Smartwatches have turn into well being devices. During the last 5 years or so, Apple, Garmin, Google, Samsung, and virtually each different firm desirous to strap their wares to your wrist have emphasised train integrations, sleep monitoring, hypertension monitoring, and extra. The most costly amongst these units are additionally satellite tv for pc communicators, as a result of now that you’ve got a smartwatch, you’re absolutely so lively that you just can’t be contained by cell towers.
These are the options which have made smartwatches profitable. They’re additionally not remotely what I’m on the lookout for in a wearable. I need a smartwatch that tells the time. I need a watch that helps me all through the day, whether or not by delivering essential notifications or serving to me do small duties with out taking out my cellphone. I need some well being and health stuff, certain, however I don’t want something greater than a step counter and an alarm clock that buzzes my wrist as a substitute of blaring. I need a watch that’s good, not a health accent.
The Pebble 2 Duo virtually ticks all of my bins. It’s a $149 smartwatch with an E Ink show that exhibits the time, on a regular basis. Its battery lasts almost a month. It buzzes my wrist with notifications and provides me a number of management over what buzzes. It does very (very) fundamental health monitoring. It’s skinny and light-weight sufficient that I infrequently give it some thought. It’s not my favourite watch to take a look at, and it lacks a number of the polish and particulars you’d get on an Apple Watch or a Garmin (for at the very least twice the value). The primary Pebble in almost a decade isn’t excellent, and it doesn’t technically do all that a lot, however it’s a powerful exhibiting for an concept from a decade in the past.
Fast Pebble historical past lesson, in case the identify rings a bell: the corporate launched in 2012, with a then-record $10 million Kickstarter marketing campaign. It predated the Apple Watch by virtually three years, and was one of many first actually good smartwatches. Pebble shipped extra units, grew a bunch, finally didn’t develop quick sufficient, bumped into hassle, tried to pivot, and offered to Fitbit in 2016. Fitbit offered to Google in 2021, and the entire Pebble universe went dormant, save for a gaggle of dedicated customers and builders in a neighborhood known as Rebble.
Eric Migicovsky, the unique founding father of Pebble, went on to different issues however by no means stopped caring about Pebble, or sporting his personal watch. Initially of this yr, he received Google to agree to open-source the Pebble’s working system, which meant that Migicovsky or anybody else may construct new {hardware} working Pebble software program. Migicovsky began a brand new firm known as Core Units to just do that. He’s been clear from the start that his aim is to not reinvent the Pebble for 2025, or to make the Pebble what it ought to have all the time been. He simply needed to make extra Pebbles.
The Pebble 2 Duo is the spitting picture of the Pebble 2, a tool launched in 2016. (It’s even utilizing actually a number of the identical components, which Migicovsky says have been nonetheless simply in a warehouse someplace in China.) Similar black-and-white, 1.2-inch e-paper display screen, encased in a blocky piece of polycarbonate that appears extra like one thing by Fisher Value than by Patek Philippe. I don’t significantly take care of the type, and I undoubtedly want I’d gotten the refined black mannequin as a substitute of the intense white. Pebble has all the time had a really particular retro-tech aesthetic, from its {hardware} to its software program, and the look is simply not my cup of tea. Fortunately, you’ll be able to change it considerably to your liking as a result of the two Duo matches any customary 22mm band, along with the silicone one it ships with. I hooked up a material NATO strap I purchased for a couple of dollars on Amazon. It matches and works nice.
There’s just one new {hardware} “characteristic” to talk of right here, a small speaker, however I’ve nothing to inform you about it as a result of it’s not but enabled. The thought appears to be to pair it with the microphone and allow you to have voice chats with AI bots, or perhaps have notifications learn aloud. For now, you should utilize the microphone to reply to texts (however solely when you have an Android cellphone — iOS doesn’t permit third-party watches to try this) or situation instructions to Claude through the app within the Pebble Retailer, however not a lot else.
