The $225 Pebble Time 2 is a refreshingly fun smartwatch

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The caller $225 Pebble Time 2 smartwatch feels similar a toy, and we mean that successful the champion consciousness of the word. The refreshed mentation of the indie smartwatch brand, rebooted by its archetypal founder, feels casual, fun, and playful, — not similar a mini-computer connected your wrist. Its quirky watchfaces and elemental apps and games springiness it a benignant of hacker energy, portion its carnal buttons, e-paper screen, and agelong artillery beingness supply its retro vibes.

The archetypal happening you’ll announcement astir the caller Pebble Time 2 is that the instrumentality looks thing similar an Apple Watch. Where the Apple Watch has an OLED touchscreen display, the Pebble opts for a colour e-paper screen. Where the Apple Watch comes successful a scope of set types, from sporty straps to high-end metals and leather, the Pebble Time 2 has a silicone ticker band, making it consciousness much similar a Swatch rival than a fancy smartwatch. And alternatively of picking betwixt antithetic aluminum finishes, arsenic with the Apple Watch, the Pebble Time 2 offers a prime of colors: blue, red, silver, oregon achromatic wrapped astir its stainless alloy framework of metallic oregon black.

The watch’s 64-color e-paper surface is ever on, but tin beryllium backlit (via an RGB LED) with a flick of your wrist oregon via taps. Like astir everything connected the watch, you tin customize this, too. (I acceptable excavation to airy up with a azygous pat alternatively of two.)

This show is much muted compared with an Apple Watch’s Retina display, but it’s casual to spot successful agleam sunlight, and the trade-off present means the artillery tin past a agelong time: astir 21 days connected a charge, depending connected use, with a charger included successful the box.

But wherever Pebble truly differentiates itself from different smartwatches is its bundle and especially, its community. The assemblage is truly the crushed the ticker inactive exists astatine each — aft the institution down the archetypal Pebble unopen down.

Pebble’s comeback

Pebble had archetypal begun arsenic a Kickstarter task earlier yet making its mode to Google, by mode of a Fitbit acquisition. Before its exit, the institution sold 2 cardinal watches, generating $230 cardinal successful sales. Even so, its founder, Eric Migicovsky (who has since co-founded the messaging app Beeper), openly shared that Pebble’s financials weren’t capable to prolong the business, which forced the sale.

Fitbit kept the watch’s servers and app store live until mid-2018. After that, the occupation was taken implicit by Pebble’s ain idiosyncratic community, an antithetic amusement of marque loyalty that efficaciously kept the merchandise connected beingness enactment for free.

Then, successful 2025, Migicovsky, with the assistance of immoderate ex-Pebblers and Fitbit folks astatine Google, convinced the tech elephantine to open source the archetypal Pebble operating system. This made it imaginable for him to instrumentality different ace astatine gathering Pebble watches nether his caller company, Core Devices.

Core Devices has since shipped a constricted variation Pebble 2 Duo watch, and has present sold much than 25,000 of its Pebble Time 2 watches across 93 countries. Its 3rd device, the Pebble Round 2, is expected to statesman shipping successful September.

While Migicovsky hopes the do-over volition springiness him a accidental to close the mistakes of the past, what hasn’t been near down is Pebble’s spirit.

Watchfaces! So galore watchfaces!

Still precise overmuch sustained by its hacker community, the instrumentality already ships with implicit 2,120 ticker faces and apps built by Pebble developers, including implicit 500 caller ones from a spring developer contest. This is wherever things commencement to get fun. Since the archetypal happening galore radical bash is customize their ticker face, this large, whimsical enactment showcases the community’s playful vibes.

Using the Pebble companion mobile app, you tin take from elemental analog oregon integer displays, if you choose, oregon you tin prime from those featuring silly characters, similar cartoon dogs, cats, oregon axolotls; assorted backgrounds and scenes; pixelated retro displays; giant, brightly colored numbers; substance shown styled successful originative fonts, similar those from comic books oregon sci-fi; and more.

You tin acceptable the surface to beryllium a favourite meme, similar Nyan Cat, oregon to a ticker look involving characters from classical video games similar Mario, Kirby, Pokémon, and more. (Don’t inquire astir the licensing — conscionable bask it portion it lasts.)

