Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

https://rebble.io/2022/11/02/rebble-hackathon.html

by will0 • 4 years ago

513 393 4 years ago

paulcole3• 4 years ago

The smart watch market is just huge.

If there are 100 million people who wear an Apple Watch, it’s not surprising that less than .02% of that number would like something as niche as the pebble.

It’s like the iPod Classic people. Billions of people want music with them wherever they go. 12 of them like it in MP3 form on a little brick that’s not their phone.

cptaj• 4 years ago

Its me. I'm 12 of them.

ghaff3• 4 years ago

It’s interesting to me that when the Apple Watch was coming out (and maybe more broadly when fitness bands etc. were becoming available) there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they? They always had their phones.

andrepd3• 4 years ago

Honestly, I still don't see the value in a smartwatch. Paying with nfc with your wrist? That's probably the only use case I can see. But then it's not worth it having to charge yet another device daily

reaperducer3• 4 years ago

there was a pretty widespread sentiment that younger people didn’t want watches because why would they?

I remember this, too.

But good companies plan for the future, not the past. And all of those young people get older. That's one of the few certainties of life.

So what Apple did (intentionally or unintentionally) is create a market, and then let its customers mature into it.

Financial institutions do this all the time.

SentientAtom• 4 years ago

If it works for you, why would you migrate to a different product with features or performance outside of your needs? We are so deep into a disposable society that we eagerly await the NEXT BIG THING (TM) without ever evaluating what our need consists of or whether we have any need for an upgrade to begin with.

dpcx• 4 years ago

Well, the threat of the service going away is a pretty big one. Until we have devices that can work from our own hosted systems, this will always be a concern.

fsflover3• 4 years ago

Until we have devices that can work from our own hosted systems

We already do: https://pine64.org/pinetime.

Gigachad2• 4 years ago

The pebble was a bit of a gimmick. It was the start of the future but on its own it was kind of worse than a regular watch. It looked ugly, had a terrible screen, didn’t have any of the stuff you mostly do with a smartwatch now. And half the features no longer work.

yonaguska2• 4 years ago

And it had an insanely long battery life, I could respond to, and read text messages without opening my phone. It didn't have unnecessary stuff- it was simple and met my watch needs. I don't have a smartwatch now, because I'm not interested in having yet another computer on my wrist. I guess I've just decided to settle for a gimmicky automatic watch, it doesn't even have an alarm! And it dies if I stop using it for a few days.

SyneRyder3• 4 years ago

And half the features no longer work.

Which features don't work? I'm still wearing a Pebble Time Steel every day with Rebble Services and not encountering problems.

Okay, I guess Apple integration doesn't work anymore, but that's an Apple problem. If Apple allowed sideloading & half of the things you can do on Android, Pebble would still work there. I used to be an iPhone owner (I was one of those queue-on-day-one types that got a standing ovation from the Apple employees as you walked out of the Apple Store), but I am so glad I switched to Android.

tekchip2• 4 years ago

That was v1. The latter versions solved most of those problems and rebble.io keeps a pebble 100% functional.

amelius• 4 years ago

True. But perhaps 16k people sold their Pebble because they wanted a shiny new watch, and they were bought by 16k other people who can't afford that new watch.

Cthulhu_• 4 years ago

sort-of-smart watch, you can get watches that tell the time for $5 or less.

darau12• 4 years ago

I know a guy that bought every new Samsung flagship device as soon as they hit stores. He said he just has to upgrade.

guerrilla• 4 years ago

I would hate it if everyone (or even many people) did this, but it's nice to know someone outside of Samsung has tried them all, but then again, I guess you wouldn't ncessarily get very neutral reviews from such a person.

aliqot• 4 years ago

I wonder sometimes how can people reconcile buying a new X every Y and still be concerned about human rights and the environment, etc.

lnsru• 4 years ago

I know a guy who does this with Apple products. Half monthly salary for a phone for a year sounds extreme to me. Plus all the gimmicks that come with the phone - pad, phones and watch.

GuB-42• 4 years ago

- Parts breaking that can't be easily replaced. In particular Li-ion batteries have a limited lifespan, both in time and in number of cycles.

- Security: hackers constantly find new vulnerabilities. And depending on the kind of device, it can be a big deal.

- Services shutting down, it can be direct (if the device connects to the internet), or indirect (if some "companion app" is no longer available).

- Or just plain obsolescence. The device may be incompatible with modern standards, irrelevant, unfashionable, etc...

ZaoLahma• 4 years ago

I bought a Big Brand Flagship Phone (tm), the Samsung Galaxy S9, in 2018. They stopped upgrading the OS with new functionality in 2020 only two years after its release, and this year they stopped providing security updates!

Considering how much functionality and information is on that phone that could affect my life in absolutely fantastically negative ways if it was hacked (online accounts including owned licenses for software, banking), I have little choice but to buy a new phone now, even though the hardware is more than adequate for my needs and even though new phones don't really do much more much better.

Planned obsolescence, or whatever you prefer to call it, really drives this behaviour.

bombcar2• 4 years ago

This alone is a huge reason that the iPhone is doing well - iOS 16 still runs on the 8 and iOS 15 releases are still getting patches: https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/supported-models-iphe... https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213490

arsome• 4 years ago

I've always been curious about this one - what kind of exploits are you concerned about that could wind up with those sorts of consequences? Most of the security updates tend to patch things which are local only or barely exploitable in the first place. Assuming you're not installing entirely untrustworthy software on daily basis, it's probably not much of a difference. Looking at the latest Android security report, even the "Critical" vulnerability reported is a code injection in data that's usually only available to the app that wrote it in the first place.

Important applications like the browser, webview, media players, etc are patched via Play Store regularly so untrusted data is usually processed through those pipelines regardless. Perhaps hardware decode on untrusted content could still provide a vector there, but judging by the practice it's not exactly a large one.

There haven't exactly been worm-grade exploits flying around in the mobile space, even big public things like StageFright pretty much turned out to be non-starters and the targeted attacks are so far ahead that I wouldn't even worry about public exploits - the private ones have you covered already even on the latest OS.

Maybe I'm the minority here, but I wouldn't exactly rush out and blow $1000 over anything short of an unpatched and readily exploitable RCE.

thorin• 4 years ago

Is this in the US only? I have a Samsung S9 (and a spare S9 actually), and the last update was installed on the 23 Sept 2022.

dotnet003• 4 years ago

To be fair the situation regarding updates is starting to improve now that new phones bring very little to the table besides faster processing and marginal camera improvements and similarly OS updates don't do much besides change the UI slightly.

Samsung (and IIRC Google) now promises at least 4 years of regular updates and 5 of security.

o10449366• 4 years ago

Agree. I'm still using the original iphone SE from 2016. I've replaced the battery four or five times and see no reason to upgrade, even though it's officially out of support now.

Funnily, when I meet people now with the latest and greatest iphone and they see my old phone they often express they wish they still had one of them.

emsimot• 4 years ago

I am one of those people! I'm scared of the day my pebble stops working, it's honestly the best peiece of electronics I've ever owned.

brewdad2• 4 years ago

I had an original Pebble that I handed down to my son years ago when it stopped getting official support and I bought a smaller faced Garmin smartwatch to replace it.

He still wears it most days today. Not sure if this is the software he's using today or not. I'll have to find out if he's one of the 16,000.

kojeovo• 4 years ago

Pebble was a game changer. Mine's in a drawer somewhere..

imdsm• 4 years ago

As is mine. Loathe to throw it away, yet quite sure it doesn't work anymore.

popcalc• 4 years ago

If you don't want it I'll gladly take it off your hands.

ilyt• 4 years ago

Same, I just got solar + radio sync watch as replacement, not having to do anything ever with it beats having to charge for some extra features, even if it is just once a week, "modern" one that I'd need to charge every day or two just sounds annoying...

Kaibeezy• 4 years ago

Mine too. Would one or two of the 16k please make the pitch. What are the features that keep you using it? How much work to get it going again?

