Pebble Time 2 Design Reveal [video]
239 comments
·August 13, 2025neom
telesilla
Agreed. I'd kill for a watch that you could hold all notifications until you decided to receive them all, ideally at a slow pace over a period of time. For now, I disable notifications but it's a shame I can't access them when I'm ready to do so. I have hopes for this pebble!
merelysounds
Anecdotally - I also disable most notifications, but this approach works for me.
In my case the notifications that I didn't receive are still in the relevant apps in the form of unread messages, missed calls, or similar; I can look at them later, when I have the time.
Sometimes an app would send a notification that would leave no trace in its app; e.g. a time sensitive reminder. But if the app's design assumes there's no benefit to viewing that notification later, I'm happy to trust it - and this approach acts for me as a natural filter.
bibanez
My Garmin watch on Do Not Disturb accomplishes this. I always forget to look at them though!
modeless
PebbleOS has always had a feature called "Quiet Time" which does the same thing as "Do Not Disturb". Hopefully the new app will also respect the phone's native "Do Not Disturb" setting which has a bunch of nice automation features to e.g. turn on during meetings or at night automatically.
jama211
Does it deliver them at a slow pace after you turn it off?
svachalek
Apple's Focus settings let you set up special allow/deny lists for notifications and the notifications come in when you disable the focus. Unfortunately they don't have separate watch/phone settings on this although you can block apps from being able to notify on watch at all, ever. This is how mine is set, pretty much I only allow watch notifications for navigation, phone calls/DMs from known contacts.
ricardobeat
Apple does this with evening summaries.
tills13
I mean that's the killer app for a watch like Pebble that is at it's core open source.
> a watch that you could hold all notifications until you decided to receive them all
build it. _Even if_ you wouldn't know where to start I think a modern LLM could get you 90% of the way there.
deanc
What is the use-case now in 2025 for an e-ink watch? I have a Garmin Epix pro gen 2 which gets about a month of battery life and has a gorgeous AMOLED, has profiles for pretty much every sport ever invented, incredibly accurate GPS tracking, all day HR-tracking, ECG etc.
I understand it's about 4x the price, but there's also lower-end Garmin's that are about 2x the price with the same screen, slightly less features and similar battery life
KetoManx64
4x the price to start off with, 51x51x15mm size, Only 11 days battery life if you use the always on display according to their site, completely locked down OS and ecosystem that puts you at 100% their mercy when it comes to EOL and updates, no idea what their privacy policy is, but you probably have to accept it if you want to use it and just put up with the fact that all your data, location, heart rate, and everything else is sent and stored and most likely used for training different AI models, and probably getting sold to different companies.
zevon
It's not e-ink but a transreflective LCD.
As to "why": I'm not interested at all in Garmin's sports and health features and their cloud stuff. Pebbles work well, get out of the way and have a nice, friendly and slightly quirky interface. There are many apps and watchfaces out there. As of the new ones, the OS is open source. Reasons enough for me. ;)
JeremyNT
Absolutely.
I likely will continue to use my Garmin watch because I rely heavily on the fitness stuff that they do so well, but outside of that the Garmin is "just OK."
If you want a fitness tracker that is also a smartwatch the Garmin is a great choice. If you want a smartwatch and don't care about fitness tracking then you're wasting a lot of money on stuff you don't care about with Garmin, for just an OK and extremely locked down device.
bornfreddy
What is not e-ink? GP said that Garmin is AMOLED and according to [0] pebbles are e-ink/e-paper. Can you clarify?
Otherwise I agree. I would love an opensource fitness watch though, but I understand why this is not (yet?) possible.
PlatinumHarp
e-ink is not a synonym of e-paper. Reflective LCDs are a type of e-paper.
FrinkleFrankle
I'm still daily driving a Pebble Time. No other company has made a simple, functional smartwatch anywhere in the same league as Pebble.
saltcured
This is off topic, as the Pebble doesn't really aim at a use case I care about. Navigation and tracking of hikes and other daytime outdoor activity is my use case.
