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 — known as the Core 2 Duo and the Core Time 2.
These non secular successors to the Pebble smartwatches can be found for pre-order, costing $149 and $225 respectively.
If you aren’t accustomed to 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, after all).
Fast ahead to 2024, Migicovsky had a daring thought: what if we might return to these easier occasions and easier tech units? What if we might deliver again the spirit of the Pebble?
Google has been surprisingly useful on this course of because the tech big is open-sourcing PebbleOS, the working system that powered the unique Pebble smartwatches.
While Google acquired Fitbit a number of years after Fitbit acquired Pebble’s belongings, it seems that Pebble’s IP wasn’t price a lot to Google, so the corporate determined to present it again to the neighborhood of Pebble fans.
Now, Core Devices, Migicovsky’s new firm, has unveiled two new smartwatches that may run PebbleOS.
The Core 2 Duo is actually a brand new Pebble 2 operating the unique Pebble software program.
It has an always-on E Ink show with a number of buttons on the facet of the machine. Compared to different 2025 smartwatches, it’s fairly fundamental. That E Ink display screen is a non-touch, black-and-white show. But the smartwatch helps alarms and timers — groundbreaking, I do know.
The wearable pairs together with your telephone utilizing Bluetooth in order that it may show notifications and hook up with the web. You can even management the music in your telephone due to the Bluetooth connection.
But the 2 issues that made the Pebble stand out from its successors are nonetheless true in the present day. First, the battery life is great. The firm guarantees as much as 30 days of battery life. Second, it’s a enjoyable, hackable machine. There are hundreds of watchfaces and it’s simple to create small apps for the machine.
“This project is a labour of love rather than a startup trying to sell millions of watches,” Migicovsky wrote in a weblog put up saying the units. “There may be some rough edges (literally). Things will get delayed. Some features will not be ready at launch. Things could break. Things could not last as long as you’d like.”
“The only thing we can guarantee is that it will be awesome and a lot of fun! Every time you look down at your watch, you will smile 
,” he added.
The different smartwatch Migicovsky’s firm introduced in the present day, the Core Time 2, primarily shares the identical specs because the Core 2 Duo, but it surely has an even bigger, 64-color show in a metallic casing. It’s additionally a contact show, however Pebble apps don’t assist 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 supply and ship; it’s slated to be accessible in December.
