Pebble (watch)
Pebble is a smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation based in Palo Alto, California that shipped from 2013 to 2016. A brainchild of Eric Migicovsky, funding was conducted through a Kickstarter campaign in 2012. It was the most funded project in Kickstarter history at the time, raising $10.3 million. Pebble watches can be connected to Android and iOS devices to show notifications and messages. An online app store distributed Pebble-compatible apps from many developers including ESPN, Uber, Runkeeper, and GoPro. Pebble has been succeeded by Core Devices, a company founded by Eric Migicovsky which began manufacturing new PebbleOS devices under the Pebble name, and continuing software development on the open source PebbleOS project.
A steel-bodied variant to the original Pebble, the Pebble Steel, was announced at CES 2014 and released in February 2014. It had a thinner body, tactile metal buttons, and a Corning Gorilla Glass screen. In 2015, Pebble launched its second generation of smartwatches: the Pebble Time and Time Steel. The devices were similarly funded through Kickstarter, raising $20.3 million from over 75,000 backers and again breaking records for the site.
In December 2016, Pebble officially announced that the company would be shut down, and would no longer manufacture or continue support for any devices, nor honor any existing warranties. The company was sold to Fitbit, and many members of the Pebble staff joined the company. Support for the Pebble app store, online forum, cloud development tool, voice recognition, and voice replies ceased in June 2018, although support for some online services was restored by the unofficial "Rebble" community.
Google acquired Fitbit in 2021, which still owned the rights to Pebble's operating system, brand, and designs. In January 2025, Google announced that the source code that the operating system Pebble smartwatches use, PebbleOS, would be open-sourced with founder Eric Migicovsky also announcing future devices and creating the website RePebble to market and explain the devices. In March 2025, Migicovsky announced new devices would be produced using PebbleOS by his new company, Core Devices. In July 2025, Core Devices recovered the Pebble trademark and began using the Pebble name for their watches.
In November 2025, a dispute between the Rebble organizers and Core Devices started, regarding ownership of the archive of Pebble apps, conditions of operation of the app store and general cooperation rules.
History
Development
The original Pebble Smartwatch was designed based on a concept by Eric Migicovsky describing a watch that could display messages from a smartphone and select Android devices. Migicovsky successfully took his idea through the Y Combinator business incubator program, and unusually for a startup company at Y Combinator, Migicovsky's business actually generated revenue during the program. Migicovsky was able to raise US$375,000 from angel investors such as Tim Draper of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, but was unable to raise additional funds. Discussing his inability to raise further funds, Migicovsky told the Los Angeles Times, "I wasn't extremely surprised... hardware is much harder to raise money for. We were hoping we could convince some people to our vision, but it didn't work out."Funding
After raising venture capital for the product under their former name, Allerta, the company failed to attract traditional investors under their new Pebble brand name, so the company pursued crowd funding in April 2012.Migicovsky's company, Pebble Technology, launched a Kickstarter campaign on, with an initial fundraising target of $100,000. Backers spending $115 would receive a Pebble when they became available, effectively pre-ordering the $150 Pebble at a discounted price. Within two hours of going live, the project had met its $100,000 goal, and within six days, the project had become the most funded project in the history of Kickstarter to that point, raising over $4.7 million with 30 days left in the campaign.
On, Pebble Technology announced they were limiting the number of pre-orders. On, funding closed with $10,266,845 pledged by 68,929 people. At the time, the product held the world record for the most money raised for a Kickstarter project.
Production
Pebble worked with consulting firm Dragon Innovation to identify suppliers and manufacturers. After overcoming manufacturing difficulties with the prototype design, Pebble started mass production with Foxlink Group in January 2013, initially producing 15,000 watches per week. Shipping was originally expected to begin in September 2012, but manufacturing difficulties were encountered. The first units began shipping on.Pebble shipped 300,000 units by, over 400,000 by, 450,000 as of 2014, 1 million by, and 2 million by December 7, 2017.
