Rebble

Pebble is a discontinued smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation based in Palo Alto, California that shipped from 2013 to 2016. A brainchild of Eric Migicovsky, funding was conducted through a Kickstarter campaign in 2012. It was the most funded project in Kickstarter history at the time, raising $10.3 million. Pebble watches can be connected to Android and iOS devices to show notifications and messages. An online app store distributed Pebble-compatible apps from many developers including ESPN, Uber, Runkeeper, and GoPro. Pebble has been succeeded by Core Devices, a company founded by Eric Migicovsky manufacturing new PebbleOS devices under the Core name, and continuing software development on the open source PebbleOS project.

A steel-bodied variant to the original Pebble, the Pebble Steel, was announced at CES 2014 and released in February 2014. It had a thinner body, tactile metal buttons, and a Corning Gorilla Glass screen. In 2015, Pebble launched its second generation of smartwatches: the Pebble Time and Time Steel. The devices were similarly funded through Kickstarter, raising $20.3 million from over 75,000 backers and again breaking records for the site.

In December 2016, Pebble officially announced that the company would be shut down, and would no longer manufacture or continue support for any devices, nor honor any existing warranties. The company was sold to Fitbit, and many members of the Pebble staff joined the company. Support for the Pebble app store, online forum, cloud development tool, voice recognition, and voice replies ceased in June 2018, although support for some online services was restored by the unofficial "Rebble" community.

Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, which still owned the rights to Pebble's operating system, brand, and designs. In January 2025, Google announced that the source code that the operating system Pebble smartwatches use, PebbleOS, would be open-sourced with founder Eric Migicovsky also announcing future devices and creating the website RePebble to market and explain the devices. In March 2025, Migicovsky announced new devices would be produced using PebbleOS under the Core Devices brand name.

History

Development

The original Pebble Smartwatch was designed based on a concept by Eric Migicovsky describing a watch that could display messages from a smartphone and select Android devices. Migicovsky successfully took his idea through the Y Combinator business incubator program, and unusually for a startup company at Y Combinator, Migicovsky's business actually generated revenue during the program. Migicovsky was able to raise US$375,000 from angel investors such as Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, but was unable to raise additional funds. Discussing his inability to raise further funds, Migicovsky told the ''Los Angeles Times'', "I wasn't extremely surprised... hardware is much harder to raise money for. We were hoping we could convince some people to our vision, but it didn't work out."

Funding

After raising venture capital for the product under their former name, Allerta (which had already developed and sold the ''inPulse'' smartwatch for BlackBerry devices), the company failed to attract traditional investors under their new Pebble brand name, so the company pursued crowd funding in April 2012.

Migicovsky's company, Pebble Technology, launched a Kickstarter campaign on , with an initial fundraising target of $100,000. Backers spending $115 would receive a Pebble when they became available ($99 for the first 200), effectively pre-ordering the $150 Pebble at a discounted price. Within two hours of going live, the project had met its $100,000 goal, and within six days, the project had become the most funded project in the history of Kickstarter to that point, raising over $4.7 million with 30 days left in the campaign.

On , Pebble Technology announced they were limiting the number of pre-orders. On , funding closed with $10,266,845 pledged by 68,929 people. At the time, the product held the world record for the most money raised for a Kickstarter project.

Production

Pebble worked with consulting firm Dragon Innovation to identify suppliers and manufacturers. After overcoming manufacturing difficulties with the prototype design, Pebble started mass production with Foxlink Group in January 2013, initially producing 15,000 watches per week. Shipping was originally expected to begin in September 2012, but manufacturing difficulties were encountered. The first units began shipping on .

Pebble shipped 300,000 units by , over 400,000 by , 450,000 , 1 million by , and 2 million by December 7, 2017.

Features

Hardware

The watch featured a 144 × 168 pixel black and white memory LCD using an ultra low-power "transflective LCD" manufactured by Sharp; it contained a backlight, vibration motor, magnetometer, ambient light sensors, and three-axis accelerometer. It can communicate with an Android device using both Bluetooth 2.1 and Bluetooth 4.0 (Bluetooth Low Energy) through Stonestreet One's Bluetopia+MFi software stack. Bluetooth 4.0 low energy (LE) was not initially supported, but was later added through a firmware update in November 2013. The watch is charged through a modified USB-cable that attaches magnetically to the watch to maintain water resistance capability, with a reported seven-day battery life. Water-resistance was added during development based on feedback from Kickstarter backers. The Pebble has a waterproof rating of 5 atm, which means it can be submerged down to , and was tested in both fresh and salt water, allowing the user to shower, dive or swim while wearing the watch.

