Pebble’s founder wants to relaunch the e-paper smartwatch for its fans

“We’re making new Pebble watches,” writes original Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky on the “rePebble” launch page.

Eight years after Pebble’s time as an upstart watchmaker came to an end, Migicovsky says that he’s working with a small team on “a Pebble-like smartwatch that runs open source PebbleOS.” There should be some new features, but new watches would stay “true to the core Pebble vision.” With enough signups, the site claims, that watch gets built.

Pebble, launched in 2012, was one of the first smartphone-era smartwatches, selling 2 million models and serving as an early success story for hardware crowdfunding. After the relatively inexperienced hardware firm ran into funding gaps and stiff competition from the Apple Watch, Pebble stopped making its own watches after an IP-only sale to Fitbit in 2016. Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, gaining some original Pebble workers as well, who then helped the Rebble project launch replacement web services for the watch and kept the watch working on the newest Android phones.

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