The $225 Pebble Time 2 smartwatch offers a playful and retro experience, distinguishing itself from competitors like the Apple Watch with its color e-paper screen and long battery life. Rebooted by its original founder, Eric Migicovsky, through his new company Core Devices, the smartwatch emphasizes a casual, fun, and 'hacker' energy.
The device features a 64-color e-paper display that is always on and can be backlit, providing excellent visibility in sunlight while contributing to its extended battery life of approximately 21 days. Unlike the OLED touchscreens of many smartwatches, Pebble's e-paper display and silicone band give it a more toy-like or Swatch-rival feel.
A key differentiator for Pebble is its strong community, which has been instrumental in keeping the brand alive. After the original company's sale to Fitbit and subsequent shutdown, the user community maintained the servers and app store. Migicovsky leveraged an open-sourced original Pebble operating system to relaunch the brand.
The Pebble Time 2 comes with over 2,120 watch faces and apps developed by its community, ranging from whimsical designs featuring memes and game characters to practical tools and utilities. The app store also includes newer AI-powered applications, offering chatbot and agent access on the wrist. Despite its smaller user base compared to major competitors, the app store is noted for its creativity and niche applications.
Basic smartwatch functionalities are also covered, including phone notification mirroring, music controls, alarms, timers, and basic fitness tracking for steps, sleep, and heart rate. The signature Pebble timeline feature allows users to easily scroll through daily events and information. The watch is equipped with four customizable physical buttons for intuitive navigation.
While the Pebble Time 2 offers a unique experience, its compatibility with iOS is restricted by Apple's rules, and its water resistance is limited to everyday exposure, not swimming or diving.
