Pebble watches were really cool and then got overtaken in like two years by Samsung and Apple. But for a bit, they were the trendiest name in smartwatches, and I'm really surprised that Google hasn't really done much with the brand since they bought Fitbit which had, in turn, bought Pebble (though I'm sure they've used the code in some stuff under the hood).
Kind of buried in the story here is that Google has opensourced most of PebbleOS. So other folks could also develop hardware for it, not just Migicovsky. That said, I expect the excitement will be around what he does.
I had the original Kickstarter Steel model and later a Time Steel. They both held up for many years and were fantastic but sadly, both died on me eventually.
The Time's UI was too hippie for my taste but the entire device was years ahead of its time, with a week+ battery life and user-developed watch faces and apps. Show me a watch that can do that in 2025.
Still waiting for Pebble to make a comeback after all these years.
Awesome blog on why pebble failed the first time:
The lesson I took from it is that trying to reach a wider audience by changing your product often means diluting your value.
I tweeted at the time that there’s still a market for the original pebble. I’m glad Migicovsky is the one making it.
Great piece, and sadly a too-common story of tech failures. "Growth" is as much a threat as anything to niche tech companies.
that was a very interesting read
Loved my original pebble.