Automatic illumination has never worked well for me on any watch. It seems I just don't roll my wrist to view the screen the way other people do, so this heuristic fails badly for me. I often read my watches via ambient light and the light hasn't triggered or comes later after I've already seen what I want. And on the other hand, I get annoyed by false-positives where it just lights up randomly in my peripheral vision. So I often disable the automatic light feature.
So, I enjoy the always-on but passive aspect of a transflective LCD display. It is practical like a conventional watch with physical hands. It works well in bright sunlight, well enough in other decently lit environments, and at least copes with dark via the backlight. I wish it was even more reflective for low light, but the recent LCDs are not bad.
I vastly prefer my Garmin FR255 which seems like the last of its breed. Garmin may have lost me as a repeat buyer with the changing products. I think I'd like their Enduro line, but not at those prices. I don't like many of the compromises of the Instinct line either, but it seems the only option left.
usrusr
Same. Amoled watches feel like TEXT IN ALL CAPS to me, screaming for attention when all they should do is make information available, vs force-feeding data. For attention, there's the vibration buzzer (which I absolutely love, so much more personal than a phone jumping around on the table)
cyberax
> This is off topic, as the Pebble doesn't really aim at a use case I care about. Navigation and tracking of hikes and other daytime outdoor activity is my use case.
I was thinking about that, I like my iWatch logging my hikes.
But then I realized that I always have my phone with me anyway. And I already use a self-hosted track recorder ( https://github.com/Freika/dawarich/ ). So Pebble has one more order from me.
iWatch and the recent Android phones have some nifty features like fall detection and heart rate alarms, but their privacy and the ease of use are deteriorating.
saltcured
I've been satisfied with how well the on watch GPS and barometric sensor are used by Garmin to give clean data, including consistent ascent/descent figures.
This is the main value of the watch to me. I like it as a standalone tool in the wilderness. I am not in the market for a phone peripheral. To me, the phone app is a peripheral to setup/maintain the watch and manage its data. But during hikes they are not connected at all.
I also really like the "course following" navigation on the watch and the customizable data pages. So I can have at my wrist a concise dashboard of timing, distance, elevation, ascent/descent, and upcoming turn guidance as I approach trail junctions. It's there at a glance.
I do also have mapping software on the phone for redundancy and other purposes, but the watch will get me to my destination on its own.
jsbisviewtiful
Garmins are incredibly expensive and not everyone wants a fitness tracker. Garmin's UX is also very disjointed between devices for how expensive they are. Plus, battery life tends to be garbage for smartwatches. I just sold my Apple Watch for a Coros because I was tired of trading battery life for features I didn't want/use and Garmins also require yet another subscription for some features. As someone who just spent the last month deciding on a new fitness wearable, much of the market is full of bloated devices that don't do everything right, but instead do a handful of things right with a laundry list of caveats.
There's still a strong market for dumb watches too, so a long-lasting "smart" device that does some things but not as much as an Apple Watch, Garmin, Coros, etc while still serving as a general information displaying wearable sounded enticing. Unfortunately Apple's lockdown of the iPhone for the previous Pebbles (which I think might still be a thing) and my need for fitness tracking are what prevented me from buying a Pebble.
Pfhortune
> Garmin's UX is also very disjointed between devices for how expensive they are.
Yeah... I bought an Instinct 2S hoping it would scratch the same itch as Pebble, but the UX is really awful.
The Pebble OS UX is really something special because it's so... obviously correct. Vertical menus just a few layers deep. You can set shortcuts on long-press but they aren't required to do the basic functions. It boggles my mind that Garmin cannot make an interface that doesn't require a lot of memorization in remembering all the right buttons to press/hold.
gangstead
I want to join in with a Garmin rant. I also made the switch to a Coros after owning 3 Garmin watches. Each Garmin seemed to last almost exactly 3 years before abruptly dying. Each time I wanted to buy essentially the same watch only to find the new watches had more features and a higher price. The last round the "upgrade" more smart watch features, fewer sport watch features, and less battery life. The lower priced watches were always carefully missing select features that I wanted. I was doing triathlons which I guess Garmin thought they could coerce me into buying separate bike/run/swimming devices or paying 3-4X to get that extra 4mm of screen to show an extra data field. Garmin priced and segmented themselves out of a customer.
