The founder of Pebble wants to restart the e-paper smartwatch

“We make new Pebble watches” The “Repebble” homepage.

Eight years after Pebble’s time as an upstart maker came to an endMigicovsky says that he works with a small team on “a keeper-like smartwatch in which open source Pebbleos is carried out”. There should be some new functions, but new watches remain “loyal to the core veble vision”. With enough registrations, according to the site, this watch is built.

Pebble, which was introduced in 2012 Success story for hardware crowdfunding. After the relative inexperienced hardware Pebble then got the financing of gaps and the stiff competition of the Apple Watch A only-IP sale to Fitbit in 2016. Google acquired Fitbit in 2021Some original pebbles also win, who then helped, then helped The Rebble project Start replacement web services for the clock and keep the clock running The latest Android telephones.

Keep things easy

Why should someone want to do e-paper watches from 2016 again? A big reason is that Google, which has ran through its in-house pebbles and Rebble volunteers Publishes most of the source code for Pebble’s operating system. A few blobs from a proprietary chipset and Bluetooth stack code are missing, but can be created, if not fully compiled. There is “a non-trivial amount of work to find replacement for these pieces” and bring the years of source code up to date, according to Google’s post-post office. But everyone who wants to make a pebble can can now Use the Pebble code.

With this code, Migicovsky can fight the second reason for a new pebble – nothing has really replaced the original. On his blogMigicovsky defines the core of Pebble’s Appeal: always-on screen, long battery life, a “simple and beautiful user experience”, which deals with useful important essential, physical buttons and “chack bar”, including custom watches.

Migicovsky writes that a small team is concerned with the hardware aspect and does a watch that performs Pebbleos and “basically the same specifications and features as Pebble”, but also with “Fun -New -Saxony”. It is crucial that you take a different way than the original pebble company:

“This time we just keep things. The lessons were drawn last time! I build a small, narrow focused company to make these watches. I do not imagine collecting money from investors or hiring a large team. The focus is on sustainability. I always want to make cool devices and keep Keebble into operation in the future. “

Still no Apple Watch – from Design

ARS Technica asked Migicovsky by email whether modern pebbles had better interoperability with Apple’s iPhones than the original models. “No, even less!” Migicovsky replied and showed up The lawsuit of the Ministry of Justice against Apple in 2024. In this lawsuit it is claimed that Apple has “restricted the functionality of third-party smartwatches” to keep people with Apple watches and, as a result, change less likely to change from iPhones.

The core functionality that Migicovsky described in his contribution was still possible on iOS. Certain extended functions, such as answering notifications with language dictation, can be limited to Android telephones.

Migicovsky’s website and blog does not set a timeline for new hardware. His last major project, the multi-protocol chat app beeperWas Sold to wordpress.com owner Automattic in April 2024 to A lengthy fight with apple About access to his iMessage protocol.

This story originally appeared on Ars Technica.