After wearing the Pebble Time 2 for two weeks, I'll never buy another smartwatch

https://www.androidauthority.com/pebble-time-2-smartwatch-hands-on-3680077/

by jethronethro • 9 days ago

66 78 9 days ago

Between the Apple Watch kind of watches on one side, and Pebble kind of watches on another side, there's the whole Garmin ecosystem, a mention of which is notably absent from the article. They are a nice technological middle ground (though maybe not always a price middle ground), especially the classic models with non-OLED transflective screens. Granted, they are more sports/fitness oriented, but that's hardly a drawback honestly.

ctkhn• 6 days ago

Yeah I love my forerunner 945. Got it used in 2020 and when it died in 2023 Garmin replaced it for $150 including tax and shipping. Couple friends have got the new fancier touchscreen models but I like the simplicity of my watch. I blocked most texts from coming through as a buzz except immediate family or 2FA but it would be nice if Apple's focus modes worked better with it automatically. Been wondering if Pebble would be a good move to get even further away from proprietary software though as someone who runs or hits the gym monday through saturday

francisofascii• 6 days ago

I have the Forrunner 955, and also love it. It has actual push buttons all the features I need in one watch with the running, biking, swim, golf, and hiking modes.

Auguste3• 6 days ago

Yeah, my Garmin Instinct Solar 3 gets a 4-week battery life. I never looked back at my Pebble Time.

darrmit• 6 days ago

I came here to say this. I had abandoned smartwatches entirely and gone back to mechanical watches because smartwatches just did too much and the small utility I got from them (i.e. health) came with the tradeoff that they had to be charged every couple of days. I ended up trying the Garmin Instinct and it has been exactly what I was looking for. I turn off all notifications and just use it for the data it gives me and for the fitness tracking.

mc32• 6 days ago

Unfortunately I think in the general consciousness people treat Garmins as “legacy” devices even as their systems are in some ways superior to the flashy upstarts and newcomers.

Ingon• 6 days ago

4-week battery life, if you don't go outside. Solar charges the watch relatively slow (e.g. it takes 3 hours of just sitting under the sun to charge a day), but if you get out frequently it just pushes the battery day just a little further. Funny experience, when I charged it the first time and got outside in the sun, it showed infinity days battery remaining :D

I also appreciate that most of the data is available right there on the watch (although sometime buried). And I even used the torch a couple of times!

rpozarickij• 6 days ago

Before owning a Garmin watch (Epix Pro Gen 2 in my case) I had no idea just how useful always having a flashlight* with you is. I'd put this feature near all the health/digital features in terms of usefulness. I have it set to red light mode by default and double-pressing the light button gives me instant and unobtrusive night vision. I have also turned on the Red Shift mode for the display which makes the watch itself much more pleasant to use.

* not all Garmin watches have it AFAIK

jebarker• 6 days ago

I’ve found Coros to be great too. I’ve used my Vertix to track GPS for 48 hours continuously during a race. It’s been beaten up against rocks, soaking wet and filthy for extended periods and still works 100%. Just yesterday it saved me from a minor emergency when I got lost on a new trail and needed to backtrack. After years of use it still has weeks of battery life for tracking daily workouts. I don’t use any of the smartwatch features like notifications though and wear a mechanical watch as my daily driver.

jerlam2• 6 days ago

Garmin and Pebble also are the watches with custom watch faces. You can change them to serious or silly or incomprehensible.

Whenever I look at my Apple Watch, it's a reminder that Apple owns it and requires it to look a certain way.

rocketvole• 9 days ago

Electronic devices that only need to do a handful of basic things like smartwatches and ereaders theoretically have less software complexity, which makes writing good software for them theoretically easier. in the age of ai, the threshold of "complex" has changed drastically- giving rise to even more open source adoption. Open source versions of these sw/hw tools seem to be a natural step forward.

