New PebbleOS watches with more battery and familiar looks are up for preorder
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What you're asking for is a Sony wena band. It's even got support in Gadgetbridge.
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davidcesarino
Seniorius Lurkius
Same here. I had the OG Pebble, the Time Steel, and the Pebble 2. I would add that the applications could be quite sophisticated as well, minus the interface of course.
As someone who had Pebble apps (not watch faces) published, one of the things I liked about Pebble OS was the simplicity we had for communicating with whatever application you had on your phone. And all that in a very easy to use C interface, I kid you not. I used the C SDK, not JS.
At that time, I had a tides (as in nautical, ocean) application published on the Play Store, and just by forwarding input to and output from the phone, I programmed an entire tides application for the Pebble, complete with place selection, coordinates, height (with color support depending on the height, for the Time series), moon phase, wind speed and direction, wave speed and direction, timezone selection and a few more things. As I remember, the application had at most 300 lines of code, many blank lines (method separation and such). And I remember there were very productive stackoverflow discussions (including by myself).
However, as much as that nerdy nostalgia pours from me, I believe current technology surpassed the Pebble, and nostalgia will probably be the main factor for those buying it again (my personal opinion). I am certainly not going to buy it despite loving its epaper screen.
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They also have a barometer, GPS tracking for runs and bike rides, basic workout tracking, heart rate and sleep monitoring, media control, custom watch faces and more than a week's battery life. All for half the price of these new Pebbles. They're tough as nails too, I've taken them surfing and swimming in the sea for years without them breaking.
Bargain basement Garmins, that's what I call Amazfits.
I've had multiple Pebbles in the past but I think the world has moved on. At least PebbleOS was fun to work on.
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Thanks for mentioning this, I didn't know that was a thing. Now I'm tempted to buy one of these instead.
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I started using my pebble steel again, but I just can't pull the trigger on this one.
If the design was more like the pebble steel, I'd go for it, the one thing I don't like about the OG steel is that the screen is too small.
The final nail in the coffin for me was shipping,"All international shipments will be sent via courier (DHL, Fedex, UPS) with tracking. Be prepared - your country will likely charge you taxes, customs and duties fees".
I refuse to buy from any company that doesn't take care of the paperwork and fee/tax collection. Shipping companies charge exorbitant rates to individuals for "handling" the required paperwork etc. I know there are cheaper ways to get around it, but I really can't be bothered.
If the design was more like the pebble steel, I'd go for it, the one thing I don't like about the OG steel is that the screen is too small.
The final nail in the coffin for me was shipping,"All international shipments will be sent via courier (DHL, Fedex, UPS) with tracking. Be prepared - your country will likely charge you taxes, customs and duties fees".
I refuse to buy from any company that doesn't take care of the paperwork and fee/tax collection. Shipping companies charge exorbitant rates to individuals for "handling" the required paperwork etc. I know there are cheaper ways to get around it, but I really can't be bothered.
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I have purchased two watches since 2011, a Casio (albeit a World Time, not an F-91W) and an Apple Watch. Wearing the Casio never stuck, as much as I like it as an object, but the Apple Watch did, at least when I leave the house.
I agree that one-third of a billion Apple Watches sounds like an awful lot of Apple Watches. I imagine a lot of them have been traded in and recycled, but that's still a mind-boggling number of wrist computers that have been manufactured by a single company.
But then, the F-91W has a lot more competition from other watches, including many from Casio, so it's not exactly a direct comparison.
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Also remember that the ECG reading on the Apple Watch requires touching the crown with a finger from the other hand, and can only ever be the equivalent of a two-lead ECG at that. That is, It's not regularly taking your ECG in the background and it doesn't get the level of detail about the heart that the one the EMTs carry gets.
