The Return of Pebble Smartwatches: Long Battery Life and E-Paper Screens Are Back

Pebble is set to reintroduce its e-ink smartwatches, powered by the newly open-sourced PebbleOS, as announced by founder Eric Migicovsky.

If you didn’t know, Pebble was a pioneer in the smartwatch market and proved there was demand for wearable tech.

The Apple Watch came 2–3 years after the Pebble debuted. Even Android Wear (now Wear OS) was released about a year after the Pebble had already established itself.

Pebble watches worked with both iOS and Android. However, when Google and Apple released their own smartwatch solutions, Pebble struggled to compete. 

PebbleOS was eventually acquired by Google through the FitBit acquisition. Google has since made PebbleOS open source and that has enticed Pebble’s founder to get back in the game. 

Making PebbleOS an open-source project, allows developers to access the source code and contribute to its evolution.

Migicovsky says he wants to create a smartwatch that meets essential user needs, reflecting feedback from the Pebble community.

The new smartwatches will feature an always-on e-paper screen, long battery life, a simple user experience, music control buttons, and hackable capabilities for custom watch faces.

Old Pebbles had battery life over a week and today, only Huawei watches can match that. The rest are mostly one or two day affairs. 

Migicovsky is assembling a small team to develop the new devices while maintaining the original specifications and introducing new options.

Those who ever used those Pebble watches and have had to settle for these current ones, which are impressive in their own ways, will be excited to hear that the mighty Pebble might be making a comeback.