Software

, the Pebble app store contained over 1,000 applications. Applications included notification support for emails, calls, text messages and social media activity; stock prices; activity tracking (movement, sleep, estimates of calories burned); remote controls for smartphones, cameras and home appliances; turn-by-turn directions (using the GPS receiver in a smartphone or tablet); display of RSS or JSON feeds; and hundreds of custom watch faces.

The Pebble was announced to ship with several apps pre-installed, including a cycling app to measure speed, distance, and pace through GPS, and a golf rangefinder app supporting more than 25,000 courses. Not all announced apps were ready when the watch started shipping. CEO Eric Migicovsky announced on January 9, 2013, that updates for the watch's operating system would be released every 2–3 weeks until all features were added.

The Pebble's apps used data received from a connected phone for distance, speed, and range information. More apps were downloadable via a mobile phone or tablet, and a software development kit (SDK) was freely available.

Pebble integrates with Android and iOS phones through a companion app to send notifications to the watch. Messaging and phone call apps were supported, in addition to most 3rd party applications.

The watch's firmware operating system is based on the FreeRTOS kernel and uses Newlib, the STM32 Peripheral Library, the Ragel state machine compiler, and an unnamed UTF-8 Decoder.

Gadgetbridge is an alternative companion application for Android. It is open source, does not require account creation, and supports features such as notifications, music playback and watch application installation/removal.

Linux users can interface with the Pebble using libpebble. This enabled experimental services on several Linux distros including Maemo, the OS used on the Nokia N900. There was also a commercial app called Rockwatch for MeeGo, the OS used by the Nokia N9, that provided services including managing the Pebble's firmware and apps running on the watch.

Pebble SDK

Pebble Technology announced that an open Pebble software development kit (SDK) would be released before shipment of the watches began. A proof-of-concept watchface SDK and documentation were released on April 12, 2013. Eventually, Pebble SDK version 1.0 was released was limited to development for watch faces, simple applications, and games. SDK version 2.0 (later renamed PebbleKit) was released on May 17, 2013, and added support for two-way communication between Pebbles and smartphones running iOS or Android via the AppMessage framework.

, the PebbleKit SDK included APIs to access bluetooth messaging, background workers, the accelerometer, the compass, and supported C and JavaScript (with some limitations) for developing apps. Applications written using the second PebbleKit SDK were not backwards compatible with 1.x apps, and developers were required to port their apps to the second-gen firmware.

Reception

The original Pebble Smartwatch was released to mixed reviews. The design was acclaimed for being innovative.Pebble Watch Review
. Business Insider (April 17, 2013). Retrieved on 2014-01-14. CNET praised the design, readability, and water-resistance of the Pebble Steel, but criticized the limit of eight user-installed apps and the lack of a heart-rate monitor. Later watches in the Pebble series were described similarly: as simple and effective but lacking some features of competitors like the Apple Watch. Some concerns were also expressed by iFixit about build quality and reliability, while also commending the watch's repairability.

Later generations

Pebble Time

On February 24, 2015, Pebble announced the Pebble Time, their second-generation Pebble smartwatch via its Kickstarter campaign.

The Pebble Time Steel is a stainless steel variant of the Pebble Time smartwatch, available in multiple finishes: silver, black or gold with either a leather or steel band. Pebble claims it has a 10-day battery life.

The Pebble Time Round is also made of stainless steel and 2.5d Gorilla Glass with five finishes. Pebble claims it has a 2-day battery life, dramatically decreased because of the shape and size but still significantly longer-lasting than the Apple Watch's 16-hour life.

Hardware

Pebble's second generation comes with various improvements over its predecessors, such as a 64-colour e-paper display with Gorilla Glass a thinner and more ergonomic chassis, plastic casing and a microphone. The Pebble Time retains the seven-day battery life and water resistance found on the previous two Pebble watches. It has a 150mAh battery.

Alongside the Pebble Time Steel, Pebble announced its open hardware platform called "Smartstraps". This lets developers develop new third-party straps that connects to a special port at the back of the watch and can add new features like GPS, heart rate monitors, extended battery life and other things to the watch. This new platform prevents smartwatch bloat and making the watch bulky like most of its competitors' smartwatches.

