There's A New Pebble Smartwatch Coming – Here's What You Should Expect From It

Contents

It’s official: Pebble smartwatches are coming back

How will the Pebble change in 2025?

Can I still use the original Pebble smartwatches in 2025?

It’s official: Pebble smartwatches are coming back

Earlier this week, Google opened up the source code for Pebble smartwatches to help keep older smartwatches alive, but it also opens the door to so much more. Namely, it’s going to result in new Pebble hardware.

The “Repebble” project was quickly announced as a “reboot” for Pebble smartwatches, with new hardware in the pipeline.

A small team and I are working on a new Pebble-like smartwatch that runs open source PebbleOS, has the same beloved features (plus some fun new stuff), and stays true to the core Pebble vision.

This is exciting, but there are a ton of questions around what’s coming.

We spoke briefly with Eric Migicovsky, the former founder of Pebble and the man leading the effort to build new hardware, to get a sense of what to expect from this revival.

What will a new Pebble look like?

The original Pebble smartwatch is not exactly a looker. The square design was thick, had giant bezels, and really did not stand up well to the test of time. But that’s not to say Pebble never released hardware that looks good today.

The Pebble Time series delivered some stunning timepieces. The standard Time introduced a color display and improved hardware. The Time Steel had a metal design that was a huge improvement over the original Pebble, while the Time Round has a thin and light design that modern smartwatches have yet to replicate.

The Pebble 2, the last product the company shipped before being bought out by Fitbit, was also a huge step forward. While still being made of plastic, the new design was thinner and had a more modern look at, nearly a decade later, looks pretty great. I’m still a huge fan of the black/red color combo Pebble put out, and it’s a device I’ve enjoyed wearing again in the days since this announcement.

According to Eric Migicovsky, the foundation that the Pebble 2 built is what seems to be inspiring this new model. There are a “few options” being considered, but the Pebble 2 is “most likely” the model that this new smartwatch will most closely resemble. That’s great news from a cost perspective too, as Pebble 2 had launched for just $129 back in 2016.

Which Pebble would you want this new watch to be based on?

How will the Pebble change in 2025?

With 10 years between the original Pebble and this new iteration, surely something will change, right? That was one of my other points of curiosity. After all, smartwatches have changed a lot since then, with more advanced features, and a heavy focus on health too.

Late in the game, Pebble started adding heart rate sensors to its wearables, opening the door to health tracking. But what the Pebble could do back in 2016 pales in comparison to what smartwatches can do today. According to Eric, this new Pebble will similarly “keep it simple.”

The goal with this new model in terms of health tracking is to “do the basics well,” Eric explains, adding that “if you want the fancy stuff, get an Apple Watch or [a] Garmin.” That pretty closely aligns with what the Pebble 2 delivered. Step tracking, sleep tracking, and other basic health stats. On a simple smartwatch, that make sense.

Outside of health, how might Pebble OS change?

When I asked Eric about features from newer smartwatches that he might want on a newer Pebble, watch face complications were his first request. “I think they’re really good ways to bubble timely information up,” he said. Complications have been a common part of modern smartwatches, with Apple and Google both heavily relying on stuffing as many complications into their watch faces as possible. Pebble smartwatches could technically do this with select faces, but they were never a focus and weren’t always implemented very well.

When is the new Pebble coming?

While it sounds like the goal is to get these new smartwatches in customers’ hands sometime this year, Eric says there is “no timeline yet” and “lots of work ahead.” Google only opened the source code to Pebble OS earlier this week, so things are only just barely getting started.

Can I still use the original Pebble smartwatches in 2025?

In the meantime, you can still use the original Pebble smartwatches if you want the throwback experience. The hardware and software both hold up surprisingly well after all of these years.

However, getting a Pebble set up in 2025 isn’t as easy as it used to be. Use the guide below for more info.