Honali2• 6 days ago

I agree with the direction, though I am not sure "fewer features" always means easier software

Honali2• 6 days ago

The appeal here is not nostalgia so much as restraint. Pebble treats the watch as a peripheral

comonoid• 6 days ago

Pebble is too feature overloaded, I prefer a ring.

wollowollo• 6 days ago

I'm scared of having a lithium battery on my finger like that.

poetril• 6 days ago

I've tried a handful of smartwatches, and own a Pebble 2 Duo. While I'm interested in picking up a newer Pebble device (hopefully with a bit nicer build quality), I've found my sweetspot to be a Garmin. I bought a Forerunner 165, have never needed to pair it to my phone so I can be happy in the data privacy department. Additionally the battery life is fantastic and it gives me all the data I need for my health and fitness goals.

Pfhortune• 6 days ago

I wanted to love my Garmin watches so much. I've tried a couple of Forerunners and an Instinct 2S. The hardware is great, but the software UX is so poor... I had to memorize an archaic maze of presses/long-presses to get to various features.

Just putting the watch into DnD mode required flipping through a ring of shortcuts hidden behind a long press menu. My Pebble can do this with a shortcut I assigned to a back-button long-press. Pebble's shallow-menu + shortcuts system is brilliant.

I ponder what Garmin is like in an alternate dimension where _they_ bought Pebble and used their UX chops for their own devices...

saltcured2• 6 days ago

An annoyance with Garmin is that they use something as trivial as customizable shortcuts as a price discriminator. They have it in their UI already, but remove it from the affordable budget models.

On the other side, I think they are a little trapped in their legacy UX. A lot of people have Garmin watches long term, and will probably scream bloody murder if everything changes.

I don't mind so much. I have one of those budget models without a touch screen, and I find the UI vastly easier to use than my prior Casio hiking watches at least...

HelloUsername2• 6 days ago

Now do the same review on an iOS device.

"There is NO way for a 3rd party smartwatch to compete with Apple Watch. Apple restricts 3rd parties in major ways. For example, 3rd party watches on iOS cannot send replies to notifications."

stavros• 6 days ago

Why would they need to do the review on a device that doesn't work well? That says something about your choice of broken phone, it doesn't say anything about the watch.

Shalomboy• 6 days ago

Why would Android Authority review any smartwatch on an iOS Device? It seems outside of their interests.

HelloUsername2• 6 days ago

Oh, I see much more than just Android on their website..

kingnothing3• 6 days ago

After wearing an analog watch for two years, I'll never buy another smart watch.

I do not need to be so connected to my phone that my wrist vibrates when someone texts me. The little reminders to stand up are ignored. The guilt at the end of a day when I didn't get enough steps in is gone. And I have a newfound appreciation for the pure craftsmanship that goes into making this tiny analog device on my wrist that is powered by tiny springs and gears and somehow crafted well enough to be accurate within seconds per day. It's also the one piece of jewelry that is socially acceptable for every single man to wear and can be a fun expression of self given the sheer variety of watches in the world.

dzogchen• 6 days ago

Cannot relate. I do not have notifications enabled on my Pebble.

I don't have any guilt over not having enough steps at the end of the day. But I am walking more thanks to my smartwatch.

I can start a timer in seconds when I am meditating, when I am cooking, when I am starting the watching machine. Also I have made a little app that shows me the weights and reps and sets I need to do for my powerlifting programme. I don't have to bring my phone to the gym. Lastly, I made a little app that shows me one thing I need to be doing for my morning routine or the next TODO on my todo list. A god send for someone suffering from ADHD.

jhbadger• 6 days ago

While there are things like heart rate monitors that can't be replicated on a phone, I've never understood why people bring up step tracking or timers as traits of a smartwatch. My phone tracks my steps and can be used to set a timer just as easily (probably easier as it is has a much larger screen).

alexpotato• 6 days ago

I think there is a bit of a spectrum e.g.