The new Pebble is very similar to the Coros Pace but without the GPS but with hackability and that makes me very interested.
gffrd
Are we talking about the same Garmin?
I have an Instinct 2 that cost me under $200 new, goes 2+ weeks between charges, and handles all activities I throw at it quite well.
I agree: their launching of a subscription service is disappointing, because (1) it was wonderful having a no-recurring-cost ecosystem before, and (2) presumably that's where they'll be investing their product dollars. But, it's not required, and to date, it's not particularly high value.
jsbisviewtiful
I looked at the Instinct 3 with Solar because I really wanted the best battery life out there, only to find out Garmin neglected to include topo maps (I wanted a device for hiking and backpacking so that's disappointing) in the Instinct 3 and despite being $400+ the casing is plastic. Odd choices for that price. I feel like the Garmin interfaces are also just... not great. Way too busy for such a small screen. The Coros watch face I'm using right now includes: time, date, day, elevation, steps, calories burned, heart rate and battery level all on a simple, uncrowded and easy to read b&w face... It's called Particular but I can't find a screen shot of it. It's leagues easier to read than what I've seen of Garmin and Apple (which for some reason still has their faces so locked down it's restrictive).
Borealid
For the moment, Gadgetbridge also exists if you want a FOSS app that can deliver much of the same functionality Garmin's own app does.
Karawebnetwork
Personally, I try not to use screens for a few hours before going to bed. Before bedtime, I limit myself to my e-ink book reader.
The idea of having a screen on my wrist doesn't particularly appeal to me.
My partner has one and when they turn over in bed, I am sometimes blinded by the screen which still glows brightly even at the lowest setting in complete darkness.
That's why I'm considering a e-ink watch. The reason I didn't commit yet is that I fear that notifications and such before bedtime could be just as harmful to my nightline peacefulness.
RandomBacon
> notifications and such before bedtime could be just as harmful to my nightline peacefulness.
If you have an Android, you can set Do Not Disturb mode on a schedule.
teekert
“Focus” achieves the same thing for iOS.
51Cards
You may also find interesting that in this release update he mentiones that the backlight LED is now RGB and they are toying with ideas like making the backlight blue light aware at nights, etc.
Karawebnetwork
This would be interesting. I was gifted a Kindle with backlighting recently after my old first generation one broke. The backlight is useless to me because it shines blue, so I just use a candle.
leokennis
Wait an AMOLED with 30 days of battery life?
Why/how can my Apple Watch barely make it through 24 hours?
What’s the fundamental difference between these two smartwatches that accounts for a 30× decrease in battery life?
GloriousKoji
Probably because the Apple Watch is effectively a modern 10 year old smart phone made tiny with an ARM Cortex A series CPU running at nearly 2GHz while the Garmin is a ARM Cortex M series microcontroller doing ~200MHz.
leokennis
And still the Garmin offers much of the same functionality. It seems Apple is wasting 30 × battery life just to be 2 × "nicer" than a Garmin.
deanc
Probably use-case. I only really engage with my watch to check the time and my pulse which I can do with a glance, otherwise the screen is permanently off. The other times are when I'm doing some activity (running, swimming) and GPS is on but for example with running the screen still only shows when I glance at it. Apple still has an enormous amount of room to optimise their hardware and software in this space but I've no idea why they haven't done it yet.
MOARDONGZPLZ
My Garmin doesn’t get 30 days but does routinely get 2 weeks, which is fine with me. The battery life is probably the only reason I have never tried the Apple Watch, and I check every generation to see if there has been an improvement. Even the large sport / epic one only gets pathetic 36 hours. It’s mind boggling how Garmin can be so good at this and Apple cannot.
jerlam
The Apple Watch feels like it's designed as a very small iPhone. It has a lot of unnecessary functionality on-device, like email, a separate iMessage client, and its own Focus settings, which can sync to the iPhone, possibly as a requirement to make the watch operate independently. All these things take up battery power.