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My 2022 Amazfit Bip S had 30-40 day battery life along with GPS tracking and step counter and could get notifications but not respond to them (like the latest Pebble). It had a dim, limited color VGA type screen but I felt it was kind of retro like... it was discontinued in 2023 I think due to limited sales as despite some people people saying they want ultra long battery life above all else in their devices, the majority of people choose features as a higher priority (and battery life as a second priority). Hence Apple Watch sells well.. but so does Apple Watch Ultra (feature, better battery life) and Garmin (which have like 7-10 days) and Amazfit has newer more featured models with 7-21 day battery life.
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And that's 30 day life WITH an always-on screen, since it's e-ink. That's a killer feature to me - the time is always visible, like a WATCH is supposed to be, without having to raise my arm, twist my wrist, or push a button.
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When my Pebble Steel stopped taking a charge, I "upgraded" to various sensor watches. I really don't like most of them owing to size, but sleep tracking and heart monitoring has been very useful. I don't need to talk to my watch or have gps or most other "features" other than durability. Sadly, at this price point I can't justify it over my Blackview W60
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I never had a Pebble and don't plan to (I had an Amazfit and now an Apple Watch), but to me the benefits are an always on screen that is easy in the sun at any angle along with battery life (you could boost an Apple Watch display brightness, but battery life would drop), the screen is also not overly bright at night, and hackability (not only load your apps easily, but the OS itself is open-source and changeable).
So as the Pebble founder and the article mention, this isn't really a device for mainstream smartwatch buyers in the same way a Raspberry Pi isn't a device for most computer users.
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I had a Pebble Time till the battery died. I opened it up, replaced the battery, and kept it alive. When it finally died again, I bought another one from ebay. (and by died, I mean the battery was ONLY giving 3-5 days life). It's THAT good.
Since the second Time finally died, I have tried many watches - Amazfits, no-name, and some more expensive ones too. Here's the differences:
1. The Pebbles are far better at BEING A WATCH since they have always-on screens. No weird wrist movements or buttons to just see the time.
2. The notifications were rock solid for me on Android. No other watch I've tried since has worked as well. The layout on the Pebble showed more text from the message than anything else and it just worked.
3. The vibration was way stronger. Even working in a factory I'd feel it. Every watch I've tried since was weak enough that sometimes I miss the notification because I'm doing something where I don't feel it.
4. I don't care about fitness tracking, so all those features are clutter in the menu and a waste of battery life to me.
5. Physical buttons as an interface! You could use it without looking - such as having preset text replies, so when you got a message, you could blindly send back an "im driving" or similar text. Or a quick glance to see the message, and then send an "ok" without having to keep looking at it. You could also set the buttons to do things like music control, again, without looking.
6. The smart alarm!!!!!!! I haven't found another watch that implements this well, and only like 1 or 2 that has it at all. Basically, since it's already tracking your sleep, if you set a smart alarm for 7am, it'll wake you somewhere between 6:30 and 7. If it senses you moving or otherwise being in light sleep, it'll go off then so you're always waking up at a good part of your sleep cycle. Obviously this isn't a feature for the snooze-button hitting crowd, but for me, it was amazing. I felt better every day because of that.
Most smartwatches today are typing to be a second phone. I don't need that; I've already GOT a phone in my pocket. If I want something with lots of features, I'll use that. I want my watch to be simple, reliable, and just do a few things really well.
Needless to say, I ordered. In fact, I ordered one of each model because I didn't want to wait until December to get one! My current Amazfit's days are numbered....
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HuntingManatees
Ars Centurion
Oh, all of the people I knew with Pebbles were giant nerds. Big overlap with Android early adopters, too, back when a Droid was the nerdiest phone you could buy outside Japan.
As far as watches go, probably only the Casio DBC series is any nerdier.
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What you're missing is that what you are interpreting as a lack of features is actually the killer feature. There are a contingent of people who want the basic functionality of a smart watch (displaying the time, notifications, alarms, timer/stopwatch) without all the extraneous "health", "fitness", and other crap that bloat and drain the batteries of most smart watches on the market. I'm one of that contingent, although I missed out on the original Pebble.
