Pebble Round 2

https://repebble.com/blog/pebble-round-2-the-most-stylish-pebble-ever

by jackwilsdon • 7 months ago

481 296 7 months ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaDPMZKXcBU

https://techcrunch.com/2026/01/02/pebble-reboots-its-thinnes...

rationalist7• 7 months ago

I just placed my pre-order. I never bought the original Pebble Round because it didn't look that good in my opinion, but this one looks great! I like that there is no huge bezel anymore, and that the battery life is now an estimated 2 weeks instead of 3 days. It looks more classy and less like a smartwatch.

erohead12• 7 months ago

Proud of this one! Feel free to ask any questions you might have.

(Pebble founder)

illright3• 7 months ago

Is the Round 2 also going to have screws to potentially replace the battery, like Time 2 does?

Also, while watching the announcement video, I noticed that the pixels are quite a bit more visible on the Round 2 on the same watchface, when compared to Time 2 — on the Time 2, the image is a lot more crisp. Is that a matter of adapting the watchfaces to the bigger screen?

erohead12• 7 months ago

Screws

Nope! No screws on this one.

Is that a matter of adapting the watchfaces to the bigger screen?

Yes, exactly.

donkey_brains• 7 months ago

This is awesome, congrats Eric. Almost makes me wish I hadn’t switched from Android -> iOS last year before the Pebble announcements started coming out. Any idea if we might see more compatibility with iOS in the near future as Apple is forced to open up the ecosystem a little due to EU regulations? I know they had to allow reading iMessages on 3rd party smartwatches recently which sounds promising for Pebble. Apologies if you already blogged about this and I missed it!

rationalist7• 7 months ago

It's not too late to switch back! I'm running GrapheneOS on a Pixel, but supposedly GrapheneOS is working with an OEM to have a GrapheneOS-native phone if you want to wait a little longer.

erohead12• 7 months ago

still works fine with iOS, will work even better in EU next year when Apple is forced to comply with the DMA.

gen3• 7 months ago

On the repebble compare chart the round is marked as having both a speaker and mic, that’s incorrect right?

rationalist7• 7 months ago

I'm guessing he updated the chart? The chart at https://repebble.com/watch shows mic-only.

michielr• 7 months ago

Haven't watched the video yet, but I don't see the vibrating motor/linear actuator mentioned. I'm assuming this is still included? I'll be switching my Pebble Time 2 order over, these look fantastic.

rationalist7• 7 months ago

The chart at https://repebble.com/watch shows it has a "Linear resonance actuator (vibrator)"

alphager• 7 months ago

Is the situation with Rebble solved?

bl4kers• 7 months ago

Rebble apologized, withdrew claims, and left the door open for future collaboration. They are restructuring/reorganizing.

Core Devices pushed out modularity updates to be less dependent on Rebble's app store and started their own.

That's the latest public information.

Willamin• 7 months ago

Is a normal (non-rose) gold (or even a brass) color something we could look forward go in the future?

Was the decision to not sell that color based on expected demand for the color or did it not work for some other reason?

erohead12• 7 months ago

No plans to offer more SKUs, sorry. Already have enough to manage.

treffer2• 7 months ago

I pre-ordered because I loved the Pebble Round - especially the size and look. My intended use case is for formal dress codes and special events (weddings, new years, ...) wheretny fennix 51mm does not fit in (literally and figuratively).

That said: I can't find full dimensions for the new round 2. I can guesstimate that it should be 10-20% smaller in diameter and less than 2/3 the thickness.

Would you mind sharing full dimensions or even update the post?

And congratulations! I really like this. I hope there will be enough of a market to support this project long term.

apparent39• 7 months ago

Yes, the slimness and ability to dress up are certainly huge selling points. It does look about 1/4 thinner than the PT2, which is presumably much thinner/smaller than your fennix.

Honestly, even with a PT2 on order, I would consider getting one of these for the occasions (1x/wk?) where I am wearing a dress shirt or otherwise want to look a little more dressed up. It honestly would probably also be a nice conversation starter because you can set it up with a traditional watchface, but then when you get a notification it would obviously not be a traditional watch. And it's so much thinner than Google/Samsung and other round smartwatches, it wouldn't be confused with those.

illright3• 7 months ago

You can see the dimensions in the full spec table on the preorder page

https://repebble.com/watch

15155• 7 months ago

What is the e-paper display part number / manufacturer?

erohead12• 7 months ago

sharp, same display that's in Garmin MIP watches (like Forerunner 255) but tbh looks much better in Round 2!

girvo• 7 months ago

As someone who had the original Pebble Steel, and then moved to the Pebble Round (20mm) until it literally stopped working, I'm super happy you've done this, and incredibly happy that you let me change my pre-order from my Time 2 to the Round 2. Can't wait!

cyberax2• 7 months ago

I like everything about Pebble Round 2, except that it's round. I _HATE_ round watches with a passion, it's just form over function for electronic watches. Coincidentally, that's also why I still have an iWatch even though my phone is Android. There are _no_ good rectangular Android watches.

Are you planning something like this but with a rectangular screen? I have Time 2 on pre-order, but I'd love to buy a water-resistant watch.

nosrepa3• 7 months ago

The time 2 is water resistant.

doctorpangloss• 7 months ago

this is supposed to be the part where i say something about the smart watch. i own a $20 Casio F91 that should cost $3 at retail, which is to say, i'm not really your intended audience. is performative positivity an obligation for interesting questions? is it the only framework to figure out products? do you see?

is positivity the only valid emotion for a product launch?

how do you balance your experience with the rewards of taking risks?

hollow-moe• 7 months ago

How does the sleep tracking works on the Round? Is it reliable? I'm currently using a Mi Band 7 and it works great with gadgetbridge and it has a heart-rate monitor.

erohead12• 7 months ago

Sleep tracking works well on all Pebbles!

stinkys• 7 months ago

Hi erohead, the Round 2 looks beaut! But why on Earth doesn't it have a heart rate monitor?

erohead12• 7 months ago

Would make it thicker, I wanted it to be very thin.

johnflan• 7 months ago

Thats the primary reason I'm interested in it.

