【Secret Confessions (2025) Maid in Heaven Episode 42】

Remember Pebble?Secret Confessions (2025) Maid in Heaven Episode 42 The company made cool, versatile, affordable smartwatches a decade ago, before shutting down in late 2016 and selling most of its assets to Fitbit (which itself was acquired by Google in 2021).

Now, Pebble is back — sort of. Eric Migicovsky, founder of the original Pebble, is restarting the brand with two PebbleOS watches, set to launch later this year. Given that Pebble's intellectual property was sold off, these aren't exactly Pebble watches; Migicovsky's new company is called Core Devices, and these watches are called Core, even though they run the open source PebbleOS.

SEE ALSO: Apple M4 MacBook Air review: A really good deal

First, there's the Core 2 Duo, a $149 watch which is very similar to the old Pebble 2, and has a 1.26-inch, black and white e-paper display, a polycarbonate frame that comes in white or black, water resistance (Migicovsky says he's "targeting" IPX8), step, and sleep tracking. Given that the Pebble 2 is eight years old now, you'd expect some improvements, and indeed, the Core 2 Duo has a 30-day battery life (up from 7 days), a speaker, barometer, compass, and more reliable buttons.

---

You May Also Like

---

---

The $149 Core 2 Duo has a black-and-white, e-paper display. Credit: Core Devices

Then there's the Core Time 2, which has a larger, 1.5-inch e-paper touchscreen display that supports 64 colors. The frame is made out of metal, and the watch will be available in black and white, though Migicovsky says there will "likely" be a third color option as well.

Mashable Light Speed Want more out-of-this world tech, space and science stories? Sign up for Mashable's weekly Light Speed newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Other features include water resistance (again, targeting IPX8), sleep and step tracking, microphone and speaker, and a heart rate monitor. Both watches can run existing Pebble apps and watch faces.

Pre-orders for both devices are open now over at store.rePebble.com; the Core 2 Duo ships in July, while the Core TIme 2 ships in December.

The new PebbleOS watches are platform-agnostic, but there's a bit of bad news for iPhone owners. In a blog post, Migicovsky argued that Apple "restricts Pebble from being awesome with iPhones," and listed a number of limitations Apple imposes on third-party smartwatch makers. These include the inability for a third-party smartwatch to send text messages or iMessages, or reply to notifications. He also says it's "very difficult to enable other iOS apps to work with Pebble," among other issues. Check the blog post for a full list of limitations according to Migicovsky.

The short version of it is that the new Pebble watches will work with iPhones, but fairly poorly. Android users should have a much-better experience. Sorry, Apple-lovers who also want a smartwatch with an e-paper display.

Topics Smartwatches

• Social Good
• Shopping
• Life
• Deals
• Games
• Tech
• Digital Culture
• Science

• Best headphones deal: Save $116 on Sennheiser Momentum 4
• The Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2 are 53% off at Amazon
• ChatGPT internet browsing is back after being disabled for months
• On TikTok, romantic Missed Connections videos thrive
• Chinese scientists have cloned two monkeys to advance human medicine
• Remembering Nabokov as an American Writer
• Look: Richard Brautigan’s Poetry Inspires Techno
• The Wedding of the Painted Doll
• EV sales up 30 percent this year despite Tesla woes
• Is It Possible to Be a Conscientious Travel Writer?

• U.S. Senators call on FTC to investigate the security of drivers' data
• 'Star Wars Outlaws' preview: Fine but forgettable
• Who are the women's gymnastics commentators at the Paris Olympics?
• Dina Asher
• Golf Paris 2024 livestream: Watch live golf for free
• Football Paris 2024 livestream: Watch live football for free
• Victor Wembanyama Paris 2024 livestream: Watch live basketball for free
• Get the Bissell Little Green Machine carpet cleaner for 31% off
• How to install iOS 18.1 developer beta — try Apple Intelligence now
• Best air purifier deal: Save 40% on Govee Mini HEPA Purifier

• Amazon Big Spring Sale 2025: Best Apple deals on iPads, MacBooks, and more still live
• #ReadEverywhere
• The Font of Poetry, the Poetry of Font
• Five Photographs by Ellen Auerbach
• Fyre Festival and Trump’s Language
• You can now play 'Wordle' on a Game Boy
• 2022 Winter Olympics: 10 Olympians to follow on TikTok
• 'No One Will Save You's twisty ending, explained
• A Typical Wall Street Republican
• Rick Moody on Paul Metcalf’s Innovative Novel “Genoa”

• Boeing's new VR simulator immerses astronauts in space training
• Teenage Dream: Four Paintings by Grace Weaver
• Twitter/X removes option to report posts for 'misleading information'
• Read Adam LeFevre’s “Ethics,” A Poem About a Pet Brick
• Get Rid of Windows 10 Ads, Office Offers and Other Annoyances
• Lajos Vajda’s Elaborate, Forbidding Photomontages
• Still Lifes Capture the Evolution of the Watermelon
• Look: Richard Brautigan’s Poetry Inspires Techno
• Diseases from mosquitos and ticks have tripled in the U.S., CDC finds
• Atticus Finch and Naming Your Children