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Pebble is back through Core: don't sleep on the comeback of 2025

By Stanislav Serbezov

Published: Mar 19, 2025, 10:27 AM

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Wearables Wear

Image displaying the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 smartwatches

Let me get this out of the way: I’m a huge Pebble fan. As such, I’m insanely happy to see — what is essentially — new Pebble models up for pre-order right now. Especially so, considering that Pebble’s original founder Eric Migicovsky is running the show once more.

Do you remember that feeling of being excited about an upcoming piece of tech? Of course you do, otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Getting the original Pebble was one of the brightest examples of that feeling for me, and I’ll be honest: I’ve rarely gotten to experience it since. Last night, when I made my pre-order, I got that feeling back for the first time in a long time.

Now, with me being the more contemplative type nowadays, I asked myself why. And I found that there’s a lot more to unrar here than I initially thought. So I’d like to take you on this journey, because I think it would also kind of help you figure out if you’d like a new PebbleOS watch too.

Core 2 Duo and Time 2: the new PebbleOS watches

An render depicting the Core Time 2 and Core 2 Duo smartwatches running PebbleOS

The Core 2 Duo and Time 2. | Image credit — repebble

I’ll let Eric himself take over catching you up to speed:

For those unfamiliar with Pebble, it's an e-paper smartwatch with simple functionality, long battery life and a fun, quirky design. It first launched on Kickstarter in 2012. The company was sold in 2016 to Fitbit. In January 2025, Google graciously open sourced PebbleOS, enabling anyone to build upon the amazing Pebble software foundation.

— Eric Migicovsky, repebble, Mar 2025

Fast-forward a bit of time and two new smartwatches got introduced. I’ll be the first to admit that the naming conventions are a bit convoluted, so let’s break things down:

From left to right:

Core 2 Duo — this is the base model, budget-friendly at $149, close relative of what the Pebble Watch 2 was intended to be.
Core Time 2 — the fancier, sturdier and more colorful upgrade, priced at a respectable $225, distant cousin to classics from the Pebble Steel series.

What’s the confusing part, you may ask? Well, for starters: that inconsistency with where the “2” is positioned in the names of these devices drives me a bit nuts, but that’s not all. See, the company making these wonderful gadgets is called Core Devices – hence the word “core” present in both occasions. At the same time, the website is called “repebble”, but fans are all but calling these watches the “new Pebble watches” or just “Pebble 2”. Both are running PebbleOS — which retains its name — and are confirmed to be backwards compatible with almost all previously existing Pebble App Store content. (imagine sound of me struggling to catch my breath here)

TL;DR: The “Pebble” namesake doesn’t belong to Core Devices, so they’ve got to dance around it. But make no mistake, by all means, as hinted above, these two smartwatches are effectively what the Pebble Watch 2 should’ve been, but upgraded a bit further to match modern expectations.

Now, if you’re unfamiliar with the Pebble line of yore, then all you need to know is that these two are pretty faithful to the same idea. Now, typically we'd get both a plastic and metal variant for both the black-and-white-screened and colored versions of these watches, but that's not too much of a big deal. To be frank: this separation makes total sense, especially considering that these are very much products of a startup company, despite it riding on some pretty notable glory days.

Which Core PebbleOS watch model is for you?

The specs of the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 smartwatches

The specs of the Core 2 Duo and Time 2. | Image credit — repebble

Okay, let’s cut to the chase: if you’re interested in getting a retrofuturistic smartwatch with an amazing battery life and tons of character, then this is what you need to consider:

The Core 2 Duo will start shipping in July of 2025, whereas the Time 2 will ship out in December, 2025
If you insist on any of these: more rugged body, colored screens, heart rate monitoring: go for the Time 2

And that’s about it, honestly. Yes, the Core Time 2 will also feature a slightly bigger display at 1,5” versus the Core 2 Duo’s 1,26”, but I don’t think that would make much of a difference. Both will be e-paper, which means fantastic visibility, regardless of conditions. More importantly: both will be compatible with your previous Pebble apps and even watch bands, as the 22mm strap size has remained the same.

There are two elephants in this room that we need to address though:

Touch screen on a Pebble?

Yep, the Core Time 2 will have a touch-sensitive screen, for the first time in expanded Pebble history. Now, if I had to guess, I’d say that this is more so a byproduct of supply chain shenanigans than anything. I mean, if Core Devices wanted touchscreens to be a part of its new wave of PebbleOS watches, it would — don’t pardon the pun — make this feature part of the core package for both models.