MarcelOlsz2• 7 months ago

Dude you are an inspiration. So amped on the Pebble 01 I sent a multi-paragraph screed to your team lol.

laweijfmvo• 7 months ago

What kind of “sleep tracking” can you really offer with no heart rate monitor?

jmcphers• 7 months ago

I own the Pebble 2 Duo and the answer is "almost none". It basically just tells you how long you were still/not moving much in the evening, as you'd expect. It's a pretty good proxy for what time you went to bed and got up, and that's about it. It can't actually tell if you're asleep.

There are also (currently) no sleep metrics on app itself; you can only see them on the watch, which doesn't show much besides the sleep duration and an abstract representation showing where you might have woken up in the night.

erohead12• 7 months ago

Generally most sleep tracking products use actigraphy (measurements of your movement) to track sleep. Pebble partnered with researchers at Stanford back in the day to produce an algorithm for our operating system, which worked quite well and is now open source!

You can read the code and see how the sleep tracking algorithm works here - https://github.com/coredevices/PebbleOS/blob/main/src%2Ffw%2...

utopcell10• 7 months ago

@erohead: do the new Pebbles still support the strap interface? With the screen now being 1.5" and the resolution being much higher than the original ones, they would make great little retro gaming consoles with the control buttons on the strap. Similar to a funkey-s console.

erohead12• 7 months ago

Unfortunately no - it basically had zero usage

rollcat3• 7 months ago

The specs link directly to the Pebble Appstore, which showcases a bunch of really cool watchfaces that are... all for the square screen. I think it would be wonderful to land the user on a showcase of faces specifically adapted for the round screen.

summermusic• 7 months ago

I had pre-ordered a Time 2, but I switched to the Round 2 because it's cheaper and I don't really care about the features it is missing (heart rate monitor and speaker) or the shape of the face. It's awesome that they let you switch without losing your place in line, very customer-focused of them.

apparent39• 7 months ago

I thought about it but didn't because the battery life difference is pretty big (10-14 vs 30), and according to his comment below, apparently the battery is not replaceable.

I assume it would actually be replaceable if one were sufficiently motivated, but the fact that it's not meant to be replaceable is not so great.

Honestly if the PT2 weren't replaceable I wouldn't mind so much, since starting of with 30 days of battery means it can degrade a lot before it hits a threshold I care about (1 week, roughly). But if the PR2 starts off around 10 days, it doesn't have far to fall before it hits that threshold.

Perhaps the biggest reason I didn't swap my order, though, is that I don't want to wait several more months to get my Pebble!

blacksmith_tb• 7 months ago

Yes, your calculus is exactly like mine - there are things to like about the Round (personally I just find round watches more aesthetically pleasing, we've had a couple hundred years of mostly round cases...), but I want longer battery and a shorter wait to get my watch.

gumby271• 7 months ago

Damn that's a nice looking watch! Really feels like they got to build what they wanted to 10 years ago but the tech wasn't there. Can't wait to build some sleek round watch faces once I get mine (unless there's an emulator already?)

lawn3• 7 months ago

It sure looks nice but I'm keeping my Time 2 order as it's got a much better battery life.

Still, I'm sure this will appeal to many people.

ilvez• 7 months ago

I'm also going for Time 2 because heartrate monitor. Round 2 looks so nice, gratz on design! That Mario watchface is so fun on it.

modeless4• 7 months ago

I still consider the original Pebble Time Round to be the best smartwatch ever made, even 10 years on. Until now. This is everything I ever wanted in a watch. I can't wait to get mine! I may have to spend some time doing remakes of my favorite watch faces for the new screen resolution.

ImPostingOnHN• 7 months ago

No more bezel

Maybe I'm looking at the wrong image, but I see a silver bezel going all around the watch screen.

I thought "no bezel" on a screen means the screen goes all the way to the edges of the device.

Still want one tho.

apparent39• 7 months ago

I think pretty much all watches have some sort of raised dial/edge in order to protect the glass. This one is not as small as some, but compared to the original round pebble, this is much, much smaller.

jerlam3• 7 months ago

Except, of course, the most popular smartwatch (Apple Watch) which extends the glass above the case, giving it zero protection against impacts from the front.

walletdrainer4• 7 months ago

All the (fancy, mechanical) watches I had within reach seem to actually have the crystal slightly protruding out of the case.

kridsdale12• 7 months ago

I don’t get why you’d want no bezel on a watch. Look how big the bezel is on a Rolex GMT Master 2, or an Omega Seamaster.

ansgri2• 7 months ago

The bezel is kinda functional on these watches, also they need it for huge water resistance. This Pebble is more comparable to traditional dress watches which don't have a prominent bezel.

liampulles2• 7 months ago

Yes, no more bezel cuts off the details. What is meant is that does not have the big bezel of the original Pebble Round.

c22• 7 months ago

The original round Pebble had an octogonal screen with a big chunky ring overlapping all the edges making it look round. I guess there are rounder display options now so the screen can go to the edge of the case.

hasperdi• 7 months ago

May the build quality and customer support be better this time around vs. last time.

aprilnya• 7 months ago

For a while I’ve wanted a smartwatch that’s not too smart, and is more focused on looks… I think this might be the watch I finally keep

urbandw311er• 7 months ago

Anybody know how much the price goes up, typically, after the preorder phase?

sho_hn3• 7 months ago

I'm sorry for the sour grapes, but the recent ring announcement - disposable, single-charge electronics - soured me on the entire brand in a "never meet your heroes" sort of way. Somehow it makes the idea of wearing one of the watches a negative statement piece.

rationalist7• 7 months ago

The miniscule ring? That size/time doesn't bother me. Now if it was something the size of a phone, that would bother me.

I'm expecting that by the time I use up the first version ring's battery, a better version (maybe rechargeable) will be released.

tills132• 7 months ago

The problem isn't the form factor, it's that it's guaranteed e-waste. Once it runs out of battery, that's it. I think the pebble guy said that it should last a few months with regular usage but like... What a waste of materials.

micromacrofoot• 7 months ago

If you've ever thrown out a single smartphone, by weight you've created more ewaste than a lifetime of those rings. There's more ewaste in a single AA battery, surely you must complain about those in every comment thread they're mentioned?

infotainment2• 7 months ago

I get OP's point though -- yes, all smartphones do tend to end up as e-waste in the end, but would you buy a smartphone if it couldn't ever be charged?