This is timely for me as I’m now in the doghouse for missing a reminder to take my kid to the dentist yesterday :(

hobo_mark2• 4 years ago

Runs one week on a charge, I wrote a custom time-tracking app for it that I have been using for years, syncs with google calendar, shows TOTP auth codes, weather and notifications, controls music playback in the house, all without having to take my phone out...

eptcyka• 4 years ago

Can I buy it off you? Mine died this spring and I'm yet to recover.

Daedren• 4 years ago

I was only forced to swap because the battery started inflating. Currently on an Amazfit Bip S, fills in all my needs really, and has even better battery life.

ClassyJacket2• 4 years ago

After the disaster that was the Galaxy Watch 4, I've given up completely on Android Wear - it is just too slow, even right out of the box, and the battery life is abysmal. Going flat at 7pm without anything extra installed and with 4G off is unacceptable.

So I'm trying to move to a simpler watch with just basic smart features and longer battery life, but one where I can customize the watchface with code.

I ended up going with Watchy: https://watchy.sqfmi.com/

And it's cool, but it's extremely basic, a bit bulky and ugly, and has all the drawbacks of E-Paper.

Pebble would have been perfect. If they still sold them I would buy one today. It's tragic the company went under so quickly.

Maybe I should get a Pebble. But I don't really want to buy a second hand smartwatch, and I don't see the point in investing into something that will never be updated and has no official support. All this update does it make the phone companion app work on a Pixel 7.

RIP Pebble. I hope someone makes something similar.

lhoff• 4 years ago

You might want to look into the Amazfit and Mi Band Devices that are supported by Gadgetbridge[1]

I haven't looked into the process of watchface creation but there is a huge collection[2] that can be installed via Gadgetbridge. It also has the benefit that its privacy friendly without any cloud connections and fully opensource.

[1]https://www.gadgetbridge.org/ [2]https://amazfitwatchfaces.com/

reaperducer3• 4 years ago

And it's cool, but it's extremely basic, a bit bulky and ugly, and has all the drawbacks of E-Paper.

Can you elaborate a bit about the e-paper part? I always believed that watches were the perfect place for e-paper. Low power, durable, always-on, wide viewing angle, no need to constant refresh.

I thought the smaller the display, the better suited it was for e-paper.

dboreham• 4 years ago

After the disaster that was the Galaxy Watch 4

Wait...what?? I've used all the Samsung watches, with 3G/LTE, and the 4 is leaps and bounds better than anything that preceded it (and is for me quite usable and hassle-free).

ProAm• 4 years ago

What features are you looking for? I moved away from the 'Smartwatch' arena to the fitness watch (Suunto Baro or Garmin Fenix). It allows notifications/messages, music streaming, fitness tracking. And the battery last 5-7 days (depending on what you use and how often, for example if I fitness track often the battery life decreases due to extra monitoring, etc..) I found it a good middle ground between a full blown smart watch and a dumb watch.

emj2• 4 years ago

I'm looking at buying readily available a cheap programmable smartwatch. PineTime was easy to write programs for and that Casio replacement board [0] discussed here earlier also hade a nice tool chain, but with shipping and taxes it's just too bothersome.

[0] https://www.crowdsupply.com/oddly-specific-objects/sensor-wa...

anoonmoose2• 4 years ago

I bought into the Bangle.js 2 Kickstarter and I have to say, I'm incredibly happy with it. Granted, I've done nothing with it besides design my own watch face and take advantage of the GPS to set the time occasionally, but I know it's capable of a lot more. It was very easy to write the watch face code, and I feel like it would be pretty easy to do whatever I wanted to do. Ecosystem for it is probably a bit more developed than it was at launch, too- they were supposed to follow up with some apps that made interfacing it with your phone easier, dunno where that ended up.

To be fair- I've also got PineTime bookmarked for if my Bangle.js 2 ever breaks, or I just want to mess around with some lower-level aspects of watch firmware.

https://www.espruino.com/Bangle.js2

triyambakam• 4 years ago

How easy is to write games for a Bangle.js 2? I want a hackable smart watch that I can make simple games for :)

diego_moita4• 4 years ago

I use 5 of them!

And I have one more with a wasted battery that I intend to replace.

And I'll still buy some more, because I want to have them available for the rest of my life.

There are things that only the Pebble does:

- button only interface that you can handle in the dark without glasses

- a screen that barcode scanners can easily read for authentication into the gym and library

- a TOTP app (authentication tokens) that you can access with only a button press, etc.

haunter• 4 years ago

a screen that barcode scanners can easily read for authentication into the gym and library

Only Pebble can do this? Apple Watch does that too, like literally I use mine for the same cases you described

Jackim• 4 years ago

I think the above posted was saying more that the Pebble is the only smartwatch with all of those features.

jonas-w• 4 years ago

I don't get it, many smartphones and smartwatches can be read by Barcode scanners never had any problems with it. (I used a few different samsung phones and watches)

john-radio• 4 years ago

Apple Watch is arguably not a general purpose "smartwatch" since it's actually only usable by those who happen to use iPhones.

diego_moita4• 4 years ago

Don't know about the Apple Watch, I'm out of Apple's walled garden.

My experience with bright screens is that low density bar codes work ok mostly. But some high density codes don't work well. One of them is Plessey, still used in Europe.

SyneRyder3• 4 years ago

And I have one more with a wasted battery that I intend to replace.

I wish Rebble would offer a paid mail-in service to replace the batteries, to have someone trusted & reliable do the work. I'm down to about 2-days battery life on my Time Steel. I do have a replacement Time Steel that I bought on eBay, but I'd love to get this one fixed.

I love Rebble, but I wish they did more to round out the service. I'm really surprised they don't have their own web store for new-old stock & certified-Rebble refurbished Pebbles. A Discord channel really doesn't cut it, at least not for me (even eBay is a better experience).

gnicholas8• 4 years ago

Totally agree. I’ve been looking into replacement and it’s not something I’m comfortable doing on my own.

One tip: put your Pebble in airplane mode each night. For me, it extends my battery life substantially. I mapped long-hold left button to toggle this setting, for ease of use.

will02• 4 years ago

We'd love to offer something like that, but there's all kind of considerations around liability with repairs. Plus we're entirely run by volunteers, and watch repairs take a lot of time.

That being said, a store for refurbed Pebbles might be doable, but it would be a big time and cost overhead.

FeistySkink4• 4 years ago

Most Garmins (Fenix, Forerunner series) can do all of your "only Pebble" parts. In fact I replaced my touchscreen smartwatch with Fenix 6 precisely for not having one and relying on buttons instead.

diego_moita4• 4 years ago

I replaced my touchscreen smartwatch with Fenix 6

Interesting. And it also has an sdk in C.

Although it costs almost 4 times what I'd pay for a Pebble on eBay.

But it is the best Pebble alternative I've seen so far.

jbj4• 4 years ago

Have a pebble and a fenix, I got all of those set up on my pebble, and all but one of those things set up on fenix. Unfortunaltely the opensource barcode app for connectIQ only supports 1D barcodes and not QR codes.

esel2k4• 4 years ago

Pebble user here as well! I moved from PTS to PTR (fall on the ground - dead) now back to PTR and it is amazing: long battery life, the apps on it are great. I use: Rain, Checklist, timer, LMS controller and alarm and torch. You?

diego_moita4• 4 years ago

- MultiTimer - for short naps, setting alarms when cooking, etc

- Authenticator - TOTP authorization tokens

- Skunk - barcodes

- Time Tracker - I work remotely as a contractor

- Pebble Controler - a remote control for my laptop

I also use a lot the standard apps on the Pebble:

- alarm, to wake me up by vibration, without waking up my wife

- canned messages - to answer phone calls when driving

- notifications, notifications

- hang up phone calls I don't want

- steps counter, when running

FortiDude• 4 years ago

Count me in! In my mind my smartwatch doesn't need more computing power or complexity than your average microcontroller, so as long as it lasts I'm keeping mine in good use

naoru• 4 years ago

Count me two. Me and my esposa still use our Pebble Times.

Once in a blue moon I buy a hot new smart watch, but nothing lasted more than a week before being resold.

keraf2• 4 years ago

As a big Pebble fan, I was really sad to see the company go without any similar alternatives in the market (at the time). My watches ended up having various hardware issues over the years, so I switched to something else. The efforts Rebble has put in to keep these devices alive is amazing. If they grow bigger, I'd love to see them do hardware.

