We have to go back, Kate Eight years later, new but familiar-looking PebbleOS watches appear Shipping in July and December, with far more battery life and newer chips. Kevin Purdy Mar 18, 2025 12:04 pm | 14 Credit: rePebble Credit: rePebble Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreCertain watches can stay just as they are and people will keep buying them. The Casio F-91W, the most-sold watch in the world, keeps the time on a readable display and offers a single daily alarm slot (unless you board-swap it). The Timex Weekender may last as long as mechanical watches exist.What about the Pebble? Is there still room on people's wrists for the most exciting Kickstarter-backed tech of 20122016?Eric Migicovsky, founder of the firm that was perhaps a bit too early to the smartwatch market, has made good on his pledge to find out and has made new Pebble watches available for preorder. The Core 2 Duo, "almost exactly a Pebble 2" with modernized chips, 30 days battery life, and a black-and-white e-paper screen, is $150 at preorder and is scheduled to ship in July. The Core Time 2, Migicovsky's "dream watch," is bigger, color, and metal, and goes for $225 right now. Its release is slated for December. The Core 2 Duo ("short for 'do-over'") is a modern-times Pebble 2 with a black-and-white 1.26-inch e-paper screen, polycarbonate frame, and better buttons. rePebble The Core 2 Duo ("short for 'do-over'") is a modern-times Pebble 2 with a black-and-white 1.26-inch e-paper screen, polycarbonate frame, and better buttons. rePebble The Core Time 2 is the reimagined but faithful Pebble Time 2, with a 1.5-inch 64-color display, mic and speaker, HR sensor, and metal (aluminum) frame and buttons. The Core Time 2 is the reimagined but faithful Pebble Time 2, with a 1.5-inch 64-color display, mic and speaker, HR sensor, and metal (aluminum) frame and buttons.The Core 2 Duo ("short for 'do-over'") is a modern-times Pebble 2 with a black-and-white 1.26-inch e-paper screen, polycarbonate frame, and better buttons. rePebble The Core Time 2 is the reimagined but faithful Pebble Time 2, with a 1.5-inch 64-color display, mic and speaker, HR sensor, and metal (aluminum) frame and buttons.Both watches are sold through the rePebble storein quantities limited by display availability. Migicovsky writes that there are more people signed up for news about the Pebble relaunch than watches available.Both watches run PebbleOS, which Migicovsky and others pushed Google to make open source late last year. Therefore "most of the existing 10,000+ PebbleOS watchfaces and apps will immediately work on these new watches," Migicovsky writes on his blog, with the long-running Rebble store making them easier to get to.Both watches get something like 30-day battery life, largely due to the advances in low-power Bluetooth tech over the last eight years. New to the watches are a speaker (though not one that might necessarily make wrist calls easy) and a linear resonance actuator for stronger vibrations. The Core Time 2 has a touchscreen, the first on a Pebble watch, so its apps can scroll and watchfaces can have interactive complications, but hackers may come up with other uses. Both watches charge with the same magnetic pins as the original models.Migicovsky is wise to note that industrial testing on the Core 2 Duo shows a 30 percent improvement in longevity compared to the original Pebble 2. Mushy, decimated buttons have been the bane of those keeping their Pebbles alive over the long term. The Pebble Time 2 eschews silicone for metal buttons.The blog post ends with a "You shouldn't get one if" section to set expectations. It's a "labour of love" project, so delays and incomplete features can happen. The Pebble is not a GPS sports tracking watch, nor any kind of Apple Watch: "There is NO way for a 3rd party smartwatch to compete with Apple Watch," Migicovsky writes; the reimagined Pebbles will not be able to reply to iOS notifications, among other restrictions.Interested pre-buyers should read the blog post for all the little notes and catches. The Core Time 2, for example, will show original PebbleOS apps and watchfaces with a small border around them, as it cannot scale the original 144-by-168-pixel screens to its 200-by-228 display. Developers can update their apps, however, and a new companion app from rePebble is coming for iOS and Android. There is an optional JTAG connector available for those who want to mess around with the hardware.Kevin PurdySenior Technology ReporterKevin PurdySenior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 14 Comments