Ultimately, I'd got as far as to say — and I think I'm speaking for a large part of the community here too — that I'm hoping to find a "Disable touchscreen" toggle within the Settings menu on the Time 2. The Core team, however, seems to be thinking differently:

We’re adding a touchscreen to Core Time 2. Why? Very specifically, I want to add the concept of ‘complications’ to watchfaces and widgets. Like on Apple Watch, these complications/widgets will show glanceable information like weather, next calendar event, step count, etc. The touch screen adds the ability to tap on the complication and directly open the associated app.

— repebble blog, March 2025

Considering that the Core Time 2 is the only model of the two with a touchscreen, this doesn't seem like a great idea. First off: the majority of existing Pebble apps don't have touch-based interactions baked-in, as those were not needed in the past. Beyond that, let me ask you this: if you were a developer, would you spend your time to program something that has expanded functions on a single model or a more limited set of universal features across all models? Seems like a no-brainer choice to me.

At the same time, touchscreens have become the norm. A portion of the users, about to get introduced to PebbleOS, probably expect these watches to feature it, just because that's all they've ever known. This decision could very well open up a lot more options for future developers. It short: this had to be audience tested either way.

Depending on how impactful these “complications” end up being — and how much the community starts creatively engaging with the concept — they may very well end up playing a notable part in a purchasing decision, which would make things a bit complicated. What impact that would have from there on out, only time will tell.

But I still hope to get my toggle (and I'm fairly confident that if it's no there at launch, someone will mod it in either way).

The dreaded Disclaimer

So, imagine you’re one of the tons of people out there, who is an Apple fan that has an iPhone 16, and you decide to invest in a new PebbleOS watch. Great! You go to order, but you can’t help but notice this:

The disclaimer that Apple fans have to accept when pre-ordering a Core PebbleOS smartwatch

A special disclaimer for iPhone users on the Core store. | Image credit — repebble

So, what is this about? Well, to be honest, I can’t blame Core Devices for putting this on there. As a consumer, it would make total sense for you to expect equal functionality of a smartwatch, regardless of the phone it is paired with. Sadly, that’s not the world we live in.

Have you ever tried to use a Galaxy Watch with an iPhone? If you have, then you would have noticed that a lot of the features don’t work properly, if available at all. This is essentially what the Repebble team is hinting at here: they can’t be held accountable if Apple decides to prohibit the new-age Pebble watches from working as intended, as that’s simply out of their scope.

But let’s not point a finger solely at Apple, as Samsung has also done similar things in the past. Some Galaxy devices have extra features enabled only when paired with a Galaxy phone, for example. What I’m trying to say is that this isn’t anything new in the tech world, but it’s also important to realize that it’s a complex matter.

I’m sure that the Core team would love nothing more than for its watches to function great on all platforms, and hopefully: that will end up being the case. And in case this got lost in translation: a dedicated iOS app is coming, don’t worry.

By the way, speaking of…

We’re getting a new, official Pebble app!

This is huge, and a big reason why I’m excited to begin with. I know, I know: everything has apps nowadays, so what’s the big deal? Well, essentially: the old Pebble app is, well, old. And modern Android versions don’t trust it as much, especially now that it has been modded.

Don’t get me wrong: the app is more legit than ever, thanks to the outstanding and dedicated community that kept Pebble going throughout the years. Here’s the funny thing: Google owns Pebble, and some Google employees have historically worked along with the Pebble community in order to stabilize the app. Despite that, though, the Android team couldn’t make an exception, which makes no sense to me, but I digress.

In short: If you want to install the Pebble app today, you better start familiarizing yourself with injecting APKs into Android. It’s not a complex process, but it is annoying all the same, which is why I opted to not do so when I got my new OnePlus 13. Which also meant that I put my three Pebble watches into storage.

But on to the good news then: soon I’ll have a reason to bring them out . I hope. A new Pebble app is coming — this much we know for sure from the announcement blog post — both for Android and iOS. What we don’t know for a fact, however, is if it will be compatible with the old Pebble hardware too.

It has to be, right? It’s communicating with the same PebbleOS operating system, but installed on a newer generation of hardware. Also, all previously published watchfaces and apps, compatible with previous Pebble watches, are confirmed to be compatible with the new Core smartwatches too.

I get it: the new watches are the priority. But I’m also certain that a huge portion of the community is waiting for this confirmation. Me included, if not obvious, so I hope we get it soon.