Features
Hardware
The watch featured a 144 × 168 pixel black and white memory LCD using an ultra low-power "transflective LCD" manufactured by Sharp; it contained a backlight, vibration motor, magnetometer, ambient light sensors, and three-axis accelerometer. It can communicate with an Android device using both Bluetooth 2.1 and Bluetooth 4.0 through Stonestreet One's Bluetopia+MFi software stack. Bluetooth 4.0 low energy was not initially supported, but was later added through a firmware update in November 2013. The watch is charged through a modified USB-cable that attaches magnetically to the watch to maintain water resistance capability, with a reported seven-day battery life. Water-resistance was added during development based on feedback from Kickstarter backers. The Pebble has a waterproof rating of 5 atm, which means it can be submerged down to, and was tested in both fresh and salt water, allowing the user to shower, dive or swim while wearing the watch.Software
, the Pebble app store contained over 1,000 applications. Applications included notification support for emails, calls, text messages and social media activity; stock prices; activity tracking ; remote controls for smartphones, cameras and home appliances; turn-by-turn directions ; display of RSS or JSON feeds; and hundreds of custom watch faces.The Pebble was announced to ship with several apps pre-installed, including a cycling app to measure speed, distance, and pace through GPS, and a golf rangefinder app supporting more than 25,000 courses. Not all announced apps were ready when the watch started shipping. CEO Eric Migicovsky announced on January 9, 2013, that updates for the watch's operating system would be released every 2–3 weeks until all features were added.
The Pebble's apps used data received from a connected phone for distance, speed, and range information. More apps were downloadable via a mobile phone or tablet, and a software development kit was freely available.
Pebble integrates with Android and iOS phones through a companion app to send notifications to the watch. Messaging and phone call apps were supported, in addition to most 3rd party applications.
The watch's firmware operating system is based on the FreeRTOS kernel and uses Newlib, the STM32 Peripheral Library, the Ragel state machine compiler, and an unnamed UTF-8 Decoder.
Gadgetbridge is an alternative companion application for Android. It is open source, does not require account creation, and supports features such as notifications, music playback and watch application installation/removal.
Linux users can interface with the Pebble using libpebble. This enabled experimental services on several Linux distros including Maemo, the OS used on the Nokia N900. There was also a commercial app called Rockwatch for MeeGo, the OS used by the Nokia N9, that provided services including managing the Pebble's firmware and apps running on the watch.
Pebble SDK
Pebble Technology announced that an open Pebble software development kit would be released before shipment of the watches began. A proof-of-concept watchface SDK and documentation were released on April 12, 2013. Eventually, Pebble SDK version 1.0 was released was limited to development for watch faces, simple applications, and games. SDK version 2.0 was released on May 17, 2013, and added support for two-way communication between Pebbles and smartphones running iOS or Android via the AppMessage framework., the PebbleKit SDK included APIs to access bluetooth messaging, background workers, the accelerometer, the compass, and supported C and JavaScript for developing apps. Applications written using the second PebbleKit SDK were not backwards compatible with 1.x apps, and developers were required to port their apps to the second-gen firmware.
Reception
The original Pebble Smartwatch was released to mixed reviews. The design was acclaimed for being innovative. CNET praised the design, readability, and water-resistance of the Pebble Steel, but criticized the limit of eight user-installed apps and the lack of a heart-rate monitor. Later watches in the Pebble series were described similarly: as simple and effective but lacking some features of competitors like the Apple Watch. Some concerns were also expressed by iFixit about build quality and reliability, while also commending the watch's repairability.Later generations
Pebble Time
On February 24, 2015, Pebble announced the Pebble Time, their second-generation Pebble smartwatch via its Kickstarter campaign.The Pebble Time Steel is a stainless steel variant of the Pebble Time smartwatch, available in multiple finishes: silver, black or gold with either a leather or steel band. Pebble claims it has a 10-day battery life.
The Pebble Time Round is also made of stainless steel and 2.5d Gorilla Glass with five finishes. Pebble claims it has a 2-day battery life, dramatically decreased because of the shape and size but still significantly longer-lasting than the Apple Watch's 16-hour life.