You can now pre-order the new Pebble Watch, but it’s got a different name

By John McCann Published March 18, 2025

The Pebble Watch has returned, thanks to new company Core Devices setup by Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky. After weeks of teasers the new rePebble store went live on March 18 with two new smartwatches available to pre-order.

There’s new names for the watches, the first of which is the Core 2 Duo with a 1.26-inch black and white display, priced at $149.

Migicovsky says it’s basically an upgraded Pebble 2 with battery life being improved from seven days to a mighty 30 days. Considering many color screen smartwatches need a daily charge, the potential ability to go almost a month between topping up will likely appeal to those interested.

“We also added a speaker, linear actuator motor, compass and barometer, and improved the buttons” Migicovsky says.

The second watch is the Core Time 2 which features a 1.5-inch color display and costs $225. Again this has taken inspiration from an old Pebble watch, the Pebble Time 2.

As Migicovsky explains, additional features over the original Time 2 include “a speaker and touch screen, and boosted battery life.” For Pebble fans, you’ll note the design is a little different between the original and the new Core-branded wearable. That’s because the top glass is flat rather than curved this time around.

The original Pebble Watch arrived on the wearable scene back in 2012 with an e-paper display and chunky design. It smashed its Kickstarter goal, but four years later the company was sold to Fitbit (which Google then went on to acquire) and production on its watches ended.

However, that all changed at the start of this year, when Google made PebbleOS (the software which ran the original Pebble watches) open-source. This allowed Migicovsky to reclaim the operating system and develop the Core wearables we see now.

The new Core 2 Duo is set to start shipping in July 2025, while the Core Time 2 won’t start shipping until December 2025. However, there’s no guarantee you’ll receive your order.

As part of the ordering experiencing you need “understand and acknowledge” a number of caveats;

That’s because Eric is personally funding the project, so there will likely be various milestones which will need to be passed to get physical products into the hands of buyers.

And if you’re an iPhone owners, there’s an additional disclaimer you’ll need to accept before placing your order.