Past that, there are solely a few small adjustments, like a sturdier set of buttons on the edges that I’ve discovered to be somewhat stickier than I’d like, however which Migicovsky says will last more than earlier than. A lot of the watch’s different upgrades are simply issues which have improved in a decade of technological progress, just like the extra environment friendly Bluetooth chips that make the battery last more. (Core quotes 30-day battery life, however mine has been extra like three weeks. Nonetheless actually good!)
After a couple of weeks with the two Duo, I’ve discovered it helpful for a handful of issues. The primary is telling the time, which isn’t all the time a smartwatch’s sturdy go well with! Between the low-power display screen and the lengthy battery life, this factor simply has an excellent monitor report of exhibiting me the time after I look. There are literally thousands of watch faces within the Pebble Retailer, most of that are hideous, however a few of that are enjoyable and pleasant. The display screen is straightforward to see in daylight and its backlight doesn’t blare tremendous brilliant at the hours of darkness. It’s straightforward to set alarms and timers. (Solely one after the other, although, so far as I can inform.) It’s a straightforwardly good watch in a method most smartwatches merely will not be. I additionally actually just like the Timeline view, which simply exhibits a scrollable record of my upcoming calendar occasions. That matches proper with the “assist me navigate my day” job for a smartwatch.
You possibly can elect to ship all of your cellphone’s notifications to your wrist, flip them off fully, or select app by app. I turned off all however crucial few, and now get buzzed just for texts and cellphone calls I care about. If I’m sporting headphones and get a name, I’ll typically click on the center button to just accept the decision from my wrist, which is less complicated than reaching for my cellphone. I may use the Pebble’s buttons to navigate no matter music or podcast I’m listening to, which may be my most-used characteristic — I respect simply mashing the underside button to skip tracks as a substitute of attempting to find my cellphone and even having to look down at my Apple Watch’s display screen.
You deal with many of the preliminary Pebble setup and all of the app and watchface upkeep within the Pebble companion app for iOS and Android. As common, you’ll get extra out of a Pebble with an Android cellphone, which may join extra deeply to third-party watches. However I don’t assume iOS customers are lacking a lot: I put in a bunch of apps from the Pebble Retailer, pondering I’d spend a bunch of time poking on the watch, however in the end the one one I truly ever use is a step tracker known as Misfit. Usually, the two Duo simply isn’t meant to be used all that a lot. Scrolling up and down with the buttons is sort of annoying, the display screen is fairly gradual, and it’s simply not a lot enjoyable to play with. That’s high-quality. I prefer it significantly better as a fast info supply device.
This set of options appears about proper for me. Sure, Pebble affords a vastly much less bold, much less spectacular, and albeit much less engaging system than simply about any smartwatch you’d discover from the Garmins and Googles and Apples of the world. However even after a decade of utilizing these watches, I’m not almost lively sufficient to want or care about most of what these units supply. What I want is a tool that helps me by my day, and helps me do issues with out my cellphone.
For those who do care concerning the health and well being stuff, although, the two Duo at the very least nods at a number of the options you may want. It has a exercise app that tries, in my expertise principally in useless, to routinely guess once you’re figuring out. There are some sleep monitoring apps within the Pebble app retailer, too; I like one known as Morpheuz, which affords fairly mediocre sleep knowledge however does have a sensible alarm characteristic that tries to wake you up at least jarring second. You completely shouldn’t purchase a Pebble for those who care primarily about well being options, however these are sufficient for me.
I purchased the two Duo to get into the earliest doable cargo of Pebbles, so I’m caught with this one. However If I have been you, I’d maintain out for the upcoming $225 Time 2, which has a bunch of interesting upgrades on the two Duo, together with a full-color touchscreen, a coronary heart charge monitor, and a nicer metal case. It’s supposedly delivery quickly, although Pebble’s ship instances have been far and wide. Regardless of the case, although, I’m simply joyful to see the Pebble concept again available on the market. Whereas the remainder of the trade has converged on varied ranges of health monitoring and self-quantification, the Pebble nonetheless looks like a watch. Just a bit smarter.