Software

The Pebble Time also included a new interface designed around a timeline, which is similar to what was found in Google Now on Android Wear. In December 2015, all remaining Pebbles got a firmware update, enabling support for the timeline and removing the maximum of 8 apps-restriction, letting additional apps load directly from the connected phone. It is backwards compatible with all previous apps and watch faces.

Third parties have created apps for Pebble Time, such as contactless payment (tap to pay).

Funding and records

The Pebble Time retailed for $199. The project reached its Kickstarter funding goal of $500,000 in 17 minutes. The project took 49 minutes to reach $1 million, which is a Kickstarter record. The project raised $10.3 million in 48 hours, another Kickstarter record. On March 3, 2015, Pebble Time became the most funded Kickstarter ever with nearly $14 million funded, while having 24 days left in its campaign. At the end of the funding, March 27, 2015, Pebble Time received pledges of $20,338,986 from 78,471 backers.

Pebble 2

Pebble 2, the company's 3rd generation smartwatch, launched on Kickstarter on May 24, 2016, with an offer period of 36 days at discounted introductory pricing, and shipment of the new models anticipated in the October–November 2016 timeframe. Among the new features was a heart rate monitor (On +HR models), microphone, and water resistance rated for 30 m (98 ft) depth, Which was 10m less than the original Pebble because of the Pebble 2's Microphone. Many new features were documented as part of the Kickstarter prospectus, while other technical specifications of the forthcoming products are not yet disclosed.

The Pebble 2 product line added a new device called the Pebble Core, "a tiny wearable computer with Android 5.0" featuring a 3G modem, GPS, and Spotify integration backed by an open development community.
Pebble 2 was officially released in September 2016 with a new design and functions at $129. When Pebble sold parts of its company to Fitbit in late 2016, ''Gizmodo'' criticized the company for collecting $12.8 million in the product's Kickstarter and delaying shipments for half a year without being forthright with their supporters. Kickstarter backers who have not received the product were expected to receive refunds in 2017.

Closing of Pebble

On December 7, 2016, Pebble Technology filed for insolvency with Fitbit acquiring much of the company's assets and some employees. The selling of Pebble brand to Fitbit was credited to Charles River Ventures who invested $15 million in the company in 2013. The purchase excluded Pebble's hardware, as stated by Fitbit. The deal was focused on Pebble's software engineers and testers, and the acquisition of intellectual property such as the Pebble watch's operating system, watch apps, cloud services, and its patents.

Further clarification on the transition timeline and efforts to render Pebble OS and its watchfaces/apps more self-sufficient was posted to the Pebble Dev Blog on December 14, 2016.

Fitbit paid $23 million for Pebble's intellectual property, despite Pebble's debt and other obligations exceeding that. Fitbit did not take on Pebble's debt. The remainder of Pebble's assets, including product inventory and server equipment, was set to be sold off separately. Following the acquisition, Pebble's offices were closed and Fitbit held control over the use of the Pebble brand. The former Pebble engineers were relocated to Fitbit's offices in San Francisco. As a result, Pebble was forced to cancel shipments for its Pebble 2, Time 2, and Pebble Core smartwatches, refunding Kickstarter backers.

Rebble

An unofficial developer group called Rebble was created to extend support for the Pebble watches' online services that were discontinued on June 30, 2018. Pebble users and enthusiasts created the website in December 2016 following the announcement of Pebble's shutdown. Users can switch their devices from the original Pebble web services to the Rebble Web Services to restore some of the lost features; some features, such as weather and dictation require a US$3 monthly subscription to cover the costs.

Open-source

On January 27, 2025, Google announced that the PebbleOS codebase would be open-sourced. Migicovsky announced that a new model was being developed, as of February 3, 2025. Two new watches running PebbleOS were announced on March 18, 2025 under the Core Devices name. The two revealed watches were the Core 2 Duo, a 1.2 inch black and white e-paper display smartwatch inspired by the Pebble 2, and the Core Time 2, a 1.5 inch color e-paper display smartwatch with a touch screen, metal body, and heart rate sensor. Both watches feature step tracking, IPX8 water resistance, and a 30 day battery life.

See also

* Wearable computer

References

External links

*

Rebble.io

"We're bringing Pebble back!"

{{Smartwatch

Kickstarter-funded products
Products introduced in 2013
Products and services discontinued in 2016
Smartwatches
Watch brands
Wearable devices