- Google is making the code for now-discontinued smartwatch Pebble available to download
- Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky claims to be working on a new smartwatch using PebbleOS
- The smartwatch is still in early development, but will adhere to Pebble’s core tenets
Before the Apple Watch, before the Samsung Galaxy Watch, and before the Google Pixel Watch, there was Pebble. The iconic smartwatch was eventually bought by Fitbit and discontinued in 2016 (and in a cruel twist, the same fate befell many of the best Fitbits after Fitbit was bought by Google), but many users still have fond memories of their Pebbles, and an active community of users are still maintaining functional Pebbles.
Now, it seems like Pebble is ready for a comeback. Google, with no plans to disrupt sales of the Google Pixel Watch 3 and Fitbit’s best fitness trackers, don’t seem to care to release an official Pebble, but they are throwing a bone to the community by preparing to make PebbleOS open source, according to a recent blog post.
For the uninitiated, open source means that anyone will be able to download the source code for Pebble watches, make changes, and publish their versions to the internet for free. This will allow tech-savvy Pebble fans to keep their watches operational – and pave a way for the iconic smartwatch’s return under a new name.
Eric Migicovsky, Pebble’s founder, told TechCrunch that he’s devoted himself full time to creating a new third-party smartwatch. In a blog post on his own website, he writes; “The company behind it failed but millions of Pebbles in the world kept going, many of them still to this day.
“I wear my Pebble every day. It’s been great (and I’m astounded it’s lasted 10 years!), but the time has come for new hardware.”
Migicovsky is the project’s only current full-time employee. Using PebbleOS, the future smartwatch, which will be released under a different name than Pebble, will (according to Migicovsky’s blog post) conform to the following tenets:
- Always-on e-paper screen
- Long battery life
- Simple “and beautiful” UX “around a core set of features [Migicovsky uses] regularly (telling time, notifications, music control, alarms, weather, calendar, sleep/step tracking)”
- Buttons
- Hackable
You can sign up for information on the project at rePebble.com.
Analysis: Migicovsky’s perfect watch
Migicovsky’s ideal watch, on the surface, certainly sounds like one I’d wear in rotation. I love the memory-in-pixel screen you can get on the best Garmin watches and other digital watch-style aesthetics, so the e-paper screen with minimal distractions, long battery life and physical buttons are music to my ears.
With watches reaching a sort of inflection point, I believe we’ve already hit ‘peak smartwatch’ and future models are going to look more and more similar from hereon out. A back-to-basics, open source approach sounds like the breath of fresh air this form factor needs. What’s old is new again.
However, I’m acutely aware the project isn’t really off the ground yet, and may never come to fruition. The smartwatch industry has moved on from Pebble, and as much as some users might see it as a welcome change, there’s every chance most users will be too comfortable with their pre-existing watches to give an upstart any time of day. We’ll continue reporting on the new Pebble as new information comes to light.