- As someone dealing with open-source compliance in distributed systems, the purity tests in these comments are exhausting.
Hardware is messy. IP licensing for sensors and radios is a nightmare. Getting a functional OS out with "only" a few binary blobs is a massive engineering and legal victory.
I'd rather have a working, 95% open ecosystem that I can actually hack on, than a 100% pure theoretical one that never ships. Kudos to Eric for navigating the legal minefield to make this happen.
- THIS is the post that finally got me to make a pre-order, as a former Pebble engineer.
FOSS all the things so my freedoms are never restricted again, and I am happy to pay.
- Honestly this feels like the best possible outcome. It's pretty unusual for an appstore implementation to support multiple feeds[0], but it's great resilience to large company failures when they do. This way, users can totally still access Rebble's feed (and pay for a subscription if they like) just as before, but they are free to also use something else.
It is the *end user* who decides which feeds to trust, as it should be. And since it's built right into the app as a core concept, it doesn't take massive engineering effort to switch feeds if some sort of drama occurs.
[0] I'd normally call these repositories, but I've used Eric's term for consistency with the article.
- A little surprised there has been no mention of the app being Kotlin multiplatform. https://github.com/coredevices/mobileapp
I had heard of many smaller apps using Kotlin for their iOS app, but this may be the biggest all in multiplatform app I've seen. It would be awesome if there may eventually be support for writing Pebble apps in Kotlin.
by diego_moita
0 subcomment
- This is precious.
Almost every tech company wants to continue the IBM "surrounded by blue" strategy, fencing customers into their "walled garden" surrounded by a Warren Buffet moat and blocking obsessively any competitor that wants to breach in. Google mandates that every Android application must be signed by developers verified by them, Microsoft demands that users open an account with them, ... and just don't get me started with AWS, Apple, John Deere, Nespresso, etc. Meanwhile, I fail to see any real contender in the smartphone arena.
But, in wearables, Pebble puts up a fight. The platform/product has proven resilient, mostly because of its users passion and commitment. It is more alive today than Fitbit, the company that bought and buried it.
And will only get stronger.
Now I'll be anxiously waiting for my PT2. It will be the 5th Pebble in my collection.
- Wearing my new white pebble right now and am very happy with how open source the comeback has been. Incredibly happy with it and if you want a geeky, simple watch I really can't recommend it enough. The battery life and always on screen alone (especially at this price point) is reason enough.
Cheers to Eric for bringing back pebble in the way that he has !
- For some of us software freedom enthusiasts it is worth noting that PebbleOS contains some proprietary blobs for some peripherals in the watch[1]. This is not just firmware you upload to the peripheral but also properietary .a libraries that run on the main core.
Though to be fair to OpenDevices, this is source