The Pebble Smartwatch is back with the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 models running PebbleOS open-source firmware

The Pebble Smartwatch was first introduced in 2012 with a black and white e-Paper display, a week of battery life, and an amazingly successful Kickstarter company that raised over 10 million dollars. It was followed by the Pebble Time with a color display in 2015, and the Pebble 2 & Time 2 watches followed in 2016. But then it all went south from there, and Pebble’s assets were purchased by Fitbit in December 2016, all projects were canceled that year, and cloud services were discontinued in June 2018.

Since then, the community has taken over working on the Rebble project to keep existing watches running, and Google acquired Fitbit in 2021. However, the project is slowly coming back to life. First, Google released the source code for the Pebble smartwatches and Pebble’s founder, Eric Migicovsky, and a team of engineers worked on reviving the project which now culminates with the pre-order launch for the new Pebble Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 smartwatches running the open-source PebbleOS firmware by the “Core Devices” company.

Core 2 Duo PebbleOS smartwatch

The Core 2 Duo is meant to be similar to the never-released Pebble 2 with a few improvements.

Core 2 Duo specifications:

• SoC – Nordic nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F @ 64 MHz with 256 KB RAM, 1MB Flash, Bluetooth LE
• Display
  • Always-on 1.26-inch black and white e-paper display with 168×144 resolution
  • 10,000+ Pebble apps and watchfaces supported
• Audio
  • Microphone
  • Speaker with linear resonance actuator (quieter and stronger than the vibrating motor used on earlier designs)
• Sensors – 6-axis IMU, barometer and compass
• Features – Step and sleep tracking
• Misc – 4x buttons
• Battery – 30 days of battery life (instead of just 7 in previous models)
• Dimensions
  • Watch – TBD
  • Standard 22mm watchstrap
• Material –  Lightweight polycarbonate frame (White or Black)
• IP Rating – IPX8 target

Core Time 2 smartwatch

The Core Time 2 is a higher-end model with a larger color e-paper display and a heart rate monitor while still keeping the same 30-day battery life target as the Core 2 Duo. It’s meant to be an upgrade to the Pebble Time 2 that never saw the light of the day.

Core Time 2 specifications:

• SoC – Nordic nRF52840 Arm Cortex-M4F @ 64 MHz with 256 KB RAM, 1MB Flash, Bluetooth LE (TBC. Not specifically listed in the documentation, but I don’t see why they’d change the MCU here…)
• Display
  • Always-on 1.5-inch 64-color e-paper display with 228×200 resolution
  • Flat glass lens
  • Touchscreen
  • 10,000+ Pebble apps and watchfaces supported
• Audio
  • Microphone
  • Speaker with linear resonance actuator
• Sensors – 6-axis IMU, heart rate monitor
• Features – HRM, step and sleep tracking
• Misc – 4x metal buttons
• Battery – 30 days of battery life
• Dimensions
  • Watch – TBD
  • Standard 22mm watchstrap
• Material – Metal frame (White, Black, and probably a third color)
• IP Rating – IPX8 target

Apps, firmware, and pre-orders

Core Devices provides Android and iOS apps which I can’t find, but that’s because they just reuse the original Pebble mobile app for now. You should then be able to load apps and watchfaces from the Rebble store through the mobile app. The company also released the open-source PebbleOS firmware for the watches. Eric Migicovsky provides more technical details about the software and hardware in a blog post.

Pre-orders are open now for both watches. The Core 2 Duo goes for $149 with shipping scheduled to start in July 2025, while the Core Time 2 sells for $225 and is slated for release in December 2025.

Via Liliputing

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