In the meantime, I'm wearing a Withings ScanWatch [0]. Not as extendable as a Pebble, but it has some features I care about and doesn't distract me.

[0] https://www.withings.com/ch/en/scanwatch

dcormier• 4 years ago

Are there any comparable alternatives to Pebble even now? I’ve yet to see one, but I haven’t followed the market very closely since I stopped using one.

Belphemur2• 4 years ago

If I remember correctly, after Fitbit purchased pebble they released the Versa line up that had some similar functionalities.

However it looks like Google is killing that in newer iterations...

falcolas3• 4 years ago

Not in my opinion. The closest I’ve found are hybrid watches which will forward alerts (but generally with no text), but certainly nothing with the screen, battery life, and OSS vibe.

delecti3• 4 years ago

One problem with the smartwatch market is that it's hard to know what "comparable" means to any given person.

I've found an Amazfit Bip to be a totally satisfactory replacement for my Pebble Time, but it doesn't cover every single usecase. It does have a battery life measured in weeks though (usually 3-4 for me, less if I use the GPS to track a bunch of exercise), which is a pretty nice selling point.

keraf2• 4 years ago

The "closest" I found that filled the void Pebble left are these hybrid watches like the ScanWatch I mentioned. All fully digital ones just go overboard with features, I find them too gimmicky and they come with an awful battery life. I don't want another smartphone on my wrist that I need to charge every night...

I miss the simplicity, yet the huge amount possibilities (via their store and SDK) and watch faces the Pebble had. They still managed to keep the device distraction free along with a good battery life. I'm all ears for any good Pebble-like smartwatch if anyone knows one.

jabroni_salad• 4 years ago

Fossil Neutra, I think. They have an eink display and 2 week battery life. I don't use one though, been enjoying my citizen ecodrive for the past few years.

tekchip2• 4 years ago

Surprised this hasn't been mentioned on this thread yet. Hardware wise the closest is probably the Pine Time from Pine64. Software and services wise this isn't on pebbles level though. https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/

As others mention hybrid watches are probably the closest alternative.

iamjackg• 4 years ago

I've been using a Garmin Vivoactive 3 for a few years after owning a Pebble Time that eventually stopped working. I've been pretty happy with it: it also has a retroreflective screen that's always on and perfectly visible in sunlight, the battery can last about a week depending on usage, and Garmin's IQ app ecosystem is solid.

The notification functionality is not as customizable, but otherwise I haven't really been missing the Pebble much.

sethd• 4 years ago

I've been using a Garmin Instinct for a few years, and it's never let me down. It has a monochrome display that is not affected by sunlight with incredible battery life even when using the GPS. It's also tough as a brick

JeremyNT• 4 years ago

I had a pebble, now I have a Garmin Forerunner.

These are marketed as fitness devices first, which they are, but the smart watch features are comparable to the Pebbles. The lack of a touchscreen, the long battery life, and the epaper-like display are all there.

stareatgoats• 4 years ago

Yes, Withings things are cool, including the Scanwatch in lieu if what Pebble could have been given the right funding and guidance. I'll get mine if/when they add blood pressure monitoring.

Belphemur2• 4 years ago

Withings is great if you're looking for "health" watch but not really good as fitness tracker.

For years, I used my steel HR (got a weird one branded Nokia because they had purchased Withings only to resell Withings to the founder a year later), loved the sleep tracking, health report etc... But the activity tracking wasn't the best, especially running.

However the battery's life is out of this world. I loved the mix between tech and good old watch.

tootie• 4 years ago

I bought a Scanwatch and have found the health data to be so inaccurate as to be completely useless. I explicitly wanted SpO2 and sleep tracking and it's just very wrong. It would wake up multiple times at night and the watch would tell me I was asleep all night. I'm sure it's just some limitation of the sensors, but the tech just isn't good enough to be useful

ziml77• 4 years ago

That Withings watch looks pretty nice. What I would really love to see is a Pebble revival with that monitoring tech in it. Like if I saw that end up on Kickstarter, I would easily drop in $1k to help fund the development and production (as long as the project was run by someone who will definitely be able to make it happen).

solarkraft• 4 years ago

That few?

I wasn't a huge fan of Pebble, the company - they didn't sell replacement parts, for instance (the watch for geeks? yeah, sure).

For some crazy reason, though, to this day, this watch is still almost the only one that gets such a basic thing right: Telling the damn time.

The formula is as simple as it is unreplicated:

- Always telling the time

- Good battery life

- Buttons

Why nobody else makes such a watch is a mystery to me. The Amazfit Bip comes close, but it requires touch interaction and doesn't look as nice as the Pebble Time Steel. It's also supported by GadgetBridge though and also does heart rate tracking while having much better battery life (while being smaller!). When my Bip broke after a few months I bought another (5 years old at this point!) Pebble and am pretty happy with it. I could use some heart rate tracking, though.

capableweb• 4 years ago

Basically the only reason I got the smartwatch I got, is because it always displays the time, even if it runs out of battery, that it can vibrate when I receive phone calls, it keeps track of my heart rate and sleeping activity. The battery also lasts days rather than hours, which is pretty nice.

I don't exactly know which model it is, but it's a Garmin watch with the traditional hour/minute arms and a tiny little screen. But it really kicks ass at telling me the time :)

rypskar• 4 years ago

Maybe a Garmin vivomove HR, I got mine for the same reasons

will02• 4 years ago

The actual number of Pebble users is likely far higher, this is just the count we get from our side at Rebble.

There are more Pebble users out there using Gadgetbridge for example.

TeMPOraL4• 4 years ago

There are more Pebble users out there using Gadgetbridge for example.

There could also be many more users using neither. For example, my wife is still using the OG Pebble (the monochromatic one) with the official app and stock firmware, today. I was using my Pebble Time with the OG app/firmware as well, until couple months ago when I broke my phone and couldn't transfer the app to the new one, at which point I decided to go the Rebble route.

Chris2048• 4 years ago

Other than battery life, how does this compare to iwatch?

cianmm• 4 years ago

It has more buttons than an Apple Watch and is a lot simpler with less functionality, which for many is a draw.

I had two Pebbles and was very sad when it shut down - my Pebble devices are no longer functioning but I've been using an Apple Watch for maybe 6 years now and am very happy with it. Sometimes I miss the battery life, but I never feel like it's a restriction and the UI on the Apple Watch is really very good.

ryukafalz• 4 years ago

Buttons

This is the killer feature for me and why I still use mine daily. I don't know why nobody else is doing this. With media controls on a shortcut slot I can pause whatever media I'm playing, switch songs, etc without even looking at the screen. No other smartwatch I've used comes close to that convenience.

Wildgoose• 4 years ago

I have a Fossil Hybrid HR Collider that allows this.

Real watch hands, buttons and an e-ink display. 7-10 days battery life.

It's a really nice watch.

darrenf• 4 years ago

The formula is as simple as it is unreplicated:
- Always telling the time
- Good battery life
- Buttons

I'm not so sure this is "unreplicated". Since bailing on Pebble I've had 2 Garmin watches which always tell the time, and have good battery life and buttons.

jjice2• 4 years ago

Tactile buttons, easy replies, and the epaper display. Such a simple combination, but I don't think we'll ever see a new one again. Seeing the time without having to shake my wrist like a maniac was such a game changer.

Haven't used a smart watch in 6ish years, so maybe they're better. From what I understand though, they still don't have always on displays for time, right? I hope I'm wrong and that they do.

mikestew• 4 years ago

From what I understand though, they still don't have always on displays for time, right?

Apple is on the fourth version that has an always-on-display, and Google's new Pixel watch has it. Can't say about any others with any confidence, but I'd be surprised if Apple/Google are the only ones.

pmlamotte• 4 years ago

Garmin Fenix/Forerunner/Instinct meets all of these, though at a significantly higher cost than the pebble. It's worth it for me because I'm into the fitness tracking but hard to justify otherwise.

seized2• 4 years ago

Garmin watches do all of those things well, including heart rate and fitness tracking/etc. Take a look at the Vivoactive line. My Vivoactive 4 gets >1 week battery life depending on the number of notifications I get (vibration vs battery life).

stardenburden• 4 years ago

Most Garmin watches fit your formula

mrcwinn• 4 years ago

"That few?"