If, every time you powered on the phone, you knew you were draining from its finite battery life? I would probably think twice before doing any kind of software updates at least!

jimmySixDOF• 7 months ago

Totally agree even though it is apparently one of the better rings I can't understand why they don't have a mail-back-to-factory plan for battery service just on principal. It's stories like this that almost make the case for regulation if that wasn't such a slippery slope.

solarkraft• 7 months ago

This almost feels like planned obsolescence, with my Pebble Time Steel just recently starting to give up =) I'm joking, the thing has held up amazingly well under all the stress I have put it through for a remarkably long time. It's just pretty well timed, in a way.

I've been holding out for a refresh that can compete with the look of the Time Steel, basically the design of the original Time 2. I might go with this one, but that would mean having to abandon the square watchface I've grown fond of. Maybe there are some nice round ones. The two weeks of battery life and activity tracking are greatly appreciated!

Touchscreen (but you don’t have to use it!)

What a ride. I hate touchscreens with a burning passion. I hope it can be disabled.

jolmg3• 7 months ago

What's to hate about them?

faldor20• 7 months ago

I'm a staunch believer that watches should be small enough to never annoy, always show the time, and never have to be charged but I think this finally does all those things well enough that it's a legitimate option.

What is that warranty though? 30 days is pretty rough for a new and untested product. It's definitely enough to make me hold off for a year just in case.

kridsdale12• 7 months ago

My case full of mechanical watches need to be “charged” every 30-50 hours. At least they do indeed tell time.

apparent39• 7 months ago

I hear you, but the first new Pebble is getting good reviews. It's been out for months and I've not heard anything bad about it. While the upcoming models are a bit less derivative of past watches, they are still pretty well-grounded in prior Pebbles. The software is the same as the P2D, and the hardware is pretty similar to the prior rect/round Pebbles.

I believe things could go wrong, but I'm not sure what sort of latent errors would make sense to worry about. The battery life dropping precipitously? (Why would it do this?) Sensors breaking within a couple months? (Again, what would lead to this?).

I'm curious to know what you are concerned about. I agree that a year of track record would be great, but IMO a Pebble will be such a big upgrade over pretty much anything else out there (AWs etc. that need charging all the damn time), that I'd rather not wait a year for the additional data to come in.

nosrepa3• 7 months ago

As an anecdotal story of one, I know someone who has the currently out new pebble and they're already looking to replace the buttons.

liampulles2• 7 months ago

If the production is similar to the PT2 watches, then there will be public beta testing before watches are shipped.

lacunary• 7 months ago

hard to beat a solar quartz movement if those are the criteria! no need to charge or service it for up to 20 years.

com2kid2• 7 months ago

I have no idea how the 2 major smart watches (android wear, apple watch) have such horrible battery life. Microsoft Band had a 3 day battery life that would've been 5 days if we weren't forced to use a trash accelerometer that drained our battery by a crazy amount.

That aside, Android wear being a complete OS is a waste of power. There aren't any useful apps for it that take advantage of the watch running a full OS.

I'm also miffed that OS updates have dropped by pixel watch's battery life from 3 days down to 1 and a half.

Good on Pebble for taking a reasonable approach to watch OS design. I presume apple decided they are minting money with a 2-ish day battery life so why bother improving things, but it is sad that most companies don't care about doing the right thing anymore.

hsbauauvhabzb• 7 months ago

works at Microsoft
it is sad that most companies don't care about doing the right thing anymore

Throw rocks once you’ve stopped the windows 11 spam machine.

com2kid2• 7 months ago

I haven't worked at Microsoft since 2015.

Currently running Linux on my home PC because I can't stand windows 11.

ossusermivami• 7 months ago

garmin is arguably one major smart watch vendor and has a great battery life

mmmlinux• 7 months ago

Garmin is more fitness tracker than smartwatch.

nicolaslem2• 7 months ago

For what it does, the battery life of the Apple Watch 11 is not that bad. It typically lasts more than 48h for me and charges very quickly. Putting it to charge when taking a shower is enough to not have to think about battery life.

lawn3• 7 months ago

48h is still pretty bad honestly.

apparent39• 7 months ago

Fair, but that means you have to bring a special purpose charger with you anytime you go somewhere for more than ~36 hours. For me, that's the bigger issue. If I could charge inductively on the back of my iPhone, for example, I wouldn't mind as much.

chrneu6• 6 months ago

48 hours is bad. Newer garmin watches measure their battery life in weeks, not hours. It's crazy how behind on this apple is.

RestartKernel5• 7 months ago

The Nothing CMF Watch has a true (two?) week-long battery life due to its RTOS, but it's kind of mediocre otherwise. More like a souped up Casio.

StopDisinfo9102• 7 months ago

Oppo and OnePlus have around 10 days with a full Android Wear system using a clever hybrid technologie running another low powered OS when Wear is not required.

The market is very different nowadays than when the Pebble came out.

TrainedMonkey• 7 months ago

Withings smart watches are kind of insane with 30 day battery life, but the subscription farming in the app is infuriating.

All I want from a smart watch:

- Waterproof, wireless charging, at least a week of battery life

- Automatically track exercise and sleep, let me update the data if needed.

- Track my fitness trends over time, looking at you resting heart rate

- Optionally, learn a couple of recurring patterns to improve automatic exercise assignment. If I hike twice a week and you see an exercise session with a consistent heart rate profile you better believe I am hiking

yborg• 7 months ago

Not just subscription farming, you cannot use the latest mobile app versions without agreeing to data mining. Their business model now is literally collecting user health and usage data to resell to other companies and of course for AI training. Avoid.

sjw9875• 7 months ago

Garmin are pretty decent. I have an Enduro 2 which lasts a fortnight on a charge (currently 37% with 6 days of charge left).

It's waterproof. Unfortunately no wireless charging (proprietary cable) but it charges 2 weeks worth in about 2 hours.