I've tried several smart watches: first an Amazfit Bip with a transflective screen, which was my favorite so far. Unfortunately it was poor quality and quickly end up broken. Of course, Amazfit then no longer sold a model with a transflective screen. Then a hybrid Fitbit. Not bad (terrible app though), but despite being rather highly priced (for me) it was also pretty cheap quality and the mechanical hands stopped working after not too long. Now I'm using a hybrid Garmin which is... fine. But despite going through the (terrible) app and disabling about 90% of the "features", I still only get 3 days of battery rather than the promised 7. Realized belatedly that the mechanical hands are also extremely hard to see in anything but very bright environments.
I haven't ordered one of these Re-Pebbles yet, but I'm highly tempted. They aren't the prettiest, sure, but a watch isn't jewelry for me. It's a device that needs to fulfill certain functions well.
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ChocoboGuy
Smack-Fu Master, in training
Other than my current Apple watch, the Pebble was the only other smart watch I loved, and I tried quite a few. If I was still on Android I'd be buying this in a heartbeat.
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I wish them the best of luck as any competition is good. But with my past experience with the Pebble Steel, I'll refrain from buying myself.
My brief story: I pre-ordered the Pebble Steel and was excited to get it. I'm even wearing it in the pictures of me proposing to my wife. But... that watch was nothing but problem after problem. I opened multiple support cases for issues with pairing problems, alert issues, etc. Eventually it failed completely a little over a year after purchase with the primary symptom being a "garbled" screen. Ultimately, the best Pebble support would do is give me a couple good for 25% off any item on their store... or the same discount I could get just buying the watch off Amazon or at Best Buy.
So, I wish them well, but will also issue a word of caution for anybody who wants to be an early adopter.
My brief story: I pre-ordered the Pebble Steel and was excited to get it. I'm even wearing it in the pictures of me proposing to my wife. But... that watch was nothing but problem after problem. I opened multiple support cases for issues with pairing problems, alert issues, etc. Eventually it failed completely a little over a year after purchase with the primary symptom being a "garbled" screen. Ultimately, the best Pebble support would do is give me a couple good for 25% off any item on their store... or the same discount I could get just buying the watch off Amazon or at Best Buy.
So, I wish them well, but will also issue a word of caution for anybody who wants to be an early adopter.
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It's also $350 (plus optional monthly subscription!), and I'm not sure I'd even call it a smartwatch. It does a lot of cool health monitoring things, but has a tiny screen and not even a mention of any type of notifications or normal "smartwatch" features.
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My OG Pebble died the same way. It was a common problem unfortunately. They did replace mine though. I might have been an early victim or something.
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On iPhones, ANCS allows BLE peripherals to receive and react to notifications on the phone without having to develop a companion app. Even if the official Pebble OS does not support it, I'm sure someone will make a 3rd party firmware for it (assuming the watches support flashing custom firmware).
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Several comments mentioned always on watch displays. Recent Samsung Galaxy, Google Pixel and Apple watches offer an always on display option. Of course watches like Pebble, with an e-ink display, offer 30 battery life while the Samsung, Pixel and Apple watches usually need to be charged every day/night or every other day.
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Thanks, that explains it nicely. Still not a product for me, but at least I can see the appeal to some people!
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So I don't think that disagree with what they stated:
The only difference seems like it seems like it could be possible to react to a notification per what you said.
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I was so onboard with this, until I saw the prices. You can get more capable Samsung smartwatches for that price.
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As a deaf person I don't take my watch off my wrist, since it's also my vibrating alarm clock.
I need to know about my doorbell and smoke alarm via a strong vibrate too. Oh and that important video call about family in hospital? Yes please.
Strong and weak customizable vibrate modes and >1week battery life are my #1 buy considerations.
A weak pip of a vibrate for unimportant texts from strangers, through a persistent cacophonic vibrate that requires a Konami code to dismiss (lest my sleepy self mutes an airplane flight wake up alarm)
My old Pebble (Pro?) had such a massively powerful vibrator and I found and app to customize (to an extent).