"Why nobody else makes such a watch is a mystery to me."

There ya go.

MBCook• 4 years ago

Right. Apple sold 46.1 million Apple Watches last year alone.

There are always people who mourn the Pebble and I understand why. But the market has clearly shown you don’t need a week of battery life to be successful.

aembleton3• 4 years ago

Coros Pace 2 has buttons and a crown but no touch screen. Its gets 2 weeks of battery life in real world use.

https://www.coros.com/pace2

sv7n• 4 years ago

Garmin instinct - check - check - check

odiroot3• 4 years ago

I'm one of them. Still love it. The built-in compass and the third-party app that integrates with Google Maps are priceless to me. Using physical buttons as opposed to touchscreen is another great feature.

All these years, I haven't found a replacement.

hobo_mark2• 4 years ago

Wait, which versions have a compass? My P2HR does not mention that anywhere.

51Cards2• 4 years ago

My Time model has a compass and I use it quite a bit. There are several compass apps in the store.

odiroot3• 4 years ago

I have Pebble Time. The compass app is a factory one, I believe.

esel2k4• 4 years ago

How or what do you integrate with google maps? I only see notifications and it stops after a while.

odiroot3• 4 years ago

I bought (ages ago) the _Nav Me_ companion app. It parses Google Maps notifications and shows you directions on the watch. Also vibrates and turns the light on for every step.

robg• 4 years ago

Wonder how many are still using an iPod nano as a watch.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1104350651/tiktok-lunat...

reaperducer3• 4 years ago

Wonder how many are still using an iPod nano as a watch.

I still use my iPod Shuffles a couple of days a week, so there's probably someone out there.

Every time I upgrade macOS, I'm amazed that even the ancient iPods are still supported. I bunged my launch day Shuffle (17 years old) into my new Mac over the weekend, and it works fine, still syncs, and Finder even still shows the icon for it.

Same with my also 17-year-old iPod Video. Man, 17 years went by quickly.

maratc3• 4 years ago

My iPod nano battery expanded and cracked the whole device open. I almost literally cried, as I loved that little device too much.

Getting a replacement is not an option as any iPod nano battery is about 10 years old now. A sign of what will happen to all the Apple Watches out there.

SanjayMehta2• 4 years ago

I loved my 80Gb classic iPod. When its hard drive finally died I couldn't bring myself to dispose of it.

mmmlinux2• 4 years ago

a replacement battery is 15$USD on ifixit...

jpswade• 4 years ago

That doesn’t seem that many, how many people use Fitbit or Apple Watch?

p0pcult2• 4 years ago

For a watch that you can no longer buy from OEM or get OEM support from, it's a lot, no?

TeMPOraL4• 4 years ago

OG Pebble is how many years old now? (EDIT: ten. Ten years old.) Modern hardware rarely lasts that long, but this one does; my wife is still happily using it, and it is still better than Apple Watch in terms of UX / actually useful functionality.

gnicholas8• 4 years ago

Considering how many years it’s been since the devices have been sold, and the fact that the company no longer exists, it’s not bad!

bullen• 4 years ago

Yes; my Time, 2 and 2 HR still work.

The final smartwatch.

Sleep monitor is perfect and notifications really help so I never miss anything important without disturbing anyone else.

Markoff3• 4 years ago

same here with Amazfit Bip, had few months stint with AMOLED smartwatch which was necessary to charge twice a week until I got fed up with that (plus unreadable display in sunlight unless maximum brightness) and bought again second Amazfit Bip (1st broke) which cost me less than 20USD used and I have to charge it once a month plus it has perfectly readable transreflective display not requiring any backlight, which looks better with more sunlight, it's shame almost all companies switched to nice looking but extremely power hungry AMOLED displays, I wish there were cheap options for simple watch with transreflective display or e-ink

I would be perfectly content with something like Casio F91W if it could display notifications through bluetooth from my phone, I don't really need any sleep tracking or any other features just watch with notifications so I don't have to turn on phone screen

insane_dreamer4• 4 years ago

just watch with notifications so I don't have to turn on phone screen

you might like the Withings

Markoff3• 4 years ago

they are anything but cheap, display to show notifications seem to have only expensive models

TMWNN• 4 years ago

I'm like you, down to getting a second Bip (Lite in my case) for $20 after the first one broke (Let me guess: Case popped open?). There is nothing else on the market with its combination of

* incredible battery life

* tens of thousands of watch faces

* HR

* always-on transflective display

* notifications

Markoff3• 4 years ago

I mean there are watches with good battery life and transreflective display, BUT they are huge/thick (I like Bip size, would not mind even Casio F91W) AND expensive, Bip had great combo of amazing dimensions, amazing battery life and very reasonable price. If my Bip crap out and I won't be able another used one I might as well ditch smartchwatch completely and just move to F91W for time and check notifications on phone again, for sure not buying anything thicker than 10mm which needsa to be charged more than twice a month and display must be always readable at least since morning till evening without some dumb hand gestures.

ajolly• 4 years ago

I love my pebbles. Especially with notification center on Android, I can set complex regex filters for what messages get sent to my watch, vibration patterns etc.

mfashby• 4 years ago

16,001 once I manage to repair mine :)

m-p-3• 4 years ago

Sadly mine has a dead battery, and I'm afraid to replace it and damage the seal. I switched to multiple "cheap" smartwatches (Mi Band, Amazfit Bip) before settling on the bangle.js2, but despite the specs being similar, the OS on the Pebble feels way more responsible and faster. Hopefully that improves over time, and the main developer (Gordon Williams, who is also the main dev for Espruino upon which the bangle.js firmware is based on) is easy to reach out and talk to :)

Loved my Pebble, and I appreciate my bangle.js2 more and more.

troyvit• 4 years ago

Yeah I've been agonizing about the bangle for months now (thanks HN) and I saw a recent post from Gordon[1] that says the cutting edge builds are getting much faster.

[1] https://forum.espruino.com/conversations/381203/

insane_dreamer4• 4 years ago

Pebble was a great watch; mine's been in my drawer for years as I ran into some issues with updates after the company went away. Switched back to my trusty analog (Citizen World Time Eco Drive) for years, and recently got a Withings Scanwatch for the ECG feature (afib detection). It's pretty much what I want in a "smartwatch" -- analog, discrete notifications, HR during cycling/workouts, long battery life. I don't need a fully computer on my wrist.

gnicholas8• 4 years ago

Can it control music playback from a linked smartphone?

insane_dreamer4• 4 years ago

No music features.

MereInterest2• 4 years ago

I've wanted a smartwatch, but times I'd looked into smart watches, especially for activity/sleep tracking, I couldn't find a single one with a reasonable privacy policy. In the US, unless the data are self-hosted or covered by HIPAA, there's nothing binding about a privacy policy. Even if the privacy policy currently prevents the data from being sold, the policy can be changed, the company could be bought, or the company could go bankrupt with the databases sold at auction. Because HIPAA covers medical companies rather than medical data, it does nothing to prevent this. Until this loophole is closed (or a miracle happens and the US passes something akin to the GDPR), the lack of privacy prevents me from getting one.

And every time I hear about the Pebble and self-hosting, I get disappointed that it no longer exists.

6274672• 4 years ago

I have a pebble time and a og pebble steel in the drawer. Recently wanted to start using the steel but unfortunately it suffers from the dead button syndrome... I can even accept the onboarding pairing.

Apparently I may be able to fix this if I try some soldering, but I'm an inexperienced solderer...

atom058• 4 years ago

Give it a try! The worst thing that can happen is that you destroy something that wasn't working anyway, and you learn something nee

But more likely than not you will manage to wrangle it back together somehow :)

Good luck!

nosecreek2• 4 years ago

Seeing as several folks have recommended the Amazfit Bip as an alternative, and I’m considering getting one, I’m wondering if anyone who owns one can comment on: 1. How well it plays with iPhone and 2. Do you have any privacy concerns? I don’t know much about Amazfit as a company.