- I don't want EVERY SINGLE notification from my phone to go to my watch

- I also don't want zero notifications b/c it's very useful to get notifications from my kids, important calendar reminders, my boss sends me a slack etc

Also, the watch allows me to still be "connected" for important events but not distracted by my phone.

(I should add that Apple watches give you a LOT of control over the notifications from your phone to your watch. Not sure if that's true with other watches)

CalRobert2• 6 days ago

I prefer to be able to slack my direct reports without thinking “are they going to get this on the toilet? Is this going to make them panic?”

It’s ok to wait a few minutes.

sva_• 6 days ago

It is pretty damn useful to track your progress if you do any kinds of endurance sports like running or cycling, but yeah I turned those notifications off right away.

wlesieutre• 6 days ago

When I had a Pebble Time (dead, waiting on PR2) I basically had notifications turned off. For that matter, I have very few notifications enabled phone too.

It's great as a watch that can tell you if it's going to rain, give you TOTP authenticator codes, and control music playback.

The tiny springs and gears are neat though, in a different sort of way from tiny transistors, can't argue with that one.

stevekemp• 6 days ago

I'm surprised that the article even said "but you don’t always have the luxury of sitting down to set the time and get the watch ready for the day".

I wear an automatic all the time, in fact I collect them, and most automatic watches will happily keep ticking for 36-48 hours. If you take it off to sleep it won't need adjusting the next morning.

Even if you did need to fiddle with a watch in the morning (which I do, as I switch watches every few days) it takes seconds to whirl the hands to the correct time. Certainly not a significant timesink.

coffeebeqn• 6 days ago

My automatic has a 3 day reserve and a quartz will stay on time for years

gwbas1c2• 6 days ago

I've been tempted to go that route: I used to have a transparent self-winding watch and I miss it.

The thing is, I really like seeing text messages on my watch out of the corner of my eye. I don't read them, but I know that so-and-so texted me, and if it's important I figure out how to read the text safely.

Otherwise, I turn off almost all watch notifications very aggressively.

---

I also really enjoy using my watch as an alarm clock and to track sleep, but I could just wear it at night if I wanted to wear a mechanical watch.

kingnothing3• 6 days ago

For most of my waking hours, my phone is sitting next to me on my desk, couch, or table. Carplay has my back when I'm driving. I honestly don't miss any of the notifications from my smart watches.

jrflo2• 6 days ago

100% agreed. I wore an apple watch daily for almost 10 years and have switched back to automatic watches. The notifications caused me to be way too connected to my phone, and the "tracking" aspects of it were kind of useless to me. I know intuitively if I got enough exercise in a given day (did I go to the gym? Did I go on a long walk?), I don't need a computer to tell me that. Same thing with sleep tracking: do I feel like shit in the morning? I probably didn't sleep well!

The one thing it's good for is run tracking, I'll still put it on for that activity.

renegade-otter• 6 days ago

I stopped caring about wellness trackers ever since the FIRST FitBit. Once you get an idea of what 10K steps feel like, it really becomes redundant at that point.

This personal optimization fad is exhausting. We already get enough "data-driven" at work - I don't need that in off-hours.

Listen to your body and stop converting every minute of your life into numbers. Maybe lift up your head and listen to the world for a second once in a while, instead of planting your face in another screen.

chaostheory• 6 days ago

The notifications mostly suck unless they’re related to your heart or oxygen level, though you can choose to turn off what you don’t want. It’s the main reason why I wear an Apple Watch even though I’m a big fan of Pebble; loved my Pebble Steel. The fitness trackers tied to Apple Fitness are also another big feature for me. It’s what keeps me wearing it despite the really terrible battery life where I need to charge twice a day.

dogman1050• 6 days ago

I'm with you. I get great joy knowing that the machine on my wrist started out as rocks (ore) and was refined and fashioned into something that keeps time with very little energy input. Just keep them away from some modern devices, like an Air Pods case, which will magnetize a watch making run poorly unless demagnetized!

stronglikedan• 6 days ago

I couldn't imagine wasting so much time having to take my phone out of my pocket to see my important notifications (the unimportant ones don't go to my watch).