It doesn't automatically track exercise, but it does collect a lot more (and higher quality) data than Withings for activity. Automatic sleep. The app has the trends and such, and there's no subscription (they recently added some AI stuff you can pay for but which is optional).

wvenable• 7 months ago

I can get days out of my Samsung Watch 7 if I turn off everything like the always on display, constant health tracking, Wifi, etc. But I don't.

utopcell10• 7 months ago

Pixel fan here: I think the Pixel Watch 1, 2 and 3 were a big disappointment in terms of battery life. I was barely getting 1 day out of them, many times less than that. Pixel Watch 4 has significantly improved the situation. Now I routinely get at least 3 days out of it (and this is the 4G LTE variant). Still someways to go, I think the holy grail is one week, but at least it is now quite usable.

PS: why is this even an issue? How hard is it to make straps with batteries in them..

pjmlp3• 7 months ago

Easy, as you point out, they are using the wrong OS stack.

My Amazfit lasts weeks on a single charge, and besides I don't need an app store on my phone.

RestartKernel5• 7 months ago

Looks great, but a mere 30 day warranty for manufacturing defects is kind of insane. I'm glad they're planning to fully support notifications on iOS in the EU due to the DMA, but that warranty wouldn't even be legal if they sell directly within the EU.

lm28469• 7 months ago

Looks great, but a mere 30 day warranty for manufacturing defects is kind of insane.

It's illegal in advanced societies, but americans call these things "communism" (the rest of the world uses "regulations")

apparent39• 7 months ago

Apple is forced to offer longer warranties in some non-US countries. In these countries, the price of the product is simply higher, to account for this. So basically consumers are forced to pay for an extended warranty in those countries, whereas if they bought them in the US (as some do on vacation), they get them cheaper but without the extended warranty.

I would agree that a product that supposedly has a 30 day battery life (PT2) should have a warranty that lasts longer than 30 days. This is especially true if the software optimizations haven't been completed at the time the watches ship. Otherwise it's just impossible to reliably assess whether the product is actually defective during the return window.

cromka2• 7 months ago

They'll likely be shipping to EU from outside, not selling them directly.

RestartKernel5• 7 months ago

Makes sense for a smaller company. Though proudly advertising a feature you may implement thanks to EU regulation, while avoiding compliance yourself, seems in somewhat bad taste.

Not that I am unaware of the immense difference in scale and influence between Apple and Pebble, and the different nature of these regulations in this light.

ajsnigrutin• 7 months ago

That means a painful order + customs paperwork for every european who orders it.

bartvk• 7 months ago

Just so I understand; this watch does not show notifications when paired with an iPhone?

infotainment2• 7 months ago

It shows them just fine -- the issue is that on iOS, only Apple Watches are permitted to perform notification "actions" (e.g., replying to a message, etc).

Recently, EU pressure might mean that Apple will open that ability up to non-Apple watches as well.

Rebelgecko• 7 months ago

I think Apple lets third party watches show notifications but they're not allowed to take any action in response (eg having a snooze button when your alarm goes off or whatever). Next version of iOS will allow interaction for a single smart watch at a time in the EU. I think it's still unclear if Apple will enable that feature outside of where it's legally required.

spike021• 7 months ago

oof, 30 days is not good. I had a couple early pebbles from a decade ago and both had various issues within 1-2 years of use. the first was the original pebble and the screen basically had broken lines of pixels. can't recall the second, newer one's issue.

keraf• 7 months ago

Eric's answer is just don't buy it if you're not happy with the warranty [0].

I'm still willing to take the risk because Pebble smartwatches are the only ones I like and wear. I managed to give my OG Steel another life by replacing the battery. Unfortunately that seems to be harder with the Round 2 as there won't be any screws. I'm still a bit split on whether to change my Time 2 pre-order for a Round 2.

[0] https://bsky.app/profile/ericmigi.com/post/3maubss6mqc25

DaSHacka• 7 months ago

Eric's answer is just don't buy it if you're not happy with the warranty [0].

lol, wouldn't that go for any product?

erohead12• 7 months ago

Here's my answer (as the founder of Pebble - both eras!) on this. We're a small company this time (standing on the shoulders of giants by using open source PebbleOS - thank you google!).

We are excited to make new devices, but wary about over-promising. We'd rather under-promise and over-deliver. So far, we have only received a few requests for warranty support for our first new watch (Pebble 2 Duo) and we have provided support for everyone who has asked.

RestartKernel5• 7 months ago

Thanks for the reply. Are you therefore not planning to sell within the EU for now?

Just for my understanding: so full notification support would essentially only apply to anyone in the EU willing to import from the US (or directly from the country you're manufacturing these devices in).

thedangler• 7 months ago

Bring back Pebble Steal. I lost my original and got the pebble time 2 but its just not the same.

cognisent• 7 months ago

You can get a Pebble Steal next time you see someone wearing one in public...

rationalist7• 7 months ago

eBay has them (used).

mrinterweb3• 7 months ago

Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be. It feels like everyone else is trying to make a phone replacement. Pebbles are more of an extension to your phone. Sure it can do some things without the phone, but it isn't trying to make calls, access mobile data with its own sim, use GPS. Those kinds of watches feel like they are designed for athletes who want to leave their phone at home. I'm not that guy. My phone comes with me everywhere, so why would I want phone-light on my wrist when my phone in my pocket can do it better?

Pebble also gets battery life. Pebble's 2 weeks compared to 1 day on my pixel watch 3. Want to use that cool sleep tracking feature on your smartwatch? Guess what? Its on the charger.

Pfhortune2• 7 months ago

Exactly this. Pebbles feel like they were built from the ground up to be a watch, whereas the Apple Watch and Android Wear feel like they started from a phone and stripped things away until it became a watch.

Separately, it baffles me that Garmin, despite them having also built a watch OS from the ground up, never understood watch/limited-button UX. Their Instinct and Forerunner watches have all sorts of wonky, hidden and arcane interactions with buttons (long press this to X, press this here to Y). Pebble proves that a simple, shallow, and linear menu system works great!

sahila• 7 months ago

Pebble proves that a simple, shallow, and linear menu system works great!