6274672• 4 years ago

Im ex-pebble user that now uses a GTS 2. For a while I only cared about personalized watchfaces and alarms on my wrist so that model was more than enough.

But now I want some basic apps (ie TOTP) but this model doesn't support apps...

fullstop4• 4 years ago

I have the Bip, but not an iPhone.

I don't use the official app, which has mostly alleviated my privacy concerns.

jmcphers• 4 years ago

If you're at all concerned about privacy with the Bip, you can use the open source Gadgetbridge app[1] instead of Zepp for collecting metrics/syncing/uploading faces/etc.

https://gadgetbridge.org/

nosecreek2• 4 years ago

Thanks. Looks like it’s Android only, but I’ll look to see if there’s anything similar for iOS

rekoil2• 4 years ago

Every time Pebble is brought up it brings a tear to my eye, and I wonder what would have happened to the brand if they had accepted the offer from Citizen, who were obviously interested in continuing the line.

The Pebble Time 2 was so far ahead of its time, I promise you I would still be rocking it (or whatever came after it from Pebble) if they had shipped it to me.

krono• 4 years ago

Never got my Pebble Time 2 either and I'm still sad about it today.

The continuous trickle of articles about how great these second generation Pebbles turned out, and my ongoing wait for an alternative that comes even close certainly haven't helped me forget!

Just noticed the Kickstarter page is still up https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/getpebble/pebble-2-time...

rekoil2• 4 years ago

Ah man, it still looks great in comparison to the stuff in the market today

drewzero1• 4 years ago

I've seen a lot of smartwatches that can match maybe 80-90% of the functionality of the Pebble, but miss something important. I occasionally wish my Pebble Time Steel had a slightly larger screen and a heart rate monitor (like the Time 2 would have) but other than that it's been nearly perfect. If/when something happens to it I'll probably give up on smartwatches and go back to wearing mechanical or solar analog watches again.

erohead• 4 years ago

One of the dumbest Pebble rumours I heard after everything went down - 'Citizen was interested in buying us for $740m'. No one at the time noticed that this was more than Citizen's entire market cap https://twitter.com/ericmigi/status/1513737199287627779

augasur2• 4 years ago

I was quite a fan of Pebble, but was not able to get it when it launched.

I had Amazfit Bip for multiple years until it finally broke.

After trying Android Wear, battery life if very bad, I am looking for alternatives.

Is there any modern alternative to Pebble with all basic functions, such as eink display, battery life, notifications or call muting, but it also could reply to messages/notifications?

fullstop4• 4 years ago

I had Amazfit Bip for multiple years until it finally broke.

The face fell off of mine, and the band snapped. The face was put back in with super glue and has been holding just fine for two years, and the band was replaced with a metal one which will last forever.

How did yours break?

augasur2• 4 years ago

Mine broke same as yours. I was in a bath and the face fell off. Drying did not help. I had it over 2 years. RIP Amazfit.

rdschouw2• 4 years ago

I use my Pebble Time Round or Pebble Time Steel daily on IOS using the official Pebble app.

Every major IOS release I think this is the time my Pebble app stops working but it is still going strong on IOS16. Safe for another year. :)

altintx• 4 years ago

How's the battery holding on with your Round? I abandoned mine three years ago because of a combination of poor capacity and an unreliable charger but I miss it constantly.

rdschouw2• 4 years ago

Good actually. It still has 2 days life time but I tend to charge it daily for 15m to keep it running forever. When I am wearing my Pebble Time Steel, I make sure that it has 50% charge before switching it off. This tends to keep the battery level between 20 and 80% between charges. I think that's the sweet spot.

fattybob• 4 years ago

I have one somewhere, lived the idea and possibilities, sadly the watch (steel version) had scarily sharp edges i felt it was dangerous!!! But I still watched them closely hoping they could improve in the model

chaostheory2• 4 years ago

I’ve owned two pebble steel watches. I didn’t notice this even with the one I kept

edejong5• 4 years ago

There still is no good replacement for these properties of the Pebble 2 smartwatch:

- > 7 days battery life

- HR monitor (useful as a sports watch)

- < 10 mm thickness

- toned down to fit different clothing styles

- hackable

- high-contrast, always-on screen

- buttons

I am currently wearing a Garmin Fenix 7 Sapphire sportswatch, which comes close.

INTPenis2• 4 years ago

Not hackable but I replaced my Pebble Time with a Fossil Collider HR and was very happy until it broke 1 week ago. Now I'm in a different country trying to get a replacement.

It had a MONTH charge and it filled all my requirements which were mainly about getting notifications.

gnicholas8• 4 years ago

How did it break? I've read in forums that the screens go bad when exposed to to much sunlight, which seems like an odd weakness for a wearable.

gnicholas8• 4 years ago

Can the Garmin control music playback from your smartphone?

FeistySkink4• 4 years ago

Yes for Android.

edejong5• 4 years ago

Yes. I had to look it up, because I always control my music via the headphones. https://www8.garmin.com/manuals/webhelp/fenix66s6xpro/EN-US/...

(and confirmed for iPhone)

LeifCarrotson2• 4 years ago

Yes, and better than that, most new Garmin watches can also store several GB of music on the device itself and play it over Bluetooth headphones, no need to carry your phone with you.

Watches are a strange sort of luxury good, where some people will pay thousands of dollars, and Garmin aggressively price-segments their products. Use this comparison tool to see the different features:

https://www.dcrainmaker.com/product-comparison-calculator

razemio• 4 years ago

Just checked the Garmin Fenix 7 and now I want to add one missing point to your list:

- affordable

imiller• 4 years ago

You can get a similar experience to the Fenix (but without the higher end sports features) with other Garmin sports watches. The Forerunner 255 is well reviewed and very similar to the Fenix for about half the price.

seized2• 4 years ago

Garmin has a wide range of watches, many of which meet most of those criteria. Except for hackable. I have a Vivoactive 4 and I've been very happy with it.

edejong5• 4 years ago

Yeah, although the Garmin Fenix 7 is an awesome watch, especially as an amateur athlete, it is ** expensive.

Features from the Fenix 7 which I value over Pebble (apart from the obvious):

- Materials: titanium and sapphire. Means it is indestructible. Great for hiking expeditions.

- Garmin Connect (SaaS fitness community).

- HRV (Heart Rate Variability).

- Regular, well tested updates.

Stuff that I miss:

- Hackability (I want to transfer my data directly to InfluxDB)

- Thickness (14.5 mm, which is 5 mm more than the Pebble)

- Community

LibertyBeta• 4 years ago

The Forerunner 255 fits that bill. Or the other cheaper Forerunners. The Fenix line is more akin to the iPhone Pro Max.

chaostheory2• 4 years ago

There still isn’t any watch that comes close to the quality and number of watch faces Pebble had right? Aside from battery life, that’s why I kept mine. It’s really cool to see Mario hit a block to update the time on mine.

edejong5• 4 years ago

The watch faces were something else indeed. Creative, funny and very geeky.

gnicholas8• 4 years ago

Just to clarify, you're talking about the version that was never released — the one with the Kickstarter that was cancelled? All of the above features except the HR monitor exist on my PTS, I think.

edejong5• 4 years ago

The Pebble 2 was released to the backers of the Kickstarter campaign. I've had 3 different ones over the years (all of them eventually broke down)...

(correction, I lost one because the band snapped and the watch dropped into the sea).

lapetitejort• 4 years ago

The second (or third?) kickstarter was for the Pebble (and Time) 2, which was cancelled after Pebble was purchased by FitBit. They still release the base Pebble 2 with the heart rate monitor.

I bought that after the Kickstarter fell through. I loved it until the plastic membrane over the buttons degraded, rendering it open to the elements. It didn't last long after that.

bedast2• 4 years ago

The "Venu" line of watches from Garmin are their "lifestyle" watches. They are more toned down from the more tactical look and feel of other Garmin watches.

The Venu Sq 2 was just recently released. I have the Venu 2, myself.