Also, Apple sees no benefit having their watches last longer, so they're adding features instead of optimizing them, as long as it hits 18 hours or so.
swat535
Yea I see the Apple Watch an extension of iPhone. It's an accessory that integrates with the ecosystem and offers conveniences. I see it as a different product with different use cases that other competing watches.
For most people, the batter is enough for the day of an average use and they charge it at night with their phones.
I don't know about the Apple Watch Ultra 2 however and how it compares.
fallat
When you feel the 500+ eyes that read this and go "wow".
ezst
Just guessing, maybe Apple doesn't want that, so to not compete in a niche of demanding users with excessively utilitarian needs?
neogodless
Agree with sibling comments, but I think it's a bad choice of comparison.
I'm a Garmin Venu fan, but... apparently it was a $350 watch[0], and now there's a $450 version[1] and an $800 version[2]. There's still an older one[3] available for $250 (or ~$185 on Amazon). Though I got my original Venu "refurbished" for under $100 (and it still had all the plastic wrap, etc. so was truly "like new.")
10-11 day battery when new (mine gets 6-7 days after several years of use, but I have never used always-on-display.)
If I can get a Venu 2/2S/2S Plus/3/3S as a refurbished watch for ~$200-250, then I would go that route over an inexpensive Pebble 2 Time. Love that OLED screen. But I totally get the hacker ethos favoring the Pebble OS over Garmin. (Garmin does have a pretty good watch OS, and most things work without a subscription, which was a major factor in my purchase.) For $450 (or more...) it is not comparable to Pebble's offering.
[0] https://www.techradar.com/reviews/garmin-venu
[1] https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/873008/
legitster
The Pebble battery life is with the display always on.
It's squarely aimed at people who want the watch functionality to be first and foremost - no dorky wrist flicks or the distraction of the screen coming on and off all the time.
dspillett
> The Pebble battery life is with the display always on. … no dorky wrist flicks
My watch display (Garming Fenix 7) is always on and the battery life is great. Any dorky wrist flick or button presses are for the backlight when it is needed.
[Though as others point out, the balance of needs targetted by the two devices differ noticably]
denismi
I've pulled the trigger.
When Pebble died I decided that I'd rather less smart and more battery than more smart and less battery, so I got a Withings watch and have been reasonably happy since.
But this looks really good now and I'm happy to support it even if it doesn't win over my wrist space.
Hopefully they sort out Health Connect support on the Pebble Android app by January so that I can at least sync steps between watches if I'm switching between them.
poniko
Me as well, I have a drawer of watches and I want to use one but the 1-2 day battery life is just a dealbreaker .. 30 days will probably make me care to put it on again after the charge is done.
jama211
I’m always surprised by this, I charge my watch every night when I take it off for bed, I just put it on the magnet snap charger instead of on the wood itself, I’d be taking it off either way. Why is short battery life a deal breaker for people?
apparent
Because one of the best things about wearing a smartwatch is that you can use it as a silent (vibrating) alarm that doesn't wake anyone else up.
I've heard some people say that newer AWs can last indefinitely if you charge only while in the shower. That could be good enough. But I still don't want to have to bring another charge cable with me every time I take a trip. One week is good. Two weeks is great. A month is amazing (partly because after the battery degrades for years, it will still be two weeks).
numpad0
For those confused like I was:
- Pebble 2 Duo: $149, B&W, original Pebble look
- Pebble Time 2: $225, color, new round square look
* both with intended IPX8, 30-day battery, "e-paper" aka gameboy style LCD, suite of sensors, Pebble app compatibilitysteve_adams_86
> new round square look
I really like the term "squircle"
"The new pebble time 2 sports the chic squircle aesthetic"
bowsamic
That sounds way too American
steve_adams_86
Haha, I can't think of anything distinctly American about it. A cursory search suggests it's a word coined by an Austrian architect while he was working in Canada.
tacticalturtle
Did they give up on the “Core” branding?