Hard to say this is true when Garmin watches are far more successful than Pebble. That aside, the forerunner is a sports watch first where you want lots of physical buttons that don't get bothered by sweat. The better Garmin comparison is the Venu series which only have two buttons https://www.garmin.com/en-US/c/wearables-smartwatches/?serie....

glitchc• 7 months ago

Well, Garmin is a GPS company, not a watch company. The watch is simply the most popular form factor.

utopcell10• 7 months ago

Pebbles were originally built to be bicyclist accessories but they pivoted to smart watches when they realized that the market opportunity was larger.

wolvoleo2• 7 months ago

I love the bells and whistles watches and I'm not an athlete. I love it in case I forget my phone, I still get all the notifications. I can pay with it. I can watch my home security. Something like the pebble wouldn't work for me anymore. Despite being a first day Kickstarter backer. The charging doesn't bother me because for me a watch is mainly for when I'm not home.

majesticmerc2• 7 months ago

I'm a runner, so obviously biased, but I implore everyone (to the point of annoyance) to check out some of the cheaper Garmin smart watches. They use MIP displays so the battery life runs about 2 weeks, you get phone notifications, the ability to find your phone, sleep scoring, step counting, heart rate monitoring. Then there's the obvious GPS run recording which you don't have to use. There's more stuff as well but I don't really use that like NFC card payments, music controls, but overall it hits a nice balance of features versus battery life.

For the sake of fair comparison, my wife had an Apple watch, which looked better and had way more features, but the 1 day battery life became such a frustration it sat in a dresser drawer. My last Garmin lasted 5 years with daily use and sports, and only died because I took it into the sea on vacation after the waterproof seal failed on the screen. I replaced it the day I got back with the successor model and couldn't be happier.

I'm not shilling for Garmin (or at least not being paid to), I love the Pebbles and I'm very much looking forward to the launch as I want a more fashionable smartwatch. Apple, Samsung et al have kinda tainted the smartphone market with feature vomit, when in fact there's a lot of good stuff out there, it's just not as hip.

1bpp• 7 months ago

Seconding the Garmin watches, been using a Forerunner for years and the battery still lasts over a week with an always-on display. Does about as much as a Pebble and even has a documented SDK with sideloading. The refresh rate is very low but totally fine for a watch, I think newer models have much better displays. The only thing I wish were better is exporting all the tracked health data in a format I can use myself. Using the official tool for that I couldn't even get heart rate data.

apparent39• 7 months ago

I find the Garmin UI to be awful, and the Pebble UI to be a breeze. Also, Garmins are pretty bulky compared to Pebbles, and many of them don't have buttons that can be used to control music, for those of us who find touchscreen interfaces to be lacking.

jsheard• 7 months ago

They use MIP displays so the battery life runs about 2 weeks

Double-check this because they have a lot of OLED models now alongside their MIP ones. Battery life is more or less the same either way with AOD off, but with AOD enabled the OLEDs fall behind the MIPs.

stevage• 7 months ago

As a reluctant runner, I still don't see any value in a smartwatch. I just use my phone and it does everything I want, which is basically, play podcasts and record my run for Strava.

I did previously have a smartwatch which did heart rate monitoring, but really, once I'd confirmed that when I exercised harder my heart rate went up, I lost interest in it.

mrinterweb3• 7 months ago

I had two pebble watches, and I used them daily for years. I rarely use my pixel watch 3, mainly because of charging. I only have one proprietary charger for the watch and sometime it is on my desk, sometimes near my bed, sometimes somewhere I can't find. I don't need my watch, but I do need my phone, so I charge the phone, and forget that my watch exists for a few months at a time. I think the biggest hurdle for me and watches is daily charging. I will not buy another smartwatch unless the battery is at least a week. Pebble round 2 having two week battery is great!

ValentineC• 7 months ago

For the sake of fair comparison, my wife had an Apple watch, which looked better and had way more features, but the 1 day battery life became such a frustration it sat in a dresser drawer.

To each their own, but it sounds like your wife just couldn't get into the "happy path" routine of an Apple Watch user.

I've been using an Apple Watch since Series 5 introduced the always-on display. I wear it for roughly 23 hours a day, and charge it whenever I'm in the bathroom. I'm fine with this routine 99% of the time, but I'm also not someone who'd camp or stay outdoors for more than a night.

Before that, I was using a Amazfit Bip and was really proud of its 30+ day battery life. I very much prefer the features the Apple Watch has.

ListenLinda• 7 months ago

The problem I have with Garmin is lack of support for older devices. They practically bricked my old bike computer. Unfortunately it's been awhile and I can't recall the details of the issue. I have since switched to Wahoo but have only had it for about 3-4 years now.

Larrikin2• 7 months ago

I've waited for years to get a Garmin, ever since Google started removing features from FitBit. The specs are great for many of the models.

But they were all ass ugly, too big, or both. I ended up buying a Pebble because Garmin just never made anything I actually wanted to put on my wrist.

jolmg3• 7 months ago

check out some of the cheaper Garmin smart watches. They use MIP displays so the battery life runs about 2 weeks

Same deal with the watch of the article. It uses the same display: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46471292

The difference between such Garmin watches and Pebble Round 2 seems to be trading off hardware like built-in GPS and NFC for open source software and thinness. 100% worthwhile trade IMO.

XenophileJKO• 7 months ago

I've looked at Garmin, because I have the fitbit sense 2 and was looking for something with a reasonable battery life.

However, I think Garmin has made the flaw of overcomplicating their product offerings. I ended up pre-ordering a pebble because I implicitly don't like a company that tries to segment their market that hard on smart watches.

have_faith• 7 months ago

I tried a Garmin for a while but the UI bugs/inconsistencies/onboarding process put me off a lot so I eventually got rid of it. Using an old Apple watch SE at the moment and apart from the minor inconvenience of charging it overnight (no need for sleep tracking) it does everything better.

Groxx3• 6 months ago

Every Garmin I've tried has been a complete mess, laggy, and deeply unstable in its connection and what notifications it supported (if any), whether it was cheap or expensive.

