The archive · Hardware & Devices · Product decision · 2025–2026
Pebble's 2025 comeback: open-source PebbleOS, $149 Core 2 Duo sells out
Eric Migicovsky relaunched Pebble via Core Devices after Google open-sourced PebbleOS; preorders sold out and 2,960 units shipped by Oct 2025.
Pebble (Core Devices)
What the business is
Relaunches the Pebble smartwatch line — Core 2 Duo, Core Time 2, Round 2 — running open-source PebbleOS, sold only by preorder.
Starting capital：Founder-funded: Migicovsky sold Beeper to Automattic in 2024 and kept the new company his own, with no disclosed VC round (The Verge).
How it started
Migicovsky still wore his 2016 Pebble daily, worried it would eventually stop working. After selling Beeper to Automattic, he asked Google — which owned Pebble's code via Fitbit — to open-source PebbleOS. Google released the firmware on GitHub on 2025-01-27, and Migicovsky started a new company with a RePebble waitlist, planning watches that look, feel, and work like the old Pebbles.
What happened
Preorders opened 2025-03-18 for the $149 Core 2 Duo and $225 Core Time 2; the black Core 2 Duo sold out in days. Core Devices reacquired the Pebble trademark by mid-2025, restoring the original name. It built 200 beta units by June, shipped all Core 2 Duo preorders through July–August, and by early October had produced 2,960 white Pebble 2 Duo units, relaunching the companion app on iOS and Android with the old app catalog.
How it ended up
Still running and shipping: 19,000+ Pebble Time 2 units delivered by July 2026 (330 replaced for defects, ~1.7%), and production of 14,000 preordered Pebble Round 2 units began late July 2026.
Background
In January 2025 Google released PebbleOS to the public on GitHub, and Eric Migicovsky — the founder who sold Pebble to Fitbit in 2016 — started a new company to bring the watch back. His bet was that the product he built the first time was already right: e-paper screen, physical buttons, a month of battery, and nothing more. 'We're building a spiritual clone of Pebble,' he told The Verge, because there wasn't much he wanted to change.
Core Devices opened preorders in March 2025 for the $149 Core 2 Duo and $225 Core Time 2, running the open-source OS. The black Core 2 Duo sold out within days; the company reacquired the Pebble trademark, shipped 200 beta units in June, and produced 2,960 white Pebble 2 Duo units that began shipping in early October 2025 along with a relaunched companion app carrying 2,000 apps and 10,000 watch faces.
The company is deliberately small. Migicovsky attributes the original Pebble's failure in part to taking too much venture money and letting it change the company, so the new venture is founder-funded, preorder-only, and community-driven, with old Pebble Time and Pebble 2 hardware kept working by the new app.
By July 2026 Core Devices had shipped more than 19,000 Pebble Time 2 units and started production on 14,000 preordered Round 2 watches — evidence that a deliberately simple, open, niche device can still find an audience a decade after the original line was discontinued.
What has to be true
- An open-sourced operating system plus a surviving community (Rebble, an active subreddit, and a legacy app library) gave the relaunch a ready-made moat no new hardware startup could buy.
- Selling only by preorder in limited batches let Core Devices fund production from customer money instead of VC, directly reversing what Migicovsky says broke Pebble 1.0.
- The bet was contrarian against the whole category: no AI gimmicks, no health sensors, no retail launch — just e-paper, buttons, and battery at $149–$225.
- Legacy users kept the brand alive for nearly a decade, so the comeback was demand-pulled rather than supply-pushed.
What can be applied
A niche product can be relaunched cheaply when its core asset — the OS and its community — is freed; staying deliberately small and preorder-funded can be the moat, not the failure.
Aftermath
As of early September 2026 the line is shipping: more than 19,000 Pebble Time 2 units had been delivered by mid-July 2026 (Core Devices replaced 330 defective units, about 1.7%), and production of the 14,000-unit Pebble Round 2 run started in the last week of July. The iOS/Android companion app carries over 2,000 apps and 10,000 watch faces and also works with original Pebble Time and Pebble 2 hardware. The company remains preorder-only with no retail launch and no disclosed VC round.
Sources
- The Pebble smartwatch is making a comeback
- Creator of new Pebble OS watches reveals info about color options, design quirks, and more
- The new Pebble watch's mobile app will also work with some old Pebble watches
- Pebble Smartwatch Comeback Continues With iPhone and Android App Relaunch
- Pebble 针对 Time 2 屏幕裂纹问题作出回应，Pebble Round 2 即将扩大产能
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