Back then, I even had THAT konaimi-code-dismiss alarm clock too! No other watch seems to have that. If customizability is good, I may be getting one of these.
This deaf person can live without a lot of features as long as I have a good notifier device (with easy prioritizability) and forever battery life.
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I recently retired my PebbleTime Steel because my Pixel 7a can't run the 32bit apps allowing the watch to connect to my phone. Having to turn on the Pixel 2 XL just to update the time was annoying.
Gave up on "smart" watches. I now wear a Citizen PCAT watch. It charges from light exposure, sets and updates its own time via radio signal, and is a great "lazy" watch that does not require me to do anything.
Before the Time Steel, I had the original Kickstarter version, and received the refund from backing the Time 2. I loved the watches, but charging required cleaning the pogo pins with alcohol because of sweat and I don't miss that.
Gave up on "smart" watches. I now wear a Citizen PCAT watch. It charges from light exposure, sets and updates its own time via radio signal, and is a great "lazy" watch that does not require me to do anything.
Before the Time Steel, I had the original Kickstarter version, and received the refund from backing the Time 2. I loved the watches, but charging required cleaning the pogo pins with alcohol because of sweat and I don't miss that.
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Thanks. That kind of info really should be on the website, the FAQ makes it sound like they are sent from the US.
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Thank you for making this post to say what I wished I could much more of:
Nobody remembers Core 2 Duo?
That's a bold statement.
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As an Apple Watch user, the Pebble seems like it could replace it, but unfortunately it cannot:
- Mirror notifications from my iPhone. I don't mean just iMessage, but also 2-factor authentication stuff too. Just tapping your Apple Watch to answer the 2-factor prompt is really nice. People seem to think that you have to have an equivalent app for the Apple Watch to be able to do this, and it's not true. I can respond to everything from Discord messages to anything I can think of, right from my Apple Watch if I so chose.
- Apple Pay. I just double-tap the button, hold my wrist over the payment terminal and I'm done. I haven't looked too far to see if Pebble has the equivalent of a digital wallet, but Apple Pay is incredibly seamless and well-executed.
This is one of those things that you'd have to try in order to see if you're missing the Apple Watch for anything after you try the Pebble. But more likely than not, you'll notice - oh something's missing that I had before, and it either requires all kinds of workarounds to get it to function the way the Apple Watch just works...or you just decide you can live without that feature.
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Those brokerage fees are killer, agreed. It's crazy - by the time you pay for them, the cost would have added up to the point that you might as well have bought something local, and for cheaper.
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Anything that's medical-grade would have multiple leads and points. Of course there's no way it'll do the equivalent of what they have in the hospital, but it is still something nonetheless. I know reddit haters will jump up and down and insist that "no NO the Apple Watch didn't save you, you would have gone to the doctor anyways".
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That's a nice thought, but if so, I'd rather wait for that someone to develop it. There's a saying that goes "never buy a device for what they promise". In this case it's not a promise but rather something that could potentially happen.
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Yeah it could be possible. But will it happen? That's hard to say. It's a qualified maybe.
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Wow thanks! That’s really cool and exactly what I’m looking for. Unfortunately it looks like it’s discontinued and doubly so, I’m on an iPhone so Gadgetbridge won’t work.
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The payment system is one of the few drawbacks to Garmin's watches. They have their own scheme. It requires you to enter a PIN, which is such a fiddly thing to do on a watch that I don't bother with it. Supposedly you only have to do it once per day (or if the watch is removed from your wrist), but as I rarely do more than one payment a day that doesn't help.
(The other big drawback is price. I have a Fenix 7, with an always-on screen and a 20-day battery life, flash light and much more. I love it, but it cost $700-$1,000 when new.)
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Actually, "really old Intel CPU" was the very first thing that popped into my mind when I saw "Core 2 Duo." Maybe I'm just really old, myself?
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