I'd love an alternative, but from the models I've tried I don't think Garmin is anywhere near what I liked about Pebbles. Closer than some brands, but not anywhere near what I'd consider "close". Bangle.js is closer, for all its (many) flaws.

odiroot• 6 months ago

Can you get turn-by-turn navigation with Google Maps on these watches?

cush2• 7 months ago

Garmin does this too, but for a completely different demographic

Al-Khwarizmi• 7 months ago

I've never tried Pebbles but Huawei also has the same philosophy, mine has 2 weeks battery life and does all I need (which also doesn't include replacing the phone). I don't understand why people would buy watches with 1 or 2 days of battery life.

bfrog• 7 months ago

Garmin has been doing this for years now. The watches are built incredibly well and are well worth the cost.

exq• 7 months ago

I use a Fenix 7x pro solar and it's one of my favorite pieces of hardware right now. I dread having yet another item to charge and keep track of, but this thing lasts a full month if I'm not actively tracking workouts. My only complaint is it's not hackable like a pebble, but honestly I'm not sure what functionality I'd add to it, other than Doom for lols. I really just use it to tell the time, see phone notifications as they arrive, altitude/baro/compass when outdoorsing, and for heart rate tracking. Works great with Gadgetbridge, handles the abuse of my physical job, and doesn't get in my way like other smart watches I've tried, where I had to remember to charge it every other day or I couldn't track my sleep. This watch lives on my wrist and tells me days in advance when it needs a charge!

utopcell10• 7 months ago

Google has really stepped up their game with the Pixel Watch 4 in terms of battery life. I easily get at least 3 days, compared to < 1 day for my Pixel Watch 3.

eweise• 7 months ago

If it doesn't tell me distance to the hole, then its just a pretty bracelet.

vasco• 7 months ago

How far can you stretch your arm?

Forgeties79• 7 months ago

Love my core 2 duo. I’m a light user so my battery pulls almost 3 weeks. It’s fun to use too tbh

apitman• 7 months ago

What I want is a smart watch that lets me map hardware buttons and rotary knobs to arbitrary actions on my Android phone. For example I want to be able to use the knob to control the volume of whatever I'm listening to on my phone.

I worked on a prototype of this idea back in school[0]

Does Pebble support this?

[0] https://docs.google.com/document/d/1lTOxHxHFjwJXeCLROAPf6OJD...

Groxx3• 6 months ago

No rotary dial, and... I think no, the closest you'd get is to run an app on the watch (so you can capture the three not-"back" buttons) plus a companion app on your phone to receive events from it and do [stuff]. But that'd mean you'd have to open the app on your watch to control what's on your phone.

The media controls might be able to do the volume part automatically out of the box though? I forget exactly what their UI did when I had music playing, but I think it had volume and skip controls. That's nowhere near arbitrary control though.

agile-gift0262• 7 months ago

exactly this. My Galaxy Wear sits in a drawer 10 months per year, as I only use it as a wrist-strapped mini-smartphone when I go to the beach. It's too bulky and cumbersome to wear every day. The Pebble Time 2 I plan to use every day, as it does exactly what I want in a smartwatch sans wireless payments

TulliusCicero• 7 months ago

I'm not much of an athlete, and I don't have a smartwatch, but the idea of leaving my phone at home sometimes without being totally disconnected from comms does appeal to me somewhat.

sjw9875• 7 months ago

Would that not just be replacing a phone with another smaller phone strapped to your wrist?

Doesn't the fact that you are connected and communicable make whatever device you choose to use essentially a phone?

I will say, if it is possible, going out without any form of internet/comms enabled device can be very liberating. We all used to do it, and I think many of us have gotten used to the idea that we need to be on call or have some sort of utility in case of emergencies that are very unlikely to happen.

pjmlp3• 7 months ago

I would say Amazfit are great, I don't need an app store and a programmable watch to do cool stuff in whatever programming language on weekends.

The set of pre-installed apps, integration with watch messages, call notifications and media controls are enough.

However maybe I am old fashioned, the oldie Timex and Casio smartwatches were also good enough for me.

apparent39• 7 months ago

I like Amazfit well enough but I found the UI to be English-second and therefore a bit confusing. Also, I don't trust a company like Amazfit to have my GPS location at all times.

Someone2• 7 months ago

Pebble seems to be the only watch company that I feel understands what a smartwatch should be.

So, why do you think Pebble didn’t succeed? I think that’s because you’re a minority, and demand for a Pebble-like product is too low at the price point where it would be a viable business.

Larrikin2• 7 months ago

Google bought them and killed them. The same thing is happening to Fitbit

apparent39• 7 months ago

IIRC they got out over their skis financially. Eric did a podcast interview where he talked about what went wrong, I think it was this one. [1]

He's self-funding this company and doing pre-orders, which means that risk should not exist this time around.

But to GP's point, I agree that Pebble knows what smartwatches are, and they make the best ones. But it turns out that lots of people want (or have been convinced by marketing that they want) a wrist-worn computer, which has been a boon for Apple/Google.

I think the new Pebbles will convert a lot of people because the battery life skips two orders of magnitude (in the time sense), going from ~1 day to ~1 month. That and the slick user interface should be attractive to folks who are considering upgrading their AWs as the battery degrades. Some will realize that they don't need all the computer-y functionality that the AW provides and just go with a Pebble. The fact that they're a bit cheaper, and available in a nice-looking round case is an added bonus.

Like a lot of people, I assumed I would like AWs, and that they would continue to evolve to better and better battery life. But they haven't approached Pebble territory and I can see that the functionality they provide is not worth the tradeoff for me. I just don't care to tap at a computer on my wrist. Maybe other people do, but I'd bet that Eric's going to win over a lot of AW users who realized they are overkill.

1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nc5I0rM2ORc

mrinterweb3• 7 months ago

The finance comments may be right. Another factor would be marketing budgets and existing brand recognition. The watches are marketed as having all of these features, and I think customers got lost in the feature comparison instead of thinking if they really want a smart watch to do that. Many customers aren't thinking if they really want to pay another monthly for a watch data SIM. I think people lost sight that their phone can do all that stuff, and they are going to be bringing their phone with them so why would they need redundant functionality generally worse than than what their phone can do. If pebble gets a marketing budget, I would hope they focus on messaging of what makes their watches stand out.

Jiro2• 7 months ago

So there is no way to get weather on this? That's conspicuously absent from the features.

sumitgt• 7 months ago

There's a ton of apps and watchfaces on the Pebble that show the weather

Jiro2• 7 months ago

There's a ton of apps and watchfaces on the existing Pebble appstore that showed the weather back when the earlier Pebbles were new. I don't think any of them still work, because they depend on being able to access services that were around back then. These new Pebbles conspicuously don't list the ability to show the weather.

pavon• 7 months ago

Yeah, I'm curious about that as well. This is what I think the history is:

* The official weather app on the old Pebble used a weather server they ran, and stopped working when that service shutdown.

