Pebble Founder Ships 13,600 Open-Source Watches as Apple’s Closed iPhone Ecosystem Draws Fire
Updated
Updated · Gizmodo · Jun 26
Pebble Founder Ships 13,600 Open-Source Watches as Apple’s Closed iPhone Ecosystem Draws Fire
1 articles · Updated · Gizmodo · Jun 26
Summary
13,600 Pebble Time 2 smartwatches have shipped and 7,000 Index 01 smart rings have sold, with the Pebble Round 2 set to begin shipping soon under Eric Migicovsky’s revived Core Devices.
Apple’s restrictions on iMessage, Siri and other iOS features are a key driver for the reboot, which pitches minimalist, hacker-friendly wearables with e-paper screens, physical buttons and long battery life instead of Apple Watch-style features.
Six staff are handling four product launches in one year, a sharp contrast with Pebble’s roughly 180 employees at its 2015 peak before Fitbit bought the company in 2016 and Google later acquired Fitbit.
Google open-sourced Pebble OS in early 2025 and Migicovsky says it was fully open source by year-end, letting users and developers build watch faces and other custom software.
Memory costs for Pebble’s 32MB flash have risen 6x and U.S. tariffs are lifting shipping costs, but Migicovsky says he has not raised prices yet because devices above $300 are harder for buyers to embrace.