Pebble Founder launches a casual, affordable alternative to Apple Watch with a 30-day battery and custom face

Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky announced plans this year 50 days ago to bring his beloved e-Paper display smartwatch back to the market. Starting today, Pebble fans can pre-order their spiritual successors from the Pebble 2 and Pebble Time 2 smartwatches.

Migicovsky’s new corporate core device is on sale today with the cleverly named Core 2 Duo (Talk in Tech Nostalgia) and the more advanced Core Time 2.

My new company (core device) and I are proud to introduce two new watches that closely track the original Pebble DNA. If you have pebbles and love it or you missed your chance ten years ago, but have heard about it, we think you will really enjoy these new devices.

For those new to Pebble, this e-paper smartwatch features simple features, long battery life and fun and quirky design. It was first released on Kickstarter in 2012. The company was sold to Fitbit in 2016. In January 2025, Google gracefully opened the source Pebbleos, allowing anyone to build on the amazing Pebble Software Foundation.

The more casual core 2 duo costs $149 in either a black or white polycarbonate case paired with a 1.2-inch black and white e-paper screen. Compared to the Pebble 2, the New Core 2 Duo has a “7-30-day battery life”, “speakers, linear actuator motors, compass, barometer”, and improved buttons.

I owned the original Pebble Smartwatch in Black and worshiped it at the time. This new Core 2 Duo version of White calls my name perfectly.

For more advanced smartwatches, the core device offers Core Time 2 for an additional $76. Compared to Pebble Time 2, the core device version adds a touchscreen and built-in speakers. Compared to the Core 2 Duo, it includes a 1.5-inch 64-color E-paper display, heart rate monitoring, metal casings in a variety of colors, and 202 DPI with 176 DPI.

Pre-orders are open today. The $149 Core 2 Duo Watch will begin shipping in July. The $225 Core Time 2 will take a little longer for orders that will ship from December. For more information about his successor, please see here.

evertrendzone take

Compared to the Apple Watch, Pebble and Core Devices products were no more competitors than the wrist. The feature light Apple Watch SE costs around $200 and has improved iPhone integration.

But it’s like comparing Kindle e-readers to iPads. Both are tablets, but they are designed with a variety of goals in mind. The same can be said for the successors of these pebbles. As an OG Pebble fan, it’s great to see the early hardware spirit of this year return.

Even if the Pebble Watch never is for you and you’re completely dedicated to the Apple Watch, having these new watches from your core device will rekindle the imagination and demand for updates on the third-party watch faces of Watchos.