* The old faces did not use that service, but instead each one wrote their own code to fetch weather information from a variety of sources, most of which have since shutdown or changed in incompatible ways, however some faces have been maintained to continue working.

* Rebble created a replacement weather server compatible with the old Pebble one, and patched the weather app, and several watch faces to use it. This service requires a subscription.

* The few weather faces in the Repebble appstore that I spot-checked all appear to be using weather sources that are still active. I know that this appstore is curated by Repebble and presumably they verified that these faces still have working weather feeds.

* During the Rebble/Repebble drama Eric mentioned "We’re planning to include weather for free in our app and make the data available to all watchfaces so you don’t need to configure each one separately."[1], but I don't know if that is planned to be ready when the Time2 or Round2 launch, or some time later.

[1]https://ericmigi.com/blog/pebble-rebble-and-a-path-forward

erohead12• 7 months ago

It has a built in weather app and hundreds of watchfaces that show weather as well.

barefootford2• 7 months ago

Sorta wish they would ship the last watches before announcing more that are months away. I’m pretty sure I preordered 9 months ago and still have nothing to show for it.

modeless4• 7 months ago

They're announcing now so that you can switch your preorder if you want. I got my Pebble 2 Duo a while ago and have been wearing it ever since.

barefootford2• 7 months ago

Also ordered a pebble 2 duo, and haven't been wearing it ever since.

apparent39• 7 months ago

I think CES might have had something to do with this.

rvz• 7 months ago

Dual microphones for speech input (eg interacting with AI agents) and replying to.

But no heart rate monitor.

RobotCaleb• 7 months ago

Use the microphones

IshKebab• 7 months ago

How are they reusing the mechanical design from the original Pebble Round when they sold it to Google?

apparent39• 7 months ago

Technically sold to Fitbit, which sold to Google, but I think it was all open-sourced. What aspect are you wondering about? I can't tell what mechanical design aspects would remain proprietary.

modeless4• 7 months ago

I don't think they're reusing any of the CAD. Just the design concept. All of the parts are different.

lilactown• 7 months ago

Would buy this in a heartbeat (pun intended) if it came with a heart rate monitor.

I had the first Pebble Time Round and it's my favorite smart watch I've ever owned, but these days the things I want from a watch are to tell the time and collect biometrics. Taking a step back in biometrics feels like a bummer. I also totally buy that it would increase the foot print in a way that would feel way less slim.

stavros• 7 months ago

Get the Pebble Time 2 instead?

mrmincent• 7 months ago

Yeah it would’ve been an instant buy for me if it did HR monitoring, even if it meant a thicker base. Now it’ll probably just be a fairly quick buy as my Apple Watch s7 can hardly last a day.

apparent39• 7 months ago

The PT2 is thicker than the PR2 and has the HR monitor (it also costs $25 more). If you have an AW, then you're already used to the rectangular form factor of the PT2.

PMunch• 7 months ago

Same! I've already signed up for the Time 2 and super stoked for it, then I saw the announcement for the Round 2 and I was about to switch over until I noticed it didn't have a heart rate sensor. I know its sleek and elegant, but that slight bulk would be worth it in my opinion. And who knows, with the extra thickness they might've been able to squeeze in more battery to get it to the 30 days battery life cited for the Time 2.

Also unfortunate that it's missing the RGB backlight of the Time 2. I can think of a few good use cases for it, but if it's only on the Time 2 that means fewer apps would use it.

dent9• 7 months ago

I'm an og Pebble fan, I owned every one of the originals, but I'm PISSED because last year they ran a Kickstarter for the recently released Pebble Time 2 and Pebble 2 Duo; I spent $300+ to get both even though I'm not really that thrilled about them I just wanted to support the project. Now after those two have started shipping and I just got the 2 Duo they announce THIS which is way better! Wtf why didn't they tell us in the beginning that they were planning the Round 2? I would have just held off and only ordered that instead. Feels like I got scammed

MarcelOlsz2• 7 months ago

Why is it way better? I like the 2 Duo and I'm sad it's sold out. Would happily buy it off you if you'd like to email me.

apparent39• 7 months ago

Huh? There was no Kickstarter, just pre-orders. And when they announced the Round they said that anyone who preordered a PT2 can flip their pre-order and keep their place in line.

My guess is that part of the reason they decided to make the round is that they got so much interest in Pebbles in general, and so many requests for the Round specifically. I don't think they would have wanted to take the risk from the beginning without knowing the demand.

cush2• 7 months ago

You can switch your order. They anticipated that some folks would want the Round instead and said that entire reason they announced this before the Time 2 is shipped is so you can change your order to Round if you want to

https://youtu.be/NaDPMZKXcBU?t=393

stared• 7 months ago

When it comes to such watches, I am always puzzled why there cannot be a USB-C port for charging.

Is it a technical limitation of some sorts? (E.g. cannot be made water resistant?)

Because right now it is my biggest pain - one more cable that one needs to carry all the time, and if it is lost, you cannot borrow from a friend.

utopcell10• 7 months ago

Even if they can't have usb-c because of space limitation or water resistance, why not simply offer a tiny adapter from their proprietary pogo pin connector to female usb-c? That would be way more portable.

spiffytech• 7 months ago

That's what Pebble is doing.

0x38B• 7 months ago

I lost the cable for my original Pebble and 3D printed a clip on housing with wires bent to contact the pens on the watch. It worked for charging. I haven’t worn it again because I don’t have a band and my battery needs replacing.