When I was looking at this a month ago it was the “Core 2 Duo”
https://ericmigi.com/blog/introducing-two-new-pebbleos-watch...
Maybe Intel had a word?
jwi
They recently recovered the 'Pebble' trademark and thus rebranded: https://ericmigi.com/blog/july-pebble-update
xnorswap
And much needed, because to me at least, "Core 2 Duo" is an old Intel processor.
karaterobot
Check out the first 1 minute of the linked video for answers to both of these questions.
nixosbestos
Clicked 6 links, googled stuff, couldn't figure this out. Makes me so, so, so irrationally upset. I do not get it. It's just basics? Thanks for sharing this.
mikepurvis
I’m shocked they think they can get such long battery life with a heart rate monitor running all the time.
swiftcoder
There are a bunch of weird smartwatches that get pretty close to this - for example, the Amazfit Bip S Lite claims 30 days of battery with a similar transflective screen (albeit I think the heart rate monitor drops to once every measuring 5 minutes in battery saver mode).
Similarly, the Withings Scanwatch claims the same, although as a hybrid smartwatch, it is not driving such a power-hungry screen.
user_7832
I had the OG Bip and got extremely close to 3 months at one point. Unfortunately I don't remember if I had the HR set to 5 minute intervals but if it was on, I think that was the setting.
Even with 1 minute intervals though, battery life was absolutely stellar. I'd often lose my charger, and in few days after I saw the battery dropping/low battery alerts, I'd find it too (before the watch died)!
yellingdog
I would expect an extremely infrequent heart rate sample rate at idle. I believe the current-gen watches only sample every 10 minutes unless activity is detected.
tills13
it'll probably pulse on / off. The main draw would be the display but since it's e-ink it only draws when changing.
mikepurvis
I guess so. I've had two previous fitbits and I believe those track every second during exercise and every five minutes otherwise. But those watches would still only get 5-7 days of battery life.
Hence my skepticism that this feature can be offered and still get 4x more life than that.
micromacrofoot
it's e-paper (reflective lcd), so it does draw some power at all times, but lower without an always on backlight
avanai
Man I loved my Pebble but I’d say the three things I use my Apple Watch for most are: telling time (++), reading notifications (~), and getting Siri to set timers or control my Home Assistant* (—-).
Since Apple simply won’t allow 3rd party apps the full api access they need to do everything, I’m stuck with my Apple Watch if I want all the Apple stuff, and I’m too lazy/annoyed to try to switch ecosystems.
*via Apple Home via Homebridge
peterclary
Fellow Home Assistant/Apple Home user here.
You may already be aware, but Apple Home/Siri can talk to Home Assistant directly using https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit/ which is how I have it set up. You can also have HomeKit devices paired directly with an instance of the HomeKit Bridge, or expose devices in your Apple Home to Home Assistant.
Out of interest, what API access are you missing?
mavamaarten
Time to cut out the middle man (Apple / homebridge) and speak to HA directly? I didn't check the capabilities of Pebble, but knowing HA, there's probably a way.
cyberax
HA now supports MCP ( https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/mcp_server/ ), so just connect it directly to one of the assistants.
zevon
There is a (relatively recent, for the Pebble-verse) Home Assistant app on Rebble that works with the current Home Assistant version. You can even do voice control and stuff.
You can also do timers, reminders, web searches and similar basic assistant things with Bobby - another recent addition to what the Pebbles can do: https://rebble.io/2025/03/24/introducing-bobby-our-new-pebbl...
liampulles
Conversely, this argument is a good reminder to me to never brick myself in to the Apple ecosystem by buying their products.
criddell
I love that it doesn't say Pebble on the bezel! I never wanted one before, but now I do. My only issue is that I have pretty small wrists and this watch would likely be too large for me.
modeless
I have one on order and can't wait, but I'm also hoping that they are successful enough to justify developing a successor to the smallest smartwatch ever made (to this day, which is wild), the excellent Pebble Time Round. Which, of course, should be named the Second Time 'Round.
wlesieutre
I ordered one (the screen just fell off my Apple Watch anyway) and if they do another Time Round I'd be tempted to get one of those too.