Missing from your list: * <10mm thickness - it appears to be a smidge over * hackable - You have a Fenix 7 so you're familiar with the ecosystem * always-on screen - it's OLED and not always on, but works well enough - there is an always on mode but it's not recommended for OLED

As for the rest: * >7 days battery life - Venu 2 is rated up to 12 days, I charge about once a week * HR monitor - it's there, works reasonably well * toned down - as a lifestyle type, it's a bit more toned down * high-contrast - it's as high contrast as any OLED, and clearly visible in sunlight * buttons - 2 of them

I'd throw in cost as a valid metric. The Pebble watches were really inexpensive and I think that's what brought more broad appeal to them early on. My Venu 2 was $400. That's a tough pill for some to swallow.

jerlam• 4 years ago

Another Garmin Fenix user here - the screen is what separates it from being a Pebble replacement the most. Most Garmin watches use a screen that is roughly on par with the Pebble Time, not the superior high-contrast Pebble 2. And if you get a higher-end Garmin with sapphire, the screen gets even more washed out.

Never tried the Garmin Instinct though - its monochrome screen looks better, but the rest of the watch has a distinctly downmarket feel.

czx4f4bd• 4 years ago

This thread brought back so much nostalgia for me. The Pebble was one of the greatest recent examples of "less is more" in tech design. Mine sadly died not long after they were discontinued, but I loved it. Since then, I got a Huawei watch (I forget which model) and I currently have an Apple Watch, but neither has ever really felt as useful to me. It's funny, they're capable of doing a lot more, but somehow they don't feel as fun or desirable to use as the Pebble did.

aembleton3• 4 years ago

Amazfit Bip S - https://www.amazfit.com/uk/amazfit-bip-s.html

- 40 day battery life

- HR monitor

- 11.4mm thickness

- Always on transreflective screen

It's not hackable, is a bit thicker and only has one button but unlike the Fenix 7 it is very affordable.

aembleton3• 4 years ago

Also, the Neo is worth looking at as you get four buttons https://www.amazfit.com/en/neo

namlem• 4 years ago

A recent update nuked the battery life on mine. It went from 40 days to 10-15.

system23• 4 years ago

Garmin Instinct 2. Unlimited battery life, never needs charging. It is thicker than 10mm but it is nearly indestructible.

No needs hacking because it would take all day to use all features it brings. It is nearly the perfect smartwatch.

alfiedotwtf• 4 years ago

Came here to say the same thing. It's still hackable to some degree with Monkey C:

https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/reference-guides/mon...

imiric2• 4 years ago

That one fails the "toned down" aspect. It looks like one of those old G-Shock monstrosities. Definitely not the same aesthetic as the Pebble.

RajT88• 4 years ago

It is a tragedy that I don't much enjoy wearing watches (I don't like the sweat under the band), because I loved my Pebble 2. I still wear it sometimes if I am doing something outdoorsy and likely to be covered in fish guts or river water or mud or whatever.

Occasionally, I am one of those 16k.

throwaway2203• 4 years ago

I just want a watch that shows the time, lets me see and respond to notifications and set the occasional reminder/alarm.

51Cards2• 4 years ago

I am one of those and every year I renew my Rebble subscription to keep my devices viable as long as possible. I currently have 4 of them, including 2 still "new in box". I still haven't found anything else that suits my use case as well. Still makes me sad though that the Time 2 model didn't release as it would have fixed the few (!) complaints I had about my Time.

helsinkiandrew• 4 years ago

I've got a friend who still uses a Palm Pilot (circa 1998) as a daily calendar manager/notepad. Works at Google and delights in telling younger colleagues it's a Pixel 8 prototype.

rchaud2• 4 years ago

I'm sad that tech did away with replaceable batteries.

I would love to use my 5-inch 16:9 Samsung phone from 2016. It still works fine, but the battery barely lasts an hour. Instead I have to use one of their gigantic replacement phones with a ridiculous 21:9 ratio.

zeppelin101• 4 years ago

You can still get those batteries replaced. It's just a lot more work.

capitainenemo2• 4 years ago

The Samsung XCover6 Pro has an easily replaceable battery (and water resistance and physical buttons and dedication to 5 years of patching). In fact, I think it uses the same battery as the XCover from a couple of years ago. I just ordered mine yesterday actually. Kinda excited.

huehehue• 4 years ago

I have fond memories of rooting early Android devices, and having to constantly rip the battery out when the phone would inevitably lock up.

I have less fond memories of waiting all day for a newer phone to run out of battery when the same thing happened.

dieselgate• 4 years ago

It's strange to me how 'newer' phones (referencing my iphone 5s) seem to have software control battery life? I got the battery replaced multiple times on an iphone and none of them really provided a sustained increase in the battery life of the device.

dont__panic2• 4 years ago

As long as you have a phone that's reasonably well designed, it's usually not too much trouble to replace the internal battery every 2-3 years.

I think our culture is really wasteful with batteries. I can't believe that my iphone doesn't have a built-in setting to cap charging at 80%. Studies show that you can decrease battery wear to negligible levels by doing this. Yet my Android e-ink tablet, my iphone, my smartwatch, and my laptop all do not support a hard battery cap.

At least I can install al dente on my laptop, and root my tablet. Everything else I just have to manually take off the charger before 80%!

gibolt• 4 years ago

You can get a replacement battery pretty easy online. I'm sure somewhere would be willing to do the replacement. It isn't impossible, just hard without the right tools

pmontra2• 4 years ago

I opened my Samsung A40 two days ago and replaced a camera that didn't autofocus anymore. 20 Euros with shipping. The battery can be replaced too. Actually I had to disconnect it to remove the upper motherboard and access the camera. It seems a pretty serviceable phone. You should check YouTube for tear down videos about your model.

andrepd3• 4 years ago

I'm in the exact same position. Only now that my 5-inch 16:9 from 2016 completely died (and I can't get replacement batteries anywhere) did I begrudgingly buy a Pixel 4a.

tbihl• 4 years ago

Palm Pilot lacked constant internet connectivity, and that's its real killer "feature" as it relates to longevity. It means you never have to update the OS, so the progressively more shoddy programming over time can go bloat someone else's device to death. "Non-replaceable" battery, as others have mentioned, is just non technical quitter talk in almost all cases.

JohnFen3• 4 years ago

I'm sad that tech did away with replaceable batteries.

This is one of the worst design trends (perhaps the worst) of modern-day devices.

eddieroger2• 4 years ago

I would love to do this. I'd be super curious to re-experience life with an offline device in a very online world. I loved every Palm I had up through the Pre, but there was a magic about trying to play Zork on a Palm, or syncing a day's worth of light reading for the (school) bus. I really miss this app Four Point Oh that tracked homework and stuff.

nehal3m• 4 years ago

You could pull the SIM out of a smartphone. Not the same, but similar?

GloriousKoji• 4 years ago

I miss the old Palm Pilot and even Windows CE devices. Despite the massive amounts of computational power and an endless library of software I find modern smart phones PDA inferior.

jhatemyjob• 4 years ago

Yea, all the iPhone did was make PDAs palatable by the masses. I wonder how much further we would be as a species if it was never released.

thepasswordis• 4 years ago

Dang that's really cool. I remember having a palm and loving it in high school. There was a utility that would crawl a website and then package it up to a certain link depth, and put that on your palm pilot for offline viewing.

I used to crawl fark.com so I could read the stories and comments later.

jonny_eh2• 4 years ago

I got a Palm in 2002 for school, but only every played games on it. Sold it and bought a Gameboy Advance. I still have it and use it :D

rootusrootus3• 4 years ago

Seeing all the comments in this discussion makes me think I should break out my old Zaurus and put it on eBay. It never even got used more than a few minutes. I just haven't had the heart to recycle it yet.

rkagerer• 4 years ago

That's awesome. I'm tired of how Android and iPhones seem to keep getting shittier and haven't ruled out reverting back to an old PalmOS device.

