Home
News
You are here

Pebble is back in business (sort of) with two new retro-style smartwatches up for pre-order now

By Adrian Diaconescu

Published: Mar 18, 2025, 12:43 PM

0comments

Wearables

Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 smartwatches with PebbleOS

Before the Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch, most modern Garmin smartwatches, and even Google's Android Wear platform (which has since been renamed Wear OS), a little company called Pebble Technology tried and for a short while succeeded at developing a popular intelligent timepiece.

Unfortunately, that company is now gone, but if you miss the wearable industry's early days (and early designs), a new outfit called Core Devices is basically bringing Pebble back from the dead this year. The Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 smartwatches are not technically Pebble-branded, but they do run open source PebbleOS while looking remarkably similar to the 2016-released Pebble 2 and never-released Pebble Time 2 devices respectively from a cosmetic standpoint.

Do you want an ultra-affordable timepiece with brilliant battery life?

If so, you're in luck. The Core 2 Duo can be pre-ordered today in exchange for just $149 ahead of a shipment start scheduled for July 2025. Should you hurry and secure yourself an early copy of this thing considering that July is still several months away?

Probably, as the budget-friendly wearable is only available in "limited quantities" and this entire Pebble-reviving venture is apparently "personally funded" by Eric Migicovsky, the company's original founder, which means quantities might be really limited.

The Core 2 Duo smartwatch with PebbleOS looks like a major blast from the past. | Image Credit -- Core Devices

Your 150 bucks will buy you a nostalgia-inducing design with a "lightweight" polycarbonate (aka cheap plastic) frame, white and black color options, four handy side buttons, and a not-too-large (but not-too-small either) 1.26-inch black-and-white e-paper display with "always on" functionality.

That screen is quite possibly the Core 2 Duo's key selling point (even though it lacks touch functionality), keeping things simple and frugal enough for the battery to not require charging earlier than 30 days into your "normal" use. That's something very few of the best smartwatches available right now can match or eclipse, although Migicovsky makes it crystal clear that you shouldn't compare this device to an Apple Watch or a "perfectly polished smartwatch."

Among other things, that's because the Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 are also designed to be "hackable", supporting "most of" the existing 10,000+ PebbleOS watchfaces and apps right off the bat while allowing anyone (with a little bit of technical knowledge) to boost that number with relative ease.

How about a touchscreen, a splash of color, and a more premium build?

Yes, the Pebble Core Time 2 adds all of that neat stuff to the Core 2 Duo's features and capabilities, which explains why the price point goes up to $225 and the shipment target to December.

Also up for pre-order today, this bad boy somehow manages to match its little brother's 30-day battery life promise despite expanding the screen to 1.5 inches, bumping up the resolution from 168 x 144 to 228 x 200 pixels, supporting touch interaction, as well as 64 colors.

The Core Time 2 smartwatch with PebbleOS is bigger, more colorful, and more modern, but it's not exactly ready for primetime yet. | Image Credit -- Core Devices

With a metal frame and buttons, the Core Time 2 looks just a bit more "modern" than the rudimentary Core 2 Duo, also adding a speaker to the features of that cancelled Pebble Time 2 from 2017 apart from a bigger battery and a better screen.

While the Core 2 Duo can only keep an eye on a wearer's step count and sleep duration, this costlier and more advanced Core Time 2 model will also monitor your heart rate. There are no words on any other health tracking tools, which is certainly a little disappointing for a $225 smartwatch in (late) 2025, and with the "first prototypes" not finished yet, I wouldn't be shocked if the launch schedule suffered a few changes in the coming months.

Don't be afraid of any potential delays, as you're (obviously) free to cancel your pre-order for a full refund at any time if you're not satisfied with the Core 2 Duo or Core Time 2's development or you simply change your mind.

Adrian, a mobile technology enthusiast since the Nokia 3310 era, has been a dynamic presence in the tech journalism field, contributing to Android Authority, Digital Trends, and Pocketnow before joining PhoneArena in 2018. His expertise spans across various platforms, with a particular fondness for the diversity of the Android ecosystem. Despite the challenges of balancing full-time parenthood with his work, Adrian's passion for tech trends, running, and movies keeps him energized. His commitment to mid-range smartphones has led to an eclectic collection of devices, saved from personal bankruptcy by his preference for 'adequate' over 'overpriced'.