Something loosely related, by the way: a lot of said “previously published watchfaces and apps” are designed for smaller screens, so they might not all work as intended on the new hardware. Core Devices aren’t shying away from admitting that, but they also suggest that devs go back to introduce updates. That’s optimistic, but also a bit unrealistic from my point of view: a large chunk of these have been released years ago, and their devs have probably long since moved on to greener pastures. Here’s to hoping that most of the coolest ones get updated!

The community is split on the design

An image displaying variants of the never-released Pebble Time Steel 2

What would've been the Pebble Time Steel 2. | Image credit — Kickstarter

While Pebble fans are excited that we’re finally getting new watches, a lot of them are also displeased with the design of the Core Time 2 in particular. More specifically: fans really wanted it to look closer to the original renders for the Pebble Time Steel 2.

Before the announcement today of the new watches i had zero expectations of a Time Steel 2 lookalike. But i must admit that when i saw the Core Time 2 having the same display as the Time Steel 2 would've had, i was a bit dissapointed that it didn't have the Time Steel 2's body too. Eric tells us that this is all a labour of love, and seing the Core Time 2 using the Time Steel 2's display i would've been ecstatic to see some love towards the rest of the Time Steel 2's design.

— Reddit, March 2025

Now, the Pebble 2 is a funny watch in a sense that it’s like Schrödinger's cat: it got made, but never got released. In short:

It got successfully crowdfunded just before FitBit bought off Pebble
Some Pebble 2 models exist out there in the wild, in working condition no less, but the model was never officially released or sold
We’ve got renders and allegedly official images of the Pebble Time Steel 2 too, but this one probably never saw the light of day in any meaningful way

So what’s the issue? Well, the Core Time 2 looks a lot closer to the Pebble Watch 2 instead of the Pebble Time Steel 2, and fans aren’t happy. During an AMA with company founder Eric, he stated the reason plain and simple: he just liked the look of the Pebble Watch 2 more.

I’ll be honest: I think that this is a meaningful shift. Both models look as if they pertain to the same series — convoluted names and uneven features sets aside — and this is especially important when launching a new product.

The original Pebble Time Steel is one of my all-time favorite watches, so I would’ve loved to see a model more closely resembling it. But hey: we might still get one later down the line, if this first batch of Core PebbleOS watches are successful.

Pebble lives on: form and spirit

An overview of the Core 2 Duo and Time 2 PebbleOS smartwatches

The two Core smartwatch models. | Image credit — repebble

Once upon a time, I wrote a four-piece story series about finding the perfect smartwatch, and I ultimately settled back with Pebble. And no, it wasn’t just about nostalgia. I’ve kept to that conclusion throughout the years, by the way, and I’ve grown to love Pebble even more: it’s got charm and character that we rarely see in modern tech, and I’m definitely not the only one who feels like we need more of that nowdays.

I can barely wait to get my hands on the new not-Pebble-but-still-totally-Pebble smartwatches, and to be able to wear my old ones again. At the same time I won’t pretend like this is a perfect launch, as outlined above. I do believe, however, that all of it might just be growing pains. Eric has gone in length about lessons learned from Pebble and I hope all of that goes into Core Devices.

A great interview with Eric Migicovsky, explaining how we got here.

But better yet: I hope a lot of you decide to check out these new PebbleOS smartwatches. What I can promise you that in there you’ll find apps and ideas like you’ve never imagined: the kind of stuff that got you excited about tech in the first place. But if that doesn’t convince you: the great screen and multi-week battery life probably will.

In preparation for the new PebbleOS smartwatches, check out the scene with:

The best smartwatches you need to know about right now
The best Android-driven smartwatches in particular
The best smartwatches that won't break the bank (especially useful if you can't wait for the Core smartwatches to release and you need to scratch that itch)

View Full Bio

Stan, also known as Stako, is a smartphone enthusiast who loves exploring the limits of Android customization. His journey with mobile tech began with the Nokia 5110 and evolved with devices like the BlackBerry 9350 Curve and Samsung Galaxy A4. Despite his love for Android, he holds equal respect for Apple, considering the iPhone 4s as a significant milestone in mobile tech. Stan started his writing career early, contributing to MetalWorld, and harbors a passion for creative writing. Beyond smartphones, he's interested in photography, design, composition, and gaming, often preferring solo projects to hone his objective thinking. He's also an avid student of open-source technology and consoles, with a special fondness for the Pebble Watch, Arduboy, and Playdate.