Cpoll• 4 years ago

I've always wanted a "watch" (bracelet) that doesn't show the time. Essentially a narrow bracelet with no display and a few buttons on it that I can program, and a vibrating function so I can leave my phone on silent. I already have a watch I like to wear.

wearchronos.com seemed to hit my use case, but the reviews aren't great.

idoh2• 4 years ago

Same - something like a headless Apple Watch would be ideal. I legit just want HR tracking and connecting to a chest strap HR monitor, and no watch display, other than the current HR.

mmmlinux2• 4 years ago

Sounds like you want a heart rate monitor and not a watch.

alin23• 4 years ago

Exactly, me too! And I've looked everywhere but nothing fills this niche anymore.

I had the first generation of Mi Band, the one with only 3 RGB LEDs, no display. And I loved it, I could easily see I have a new Gmail notification when it gently vibrated and the LEDs flashed red (well more of a breathe animation than a flash), or a Facebook Messenger one when it was blue. The Bluetooth communications it used made it easy to program your own vibrations and LEDs.

It sounds non intuitive but 90% of the time the flashing LEDs made me NOT check the phone. I was like, "oh blue, most likely my brother replied, I'll check it later"

I also fantasized about modding my current analog watch but fitting a tiny battery and a tiny BLE chip and a tiny vibration motor and surfacing tiny LEDs is way outside my possibilities. Chronos sounds good in theory but the end result is not what I want. I don't want to increase the thickness of my watch, or have to recharge it or worry about a magnet not staying in place.

6chars• 4 years ago

The old Jawbone Up fit the bill somewhat, but I don't remember exactly what features it had. I thought it was a great product and hoped to see more like it.

leokennis• 4 years ago

I had that one. Super stylish, cool functionality. But unfortunately very fragile hardware.

You could actually log your food intake via their app. And sync data to your phone by removing the “cap” from the band and plugging it into your phone’s headphone port!

dirtyid• 4 years ago

Basically, except for media controls for winter where gloves+swipe don't work. I ended up using a bluetooth media remote for cars. But a simple fitness band with a few buttons and a silence slider would be great.

system23• 4 years ago

fitbit comes close to it.

h4waii• 4 years ago

I've got a 2SE on my wrist right now, with a few in storage.

For the cost of a brand new case ($30) and batteries, I plan to keep using them until the software fails spectacularly.

There's really nothing that compares for my usage.

2OEH8eoCRo0• 4 years ago

I'm sad that I chucked my Pebble 2. The rubber on the watch itself started to deteriorate and I figured these services were never coming back.

It's the only smartwatch I've owned and I loved it. I'm back to my $5 Casio now.

hnbad• 4 years ago

I still have one and wear it daily.

I need a smartwatch that tells the time, gives me notifications, doesn't blind me in the dark but is readable in daylight and lasts days without charging. Calendar access and weather are a bonus. The pebble does all of that.

I was somewhat excited when the Apple Watch was announced only to find out that it, of course, was going to be usable with iOS devices only and therefore not an option for Android users like me. I still haven't found a good alternative to the Pebble and all the lo-fi watches are primarily fitness trackers, which I have no use for.

danjoredd• 4 years ago

I completely understand. They were good watches. I almost bought one, then changed my mind because I didn't have the funds and didn't want to risk overdraft. They went out of business the week after, so I never got the chance to get one

dkasper• 4 years ago

I still daily drive an Apple Watch Series 3. I use it as a watch and a fitness tracker and have no complaints or reason to upgrade until it breaks. Battery life is still well over 1 day with my usage.

modeless3• 4 years ago

I'd still be using mine if the battery (and its replacement) hadn't worn out. I was pretty hard on the battery, using a watch face that updated a lot.

I plan to reluctantly get a Pixel Watch. It's the first Android Wear watch since the Moto 360 that looks decent. Still way too thick though and still with a garbage outdated SoC (which wouldn't matter if the software was efficient like Pebble, but...)

breck• 4 years ago

I loved the Pebble and went to the first developer conference. They treated devs right.

Then I moved to Microsoft Band, Microsoft Band 2, FitBit Charge, Fitbit Ionic, Fitbit Versa, Fitbit Sense, and now on FitBit Sense 2 (definitely a big leap forward).

I view Pebble as a huge success, even if it wasn't an immediate financial windfall for the team, as they pioneered something critical for humans.

Watchwatcher2• 4 years ago

I basically want an old school style mp3 player with bluetooth and a GPS tracker that I can just plug into a computer and grab the gpx data, and copy mp3s to its disk. No apps, no locked down ecosystems. If it tells the time and shows a calendar, great.

brewdad2• 4 years ago

I used to run with a Sansa Clip. It was perfect for that use case. Tiny, practically weightless, and could store many hours of music. My computer treated it like any USB drive, so it was easy to update. One of mine (I think I burned through 3 of them over the years even had an FM radio.

Today, when I run, I just carry my phone. It ends up doing everything the old clip did but in a much larger and more cumbersome package.

I'd probably carry my phone anyway these days after having a run, years ago, where my IT band told me I was done NOW but I was 8 miles from home. It was early Sunday morning and I ended up walking 2 miles on country roads and then through an empty office park before I found some place with a phone to call for a ride. That sucked.

Watchwatcher2• 4 years ago

I do the phone thing, too. It's just kinda clunky but you're right, probably safest way to be out.

jbj4• 4 years ago

in addition to these, there may be watches without a rebble subscription being used with gadgetbridge which can work without internet

centro• 4 years ago

Maybe Rebble is a new brand that can start production of e-ink based smart watches that don't try do to everything.

efields• 4 years ago

that is… a small number

TeMPOraL4• 4 years ago

It's undercounting a lot - there are many people who use Gadgetbridge instead of Rebble, and I'd argue that most people use neither - the OG stock app and stock firmware forks perfectly fine to this day, even with the very first generation that's few months shy of a decade old, and which my wife still happily uses today.

So, a fraction of users using alternate firmware to the watch that's up to 10 years old - an eternity for modern electronics - and whose vendor shut down 6 years ago. I'd say it's quite a big number.

Pfhortune3• 4 years ago

Folks ITT will talk about watches that are similar in hardware, but what was magic about Pebble was the software and ecosystem. The OS was just a delight to use, fast, wonderfully animated, and let you sideload whatever you want.

I've tried a couple of Garmin watches (Vivoactive 3 and Forerunner 55) and the Amazfit Bip, and this is where they all fall completely flat. The UX is just horrible by comparison. It's like these companies have no regard for designing the OS UX and are just trying to cram features in.

And the fact that companies want to make touchscreen watches is just with few/no buttons is baffling to me. Tapping tiny buttons on a tiny screen is a horrible experience. And there's tons of moving targets because of the tiny amount of real-estate.

Pebble _just got it_ with the 2.0 OS and beyond. They were a joy to use.

I begrudgingly have gone back to using an Apple Watch, because despite being subpar, the UX is somewhat together these days, just enough to be tolerable. When I move away from iOS again, I'll probably either pull out an old Pebble that still has some battery life, or a Casio GBD200, which isn't really a smartwatch but ticks some major boxes for me (always-on-display, silent vibration alarm, and timers, chief among them). The GBD200 runs on a coin cell too, so I never have to worry about charging or a replacement being difficult to find!

etothepii• 4 years ago

I'll buy an Apple Watch, but I'd pay through the nose for an Apple Watch with four buttons.

Steve Jobs obsession that the mouse should have only one button was probably right for the computer, but the input device had over 80 buttons minimum. (Keyboard)

Clearly whoever makes the call about Apple Watch buttons doesn't swim, sprint or cycle.

All the marketing about "sports" is to make you feel sporty not because it's actually useful.

Of course, for the use Apple make money from (Apple pay) there is a tactile button dedicated for the purpose.

balfirevic2• 4 years ago

Steve Jobs obsession that the mouse should have only one button was probably right for the computer

LOL. Mine has 12, of which I regularly use 10.

wlesieutre• 4 years ago

You'll be excited to hear that for $800 you can now get an Apple watch with one more button to assign to a sports thing!

bryceacc• 4 years ago

what would you map those buttons to?

igorsantos072• 4 years ago

I had a really, really hard time finding a decent smart watch when my Pebble drowned. Two years and five(!!!) Ticwatches later (first was too slow, the other 4 were drowning in different ways when I was swimming)... I felt in love with the Samsung Watch 4 classic.