BeetleB2• 6 days ago

I can't imagine wasting so much time finding a way to separate important and non-important notifications.

But out of curiosity, what is an important notification for you?

jsbisviewtiful• 6 days ago

After 3 attempts at an Apple Watch over the years, I finally had the experience that pushed me over the edge and I sold my Apple Watch 10 for a Coros APEX 4 - a device that has real battery life and a quality build, so no more worrying about my activity tracker dying during a half marathon, no more charging a device 2-3 times during an overnight backpacking trip and no more worrying about every bump and scrape. Apple has truly dropped the ball with their Watch line, with their only solution to the dismal battery life for *active* people being spend another $400 for a few extra hours of battery. No thanks.

I'm quite happy with my Coros upgrade. It's really shown me that Apple Watches are a general catch all with feature bloat that don't do anything super well for serious activity seekers, yet its main requirement is the user be tethered to a charger every damn day - sometimes multiple times. That being said though, once this Coros kicks the bucket, I will being giving a lot of thought into whether I will be purchasing another activity tracker. Even with this new device that lasts 2~ weeks on a charge, I find myself missing the simplicity of my Casio G-Shock - a device that simply works. My phone still functions as a great activity tracker for biking, running and brief hikes, but lacks the real battery life needed for backpacking - which is my only holdout.

everdrive• 6 days ago

Well said. "Smart" watches seem to make the argument that somehow your phone was not accessible enough, not ever-present enough, and the best solution would be to build a phone relay and strap it to your body. Although the smart phone did flatten most people's impulse control to near zero, it seems the last little bit of progress in the area of impulse-control-destruction could be achieved by strapping a phone relay to your wrist. Too tough to pull your phone out of your pocket? Good news, now that stupid post / notification / chime / whatever is on your wrist and you can never get away from it.

fxj• 6 days ago

I think the battery life of a smart watch cannopt be underestimated. I have all the old pebbles which I love darely but then I got a Amazfit Bip and I stayed with it until today. One month (!) of battery time with a HR sensor and notifications is all I need so why ever change.

I dont know why apple, samsung and google are not getting it. But I would not even touch one of their products with a 2 feet long pole.

Just my experience and 2 ct.

And one thing: Pebble2 is really really nice, but 200 euro? The Amazfit Bip is (was) 40 euros. Why the price difference?

Permit• 6 days ago

I dont know why apple, samsung and google are not getting it.

I know nothing about smart watches other than the fact that the Pebble company failed and that I see Fitbit/Apple Watch everywhere. I’m not convinced that Apple/Google don’t get it.

jermberj• 6 days ago

Echoing a sibling: yes, apple seems to "get it" just fine.

In 2021, analysts estimated there were 100 million units in use.[1]

[1] https://web.archive.org/web/20210212163703/https://www.techr...

gchamonlive• 6 days ago

Garmin for daily use, galaxy watch for social events. I have zero notifications and sensors running in the galaxy watch, just use it with the Google wallet for a very convenient credit card.

jvanderbot• 6 days ago

I immediately went down the preorder track, but found that I had an existing pre-order for May (purchased Jan), which I never got a single update about.

On one hand, super glad they caught that, but otoh, why not let me know it was delayed so severely?

wojciii3• 6 days ago

I'm still trying to figure out what exact user case having a digital watch solves.

I mean .. I have a phone which shows time, plays music and can tell me who called / sent me a signal message.