I loved my original Pebble. I remember how great the quick shortcuts to control my music were without having to look down from driving.

hshdhdhj4444• 7 months ago

Dual microphones for speech input (eg interacting with AI agents) and replying to messages (currently Android only…
…iOS in EU soon

Just a reminder for all the Apple fanbois whining over how EU users miss out on Apple features (undoubtedly because Apple is behaving like a whiny 10 year old throwing a tantrum, but whatever), in reality, the EU rules allows companies like Pebble to offer functionality on iOS that they cannot elsewhere.

utopcell10• 7 months ago

Pebble Round 2 looks great. I would definitely had purchased it if it was released instead of the Pebble Time 2, 10 years ago, when it was still relevant.

cbsks• 7 months ago

What’s the maximum range to your phone to get notifications? I’ve been trying to cut back on my reflex to look at my phone every few minutes. It’d be great if I could keep my phone on a charging stand and be able to walk around my house and still get notifications.

ramses06• 7 months ago

Exactly the killer use-case for pebble! It's "blue-toothy" range, so it'll mostly work in adjacent rooms but might have difficulty going diagonally upstairs v. downstairs, or ranging too far outside.

IIRC, pebble had a "vibrate on BT-loss", which could remind you to go retrieve the phone when ranging outside to rake leaves (or forgetting your phone in a restaurant or something).

apparent39• 7 months ago

I think Eric posted about this, and it was an impressive distance. Obviously YMMV based on the size of your house and how thick the walls are, but my old Pebble worked in much of my house and I would expect that as BT has gotten better (on both the phone and watch) in the last decade, the new versions will have even more range.

4ggr05• 7 months ago

also probably depends on the building you live in.

not trying to start a flame-war, but i can imagine that you get quite some range in the US, if you live in one of those cardboard-inner-walls houses.

in the 30cm thick solid wall apartment i live in my pebble looses connection the next room over, i almost need line-of-sight for it to work. working at my desk, get up, walk 5 meters to the bathroom, watch looses connection.

maybe my smartphone has a weak bluetooth receiver, compared to other models, who knows...

utopcell10• 7 months ago

Nothing wrong with a bit of nostalgia, though we should be aware that a 14-day battery life is no longer a competitive advantage.

[Gemini 3 Pro Query] "Which smartwatches have at least 1 week of battery life?"

- Garmin Instinct 3: Provides up to 18 days (45mm) or even 40 days (50mm) of battery life. It features a robust design and a bright AMOLED display.

- Garmin fenix 8: A premium multisport watch that lasts up to 29 days in smartwatch mode, featuring advanced mapping and a built-in LED flashlight.

- Amazfit T-Rex 3: A rugged, budget-friendly alternative with an impressive 27-day battery life and military-grade durability.

- Garmin Forerunner 165: Offers 11 days of battery life with a focus on running metrics and accurate GPS tracking.

- Garmin Venu 3S: A stylish lifestyle watch with a vibrant display that lasts up to 10 days.

- Amazfit Bip 6: A highly affordable option that delivers a solid 14 days of typical use.

zoklet-enjoyer• 7 months ago

Unless you're going on a back country camping trip, I don't really see what difference it makes if the battery life is 3 days or 30. I have a Garmin Vivoactive 4. It's a generation or 2 old. The battery lasts 2 to 4 days, depending on the features I'm using. I take it off and charge it each day while I shower.

utopcell10• 7 months ago

The main advantage of Pebble watches was their battery life. If 3 days works for you then there are more sophisticated solutions out there, including the "Garmin Vivoactive 4" which looks great. I'm personally happy with the 3 days I'm getting out of my Pixel Watch 4. For folks that consider 14 days to be a plus, I'm simply mentioning that, 10 years later, it's no longer a differentiator.

apparent39• 7 months ago

I go on 3-4 day trips all the time and don't want to have to worry about bringing another charger. I rarely go on trips that last more than 2 weeks, so I would never have to bring a charger for the PR2. This is even more true for the PT2, which is supposed to last 4 weeks.

apparent39• 7 months ago

The Pebble offers multiple weeks of battery life with an always-on display. There are very few other watches that offer this. Looking at the above stats, I would guess that almost all of them are quoting battery life when AOD is disabled.

novoreorx2• 7 months ago

Just pre ordered one. It reminds me of my first and favorite smartwatch - Withings Activité. Sadly, that one broke after 2 or 3 years, and since then I haven't found a smartwatch I'm willing to wear daily. My Apple Watch is now strictly used for workouts only.

They share a lot of similarities:

- Round dial

- Analog hands (though Round 2 simulates this with e-ink)

- Long battery life (Round 2 is ~2 weeks. I remember Withings lasting months on a coin battery)

- Thin and light

- No speaker, so no noise

These are the features I appreciate. I love gadgets, but for smartwatches, I want them to maintain a classic watch appearance. I don't want to worry about charging it every day, and I don't want too many features and notifications to distract me.

As for the "smart" part, I want the tech to focus on sensors, i.e. recording movement and sleep. The rest goes for aesthetics, like changing interesting watch faces now and then. That's really it. Most products on the market are no what I want because what the tech brings on them are interference and inconvenience.

SSLy• 7 months ago

I assume Withings' ScanWatches are not fine for you?

novoreorx2• 7 months ago

From a basic feature perspective? Sure, they work. But the original Activité is incomparable by design, it’s the only one I really loved.

Once my original broke and I realized they weren't making that specific design anymore, I just lost interest in buying from the brand. The new models just don't have the same appeal.

afavour• 7 months ago

I’m an OG Pebble user converted to Apple Watch… couldn’t resist placing an order for the Round 2 because it looks amazing but I worry I’ve grown too accustomed to the feature set of the Apple Watch (deep OS integration, contactless payment). Maybe it’ll be my “dress” watch.

All else aside I hope this might inspire Apple to try with their watch design. The first watch felt lazy and it’s basically unchanged since then.

serbuvlad• 7 months ago

Somewhat unrelated but as a Pixel Watch user (since I'm in that ecosystem), I envy the Apple Watch just for the square display. It is just the fundamentally correct design for text imo (which is a large part of what is going to appear).

One of my main uses for my Pixel Watch is reading notifications, and even for a 2-3 line text message I have to scroll to read it because it gets cut out by the roundness.

FloatArtifact• 7 months ago

I wish I didn't have to use an account to start using my Pebble watch.

bronlund• 7 months ago

I am not falling for Eric's pump'n'dump schemes once again.

Bobaso• 7 months ago

Design looks similar to my Amazfit balance 2, which I recommend

rkj• 6 months ago

I loved my Pebble back in the day, but honestly Garmin overtook it by a long shot. Very similar philosophy

Pebble Round 2

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