Not that expensive, slick UI, full of features, great Android integration and a wonderful dial/crown which is well used in a couple of apps to make it all easier - you can use it to answer/cancel calls or finish/repeat alarms/timers.

AND THEN Samsung launches Watch 5 and DROPS THE FREAKING CROWN! Back to 1.5 buttons - because the second one, as the Apple Watch, is stuck to Samsung Pay (can't even set it to Google Pay) and recent apps, no app uses.

WHY? WHYYYY? The crown is amazing for scrolling through screens when I'm biking (shaky) or swimming (touch disabled). It's WAY better for scrolling in that tiny screen. It's awesome as interaction aid. WHY REMOVE IT??

I do miss the long battery and buttons, but I must mention that a touch screen gives you many more UI possibilities.

davidbanham2• 4 years ago

I loved my pebbles and was very sad when my Time Steel finally died.

I now wear a Garmin Instinct. The UI isn’t as joyful and it’s not quite as pretty. It’s every bit as practical as the pebble and then some. Also you couldn’t kill it with a stick.

amatecha2• 4 years ago

In what way did it die? it may be easily repairable. e.g. the common display issue on the old Pebble models was resolvable by just placing a shim behind the display so the data connection stayed solid.

JohnFen3• 4 years ago

The Instinct is what I replaced my Pebble with, too. I agree that it's a good stand-in for the Pebble (especially with the battery life) and I also use it to do things the Pebble could never have done (it is my bike computer, and I use it for navigation when out in the middle of the wilderness).

I still miss the Pebble, though.

I particularly miss being able to write custom apps.

monsieurgaufre• 4 years ago

I've never had a Pebble and mostly wanted to comment on the Garmin/smartwatches part of your comment.

I was gifted a Garmin Vivoactive 3 a few years ago. Like you, I've come to the exact same conclusion regarding the Garmin watches. It is slow and annoyingly needs to connect to their servers to do anything (couldn't even access my own data when they were hacked). I still use it mostly when i run/cycle but battery life is slowly going away.

Also, i want to stress the point that while smartwatches are nice for certain applications, they mostly are toys. Yes, the data is interesting, but how many of us really do something from that data? I know I don't. And if you really need this data (professional athlete or whatever), most of the time, someone will pay the gadget for you.

For a lot of reasons (price, planned obsolescence, privacy), i'll probably get a g-shock that'll last years on a coin cell that's easily replaceable everywhere.

TeMPOraL4• 4 years ago

Yes, the data is interesting, but how many of us really do something from that data? I know I don't. And if you really need this data (professional athlete or whatever), most of the time, someone will pay the gadget for you.

Which is why I was sad when Pebble doubled down on the fitness/sports marketing in the months before they shut down.

I don't care about fitness tracking and sportsball data. What I do care about is an e-paper-like screen (not just the "always on display" phone screen tech, but a proper "looks the same whether I look at it or not" always-on screen), hackability, predictable UI and buttons. The ability to operate the watch (and remotely control the phone, via Pebble/Tasker integration) without looking at it is supremely useful to me. That, and no fucking cloud. Ever. Hardware tied to SaaS is the enemy of all that's holy.

Pfhortune3• 4 years ago

For a lot of reasons (price, planned obsolescence, privacy), i'll probably get a g-shock that'll last years on a coin cell that's easily replaceable everywhere.

Definitely take a look at the Casio G-Shock GBD100/200 watches. They're for sure bulky and sporty, though the 200 a bit less so. I'm impressed in what they can do on a coin cell! I haven't tried the BT connection yet, but they seem to do step tracking, timers, and silent alarms quite well! The UI/UX definitely isn't Pebble-esque and is very utilitarian, but seems solid.

modeless3• 4 years ago

Pebble's software was second to none. They built an entire operating system and app store, to run on microcontrollers! Multiple orders of magnitude less RAM and power consumption than Android or Apple watches, but the user experience was excellent and the app store had tons of stuff in it.

I once interviewed a candidate who came from Pebble. He had the most impressive interview performance of any candidate I've ever interviewed.

MonaroVXR• 4 years ago

I once interviewed a candidate who came from Pebble. He had the most impressive interview performance of any candidate I've ever interviewed.

Can you tell more about this?

TheKnack• 4 years ago

I agree that Garmin watches are not good general purpose smart watches for most people, but their UX is actually perfect for their intended users. Once you develop the muscle memory, it's possible to perform many functions without being able to see the screen. This is necessary when it's cold and layers are covering the screen. I have cold weather running shirts which have sleeves that mostly cover your hands, and can press the buttons on my Fenix 6 easily through the fabric and do whatever I need to do without stopping to pull my sleeve up (which is awkward since those shirts have thumb holes).

Pfhortune3• 4 years ago

That's fair. I'm definitely not super interested in a fitness oriented device, so I'm probably chafing against a UI that wasn't built for me.

To me, I hated that everything was so huge on the display, leading to very low information density. I always enjoyed how the pebble could show a decently long text message on the display at once, when the font was set to small.

I also feel like, outside of the fitness functions, the menus are too deep/branching. Pebble got it right, in that the menus tended to be shallow, if a little long at times.

enobrev• 4 years ago

I'm genuinely surprised a similar alternative has never popped up. Every time Pebble comes up, there are so many people posting about how much they loved it and how they still keep theirs alive or how they had had to relucantly give up and go to a different watch due to it being out of support.

Seems like a giant hole wishing to be filled. I know I want one - but I don't want to revive one - I want a new one with active support.

fny• 4 years ago

Another really cool toy we need to start hacking is the Sony FES U [0]. This thing has e-ink on its strap, and it runs Free RTOS. It's the sickest watch concept I've seen in years.

[0] https://fashion-entertainments.com

[1] https://fashion-entertainments.com/fes-watch-u/fw/oss.html

mrinterweb• 4 years ago

Pebble understood what a smartwatch should be. Everyone else was trying to make a nearly phone independent device, and pebble's take was more of a phone accessory. Also the battery life was incredible. You had an always on display with a week long battery. There was a lot of love about Pebble. I still have two in my drawer, and I had no idea the devices were still usable. I might dust one off now.

system23• 4 years ago

Garmin Instinct 2 has forever battery life doesn't even need charging once after purchasing.

WesternWind• 4 years ago

People ask me about my Pebble fairly regularly. I think they mostly notice the rainbow watch band I have, then realize it doesn't look like a Apple Watch.

rrdharan• 4 years ago

From some of the other comments here seems like it’s more like about 160 people with 100 watches each…

oldgradstudent• 4 years ago

A friend of mine did some design work for them and got one of their top of the line models.

He tried to gift it to multiple people (including me) and they all returned it to him after a week or so.

wanderingmind• 4 years ago

As an aside can someone tell me where can I buy old pebble phones. I boutht my first pebble watch in 2015. It worked for a long time but I lost it and would love to get one now, just to keep it in a safe

themoonisachees• 4 years ago

Plugging the Watchy by sqfmi because I have one and it's awesome.

JohnFen3• 4 years ago

This is exciting! I still have a couple of Pebbles kicking around. I really miss them -- to this day, no other smartwatch meets my needs as well. I should dig them out.

fennecfoxy2• 4 years ago

The Pebble Time Round is the best smartwatch I ever used. I have a Samsung GW4 now though - there are a few things I would've liked to see pebble add to upper tier models, for example a sports one with GPS etc, along with being able to store/play Spotify/other music providers stuff over bluetooth (for going on runs).

I think the Apple Watch, with all it's flashy animations and bright, beautiful screen contributed to the issue; people only see the shiny, they don't realise they don't need all of those features/oled screen and that they're sacrificing a week long (or more!) battery life for them.

I regularly got like 4-5 days out of the Round and it was super thin! I imagine had they done a model as thick as the GW4 it would've lasted 2 weeks or so! I really wish smart watches had gone in the Pebble direction, always on displays should be the primary feature for people. MIP LCD, not oled.

Then again, I really can't wait until we _finally_ get some properly commercialised AR glasses as I'd rather use those over a phone or watch or anything else at this point.

Over 16k people still use a Pebble smartwatch

Related Stories