Had a Pebble Time back when those were new and after using Apple Watch for a while I think it's time to try a return to that minimalism.
kiddico
I absolutely agree on that naming convention lol
RandomBacon
Please Eric, if you are reading this, do not put branding on it where it is visible.
We have enough distractions in our lives that we don't need more advertising pushed in our faces, especially for something we already own.
bjackman
With normal watches, the straps are usually on a standard attachment, they only differ in one dimension (the width of the strap in the axis parallel to your arm) so you just need to find a strap that fits that dimension.
Unclear if Pebble 2 follows that standard but would be worth checking. I'm sure you can find a strap that fits your wrist.
cyprien_g
I remember participating in the crowdfunding for the last Pebble. I was so excited to receive it, and it was great.
But a few months later, the company shut down, along with support for their products, and it was hard to swallow. This, combined with the fact that the buttons on my Pebble started to fall apart less than a year later (which is when the lack of support became problematic), made the experience pretty bad in the end.
But I’m really excited to see Pebble come back to life, and maybe I’ll be a customer of their watches again in the future.
tmchu
Not sure if this will be answered here. But how is the repair-ability of these new pebble? I have the original pebble time steel and although it still run fine, the battery have degraded a lot without an easy way to replace them. Part of the appeal of traditional watches is that you can open them up yourself and fix them if needed. I don't see why Pebble have go glue everything together and make it so hard to repair.
modeless
In the podcast Eric said that in the current design the back is fastened with screws and no adhesive. They may end up having to add some adhesive (presumably for water resistance) but hopefully not.
MortyWaves
Having a real https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequency_illusion moment! Somehow I never knew the word “colorways” existed until a few days ago and now I’m seeing it all over.
__jonas
I wish I could get the specs of the time 2 in the design of the 2 duo, this just looks very generic to me design wise.
The 2 duo is at least a little bit fun aesthetically, but I would like a heart rate monitor if I’m gonna be wearing a smart watch.
fanatic2pope
Forgive my ignorance but I am curious if this be a good alternative for an android user who uses a Fitbit primarily for tracking sleep and heart rate and who would love a more open platform? Would something like this be usable as a reliable replacement or is it more targeted at hobbyists? What apps do pebble users use for tracking things like heart rate, sleep and steps?
aidenn0
My concern with the Pebble Time 2 is the lower contrast that color e-ink has compared to grayscale. I don't know how bad it is in person, but next to the Pebble 2 Duo in the video it looks much worse. If it were B&W I would have bought it immediately.
FirmwareBurner
>My concern with the Pebble Time 2 is the lower contrast that color e-ink has compared to grayscale
That's not eink technology, it's most likely Sharp Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) LCD display, where the difference between BW and color isn't as bad as in eink technology which uses actual pigment particles inside the pixel cells that "cloud" the contrast.
Wowfunhappy
My Pebble 2 definitely had better contrast than my Pebble Time Steel. Not sure if that's still the case with modern screens.
aidenn0
It looked like there was higher contrast on the posted video, but it's very hard to tell what the magnitude is on camera.
colingauvin
They are making a b&w one as well.
aidenn0
Which I preordered. However, the case looks a lot nicer on the PT2 than the P2D, and there's no HRM on the P2D.
Looks great! The very first Pebble was actually instrumental in building digitalocean - I met them at MLH hackathon at CalTech and forced one of the founders to sell me a demo unit- all I used it for was notifications on the digitalocean twitter and outages pushed from slack, I tried to reply to every single tweet at us immediately. A little memento of when I hired Mikeal Rogers: https://s.h4x.club/4guEJN95
Funny, now in 2025, 10 years later, I'm not a fan of smart watches due to their enabling bad habits, think I'll pick up this pebble and leave notifications turned off this time. :)