I have issues with having to charge my phone so having another device that I will have to charge will not make my life any better.

dbvn2• 6 days ago

really the only value is for runners/cyclists/swimmers. Being able to run without a bulky device is sooo much better.

wojciii3• 6 days ago

I used to run a lot and used a GPS watch to plot my runs .. initially, but this got boring fast. I don't want to compare myself with other runners. I just want a distraction free half an hour and thus no phone or watch. :)

saltcured2• 6 days ago

You say "digital" rather than "smart". Digital or analog, a basic watch has that single advantage of being mounted on the wrist. It is always there, supporting a quick glance when you don't have time, free hands, or social context to pull a phone out.

Once you add vibration, now you open a class of discreet alerts. Even an offline watch can give you a silent alarm function, which is great to reduce disturbance to your sleepmate. And some people value the smart notification alerts when awake too. The phone may be in a bag or coat pocket where vibration isn't obvious.

Then there are all the wearable sensor platform things, which divide the population into very different use case priorities. I.e. all the accelerometer and heart-rate tracking for sports, fitness, and lifestyle modification.

Or for outdoorsy people, the wearable GPS, digital compass, and barometric altimeter. This is my reason for having a Garmin watch. I find zero value in a "smart watch" that lacks these sensors. And I don't care for the other connected-watch features, so I actually have the bluetooth link disabled almost all the time. I go back and forth on the fitness tracking. It is bundled in the watch, so I use those sensors sometimes. But, I didn't actually care for them at all when shopping. There just isn't enough market for a good GPS+compass+altimeter watch without fitness sensors, so they don't make it.

Compared to any phone app I've tried, my watch records much cleaner tracks for hiking, both in terms of all the tight turns and accurate elevation data. It also presents the real-time data in a much more convenient, wearable format. When navigating a planned route, it can also vibrate and show me a course hint as I approach a faint trail junction in the wilderness.

wojciii3• 5 days ago

I meant smart. I don't have an analog watch fetish. :)

BeetleB2• 6 days ago

The value is being able to see the time and use timers/stop watches quickly. I use the timer on my watch many times a day, and it'd be a pain to use the phone for that.

But of course, the real benefit is that I don't want my phone on me all the time, but I do want to be able to tell time all the time. I sleep with my watch, not my phone. Occasionally when I go do errands, I prefer to keep my phone in the car. At home, I typically leave the phone in one room.

InsideOutSanta• 6 days ago

I'm still wearing my Pebble Steel. It has a highly visible screen, great battery life, and it's easy to write whatever apps or games I want for it and deploy them immediately, without any signing BS.

davsti4• 6 days ago

My $10 Casio is infinitely a more reliable timepiece. It doesn't need charging so it can be taken off-grid for months at a time, easy to read the digits when half asleep and your eyes aren't working, has a built-in little light if needed, and if for some strange reason I need to replace it, it'll cost me $10.

When I need something more akin to a piece of jewelry, I reach for my Citizen eco-drive ($99), or my Seiko automatic ($150), both of which don't need recharging. ;)

Maybe this pebble will finally fit into a cost-conscious, and reliable model that existing timepieces already fill, but I'm not convinced through the quality of this article.

sorokod• 6 days ago

Smart watches to watches are like smart TVs to TVs.

cm-t• 6 days ago

That's basicly what I think since i own a Pebble Time Steel. On Ubuntu Touch, using this great app: https://open-store.io/app/rockwork.mzanetti

For those who do not want notifications, of course you can disable it (all/per app). On my side i need agenda notification, and that brillant. Never miss a planned event, so i'm not going back to analog watch. Since the watch has memory, event if you are disconnect with the phone, you have most of them synched on your hand.

The only issue I had with Pebble Time Steel was the battery, even after changing it, was up for maximum a week. Now with a almost a month + a keychain charger type C adapter, i can't but stuck with an empty battery.

Looking forward to use "find my phone" feature on Ubuntu Touch (I think it's already here on Android)

woile• 6 days ago

I have been using a "withings" smartwatch for the last 8 years. The battery now last 3 weeks instead of a month. It has all the features I need spite of being an oldy: heartbeat, steps, calories, countdown, sport mode, etc. The newer ones even have gps and more.

