Eric Migicovsky, the founder of Pebble, the once-defunct and since revived wearables company (now called Core Devices), is making his low-fi, low-stakes smartwatches for Eric Migicovsky—or, at least, people who also just want anything but yet another Apple Watch.
“Apple makes it incredibly difficult for third-party devices to interact with things like iMessage or Siri or any of the built-in features on iOS,” Migicovsky told Gizmodo in a freewheeling video interview. “And that sucks. That sucks for competition. That sucks for innovation. That sucks for price.” Pebble isn’t like the Apple Watch or Google Wear OS smartwatches you find today. Its hacker-friendly wearables aren’t trying to fix an industry; they’re just an alternative for people—like Migicovsky—who want a long-lasting phone-connected wrist computer. The company’s founder described the main tenets of the Pebble’s design. They feature e-paper screens with barebones software meant to handle the minimum of what you expect—checking messages and notifications, mostly (though the Pebble ecosystem is open enough that you can find or create your own use case). They have physical buttons and promise a long battery life. The reason being, Migicovsky personally hates having to routinely remove his smartwatch to charge it. The Pebble Round 2 features a host of custom watch faces, like every other Pebble. © Kyle Barr / Gizmodo Back at its height in 2015, Migicovsky said the original Pebble had around 180 employees. Now his rebooted company, made up of six staff, has launched or is preparing to start shipping four products in a single year. The product lineup includes a black and white Pebble 2 Duo, a color e-paper Pebble Time 2, and an Index 01 smart ring that’s essentially an AI recording device you slip over your finger. The smart ring has a non-rechargeable battery that lasts for approximately two years because Migicovsky despises the idea of having to take it off to charge up. The fourth product is the Pebble Round 2, a sequel to the company’s original rounded smartwatch from a decade ago, which will begin shipping soon.