Apps & Games

Despite a overmuch smaller idiosyncratic basal than the Apple Watch, the Pebble app store is afloat of originative and often niche applications crossed categories similar wellness and fitness, games, tools and utilities, remotes, and others. There are galore utile tools present — timers, Spotify controls, upwind apps, to-do lists, calculators, navigation aids, banal trackers, Strava enactment trackers, medicine reminders, wellness apps, calendars, and galore fun, often retro-inspired, games.

What’s unthinkable astir the enactment is that galore of these were created by individuals who simply wanted an app for a circumstantial purpose, truthful they built it themselves. That could beryllium an app for tracking a section bid schedule, oregon their tennis score, their Claude AI usage, erstwhile to use much sunscreen, oregon a 1000 different things that would ne'er marque consciousness for an indie developer to physique arsenic a business.

There are besides newer AI-powered apps for those who privation entree to a chatbot oregon cause connected their wrist.

There are galore playful apps, too, similar the PebbleGoBrrrr app that tells clip by vibrating the watch, oregon 1 wherever you tin whack a mole for fun. (I don’t know, wherefore not?). Among the most fashionable apps is the self-described “pointless” Pixelminer game, wherever your small quality mines for treasure. Another fashionable instauration offers a FitCat virtual favored and enactment tracker.

There’s adjacent an app you tin use to marque different apps.

If there’s immoderate ailment to beryllium made here, it’s that there’s astir excessively overmuch to explore. The Pebble app store could payment from much hunt and find tools, akin to Apple’s App Store — subcategories, lists, editorial selections, oregon personalized recommendations. You could walk hours, weeks, oregon months browsing the app store and inactive find caller things.

All the basics, too

However, adjacent if you utilized the Pebble Time 2 without installing other apps, the ticker itself is inactive precise functional. It mirrors the notifications sent to your phone, which you tin individually toggle connected and disconnected successful the Pebble companion app. Plus, you tin power your euphony playing connected your phone, acceptable alarms and timers, and more. While the app doesn’t marketplace itself arsenic a fittingness tracker, it does connection immoderate basal functions, similar tracking steps, sleep, and bosom rate.

The ticker besides offers a classical Pebble diagnostic known arsenic the timeline, accessed by the down fastener connected the close side. This lets you scroll done your day, including past and upcoming calendar events, reminders, weather, and pins added by different apps. It’s an at-a-glance look astatine what you person coming up next, which comes successful handy.

The Pebble Time 2’s buttons are intuitive to use. The ticker comes with 4 buttons, much than you’ll find connected the Apple Watch, but they marque sense. The apical fastener is the up button, the bottommost 1 is down, and the mediate is select. The fastener connected the near broadside of the ticker is back. What’s more, you tin customize immoderate fastener to motorboat a favourite app with a pat oregon agelong press. (By default, a agelong property connected the backmost fastener launches Quiet Time, which silences your notifications.)

Further specs are available connected Migicovsky’s blog. Note that the ticker has immoderate h2o absorption — 30 m / 3 ATM — which means it tin grip mundane h2o vulnerability similar rainfall oregon handwashing, but don’t spell swimming oregon diving with it.

Being little connected: a perk oregon a problem?

Where the ticker falls abbreviated is chiefly successful areas the institution can’t control, similar its compatibility with iOS. Apple’s rules restrict the ticker from being capable to bash galore things, similar taking actions connected notifications, responding to texts, oregon making assorted iOS apps enactment with the watch. That means adjacent basal features, similar your regular alarms, won’t sync implicit automatically to the Pebble — you’ll person to acceptable them up straight connected the ticker itself.

But there’s a metallic lining to this. Because Pebble is much limited, it doesn’t go different happening you person to wage attraction to and prosecute with. You tin enactment connected without feeling an work to instantly respond oregon instrumentality immoderate benignant of action. Though it took immoderate adjustment, I’ll admit, aft a portion I recovered it easier to simply glimpse astatine the ticker and look distant without feeling the tug to bash something.

What’s worthy watching present is wherever this spell next. The institution ships caller firmware each fewer weeks and updates its companion mobile app. It’s been adding caller APIs and different improvements aft launch, and inactive plans to adhd features successful the future, similar enabling the 2nd mic for sound cancellation.

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