But the thing is: it looks analog, the smart is almost hidden away, that's how I like the tech, because the watch looks really cool. It can receive messages, but I never enabled that feature.

I've taken it deep under water, clashed against climbing walls, kettle-bells and it has a few scratches on it. I'm not a pro at anything so I don't need the garmin precision. I only had to change the wrist thingy once. I don't want another screen in my life. I recommend it as an alternative to all these "wrist-phones"

uxcolumbo• 6 days ago

What do you do when the battery eventually dies.

For example the Withings Scanwatch Horizon is quite expensive but it seems it doesn't have a user replaceable battery. So what do you do when the battery can't hold a charge anymore?

XorNot• 6 days ago

After just not wearing a watch because I have a smart phone in my pocket all the time I'm out which has, amongst other functions, a lock on it and I can actually interact with one handed...I will continue simply not wearing an utterly redundant piece of technology.

ge96• 6 days ago

I wish I could get into wearing watches, PineTime Pro is in development could be fun to work on that.

comrade1234• 6 days ago

Does anyone use their oxygen sensor on their wrist device? I have a garmin vivosmart 5 with an oxygen sensor but turned it off because its reading seems to wholly be related to how tight I have the band.

With the o2 sensor off my battery lasts a couple of weeks. With it on only a couple of days.

I have a good fingertip sensor for this that I bought during Covid.

jerlam2• 6 days ago

I don't use it on my Garmin, because as you said it dramatically lowers battery life, and often shows up as life-threateningly low. It also doesn't do anything with the data, meaning I only see if it I go into the app and click on the Pulse Ox tile.

I leave it enabled on my Apple Watch though, the battery life is already bad and any irregularities would be shown on the vitals app.

vladgur• 6 days ago

I bought a lightly used Apple Ultra Watch 2 6 months ago and it solved all my issues with my previous Apple Watch - specifically battery life.

I can use it as a sleep tracker and only need to charge it once every 2 days unless I take extensive hikes or use a lot of camera remote control.

The latter is magical btw especially for solo travelers - ability to set a scene on the iPhone camera while being in it by glancing on your watch is science fiction!

altcognito• 6 days ago

only need to charge it once every 2 days

The bar for Pebble/Garmin users is multiples of weeks. I typically charge my Garmin every 2-3 weeks, depending on how much activity I've been engaging it. If the battery is at 10%, that means I usually have a day or two to remember to slap it on a charger.

orwin• 6 days ago

My favorite "smart" watch at the moment is the casio G-shock (because i do not need any health monitor device). Battery life: at least 2 years, count your footstep (butyou don't have to care), have sunrise and sunset, tides, notifications when activated (the app is a bit shitty and it like some configuration though), can stay in the water for a long time (down to 50m deep).

To me, smartwatches have two useful feature: notifications and health monitoring. I don't need the second feature, so any "smart"watch with the first one is enough.

Casio needs to improve their app though. it shouldn't be that mid in 2026.

ghusto• 6 days ago

And as usual, Apple has it crippled in order to make sure it can't complete with whatever they're trying to sell you instead:

https://ericmigi.com/blog/apple-restricts-pebble-from-being-...

RickJWagner• 6 days ago

My favorite gadget watch is my Soundbrenner, with powerful vibrating metronome. I don’t actually use it for practice much ( I use a phone metronome for that ), but if I’m going to be idle for a while I’ll dial up a nice brisk tempo. Just like that, I’m instantly doing no-instrument practice, mapping out songs in my head.

petterroea• 6 days ago

This is what I feel about the Withings ScanWatch 2. It's an "analog watch" that can also do fitness tracking and show notifications if I want. I owned a pixel watch 1. It was too much.

After wearing the Pebble Time 2 for two weeks, I'll never buy another smartwatch

Related Stories