develop apps seem to _still_ be excited about it.
|
| Plus, it's not particularly difficult to support the bigger
| screen size in the SDK.
| gazpachotron wrote:
| This is terrific to see. I was an original Pebble kickstarter
| backer and had a tremendous amount of fun developing apps for my
| Pebble. Also, I saw you present at a Meetup at Evernote's HQ, and
| the story you told about Pebble's inception was fascinating. Keep
| up the great work.
| Y_Y wrote:
| The word "colorway" just reminds me of a dabacle with a certain
| browser.
|
| Does it mean anything more than "color" or "color scheme"? Do
| humans use the word in real life? I've never heard it outside of
| marketing copy.
| lawlessone wrote:
| That backlight might be good for stargazing, could set to red.
| christiangenco wrote:
| Preordered! I'm so excited; I had a pebble way back in the day
| and I remember liking the vibe of it way more than any Apple
| Watch/fitbit I've owned since. It feels the closest to the watch
| I would make if I made watches.
|
| Where might I find the SDK or developer docs for how to make apps
| for this thing?
| varispeed wrote:
| I love the idea of having it, but as with every watch I ever had,
| I wear it, put it to charge and then eventually forget it exists.
| I have a couple of "smart" watches just taking space in the
| drawer. Probably one I worn the most was just the Casio F-91W. I
| think the idea of having to charge the watch (means taking it off
| and not wearing it for a while) breaks the "connection".
|
| Then another thing is that I always have a phone with me, so I
| just reach for it to check what time it is.
|
| What would you use this watch for?
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2025-08-13 23:00 UTC)