Pebble smartwatch was introduced in 2012 on Kickstarter. The Bluetooth smartwatch came with an E-Paper display, would connect to your Android smartphone or iPhone to receive notifications or other info, and the company also released an SDK for further customization. It was quite popular at the time having sold over one million units, the Pebble Time followed in 2015 with a color display, as well as other models. But despite selling millions of watches, the company folded in 2016, and the Pebble was discontinued after the intellectual property was purchased by Fitbit.
Watchy is a new smartwatch that reminds me of the original pebble. It is based on ESP32 WiFi & Bluetooth SoC, equipped with a 1.54-inch E-Paper display with 200×200 resolution, and the usual accelerometer for activity tracking and gesture detection.
Watchy key features and specifications:
- SIP – Espressif Systems ESP32-PICO-D4 system-in-package with ESP32 dual-core processor with Bluetooth LE 4.2/5.x and WiFi 4 connectivity, 4MB SPI flash
- Display – 1.54-inch E-Paper display with 200×200 resolution and wide viewing angle
- USB – 1x Micro USB port for power and programming
- Sensor – BMA423 3-Axis accelerometer for gesture detection, activity tracking
- Misc – DS3231 Real-Time Clock, vibration motor, 4x tactile buttons
- Battery – 200 mAh battery good for 5-7 days for timekeeping (no WiFi), or 2 to 3 days with a WiFi connection.
- OSHW certification – US000936
Watchy sells as a kit with a fully assembled Watchy PCB, the E-Paper display, a 200mAh Battery, two adhesive tapes, and a watch strap.
The smartwatch is open-source hardware & software with documentation, KiCad hardware design files, 3D Case Designs (STLs), and plenty of examples and watch faces on either the product page or Github released under an MIT license. The watch is said to support Arduino, MicroPython, and the ESP-IDF framework.
Watchy used to sold by SQFMI on Tindie for a low as $44.99 but sadly is currently out of stock, and instead, the Watch has now launched on Crowd Supply for $49.99 with free shipping to the US.
This post was initially published on January 19th, and updated on February 4th as Watchy smartwatch is now available through Crowd Supply.
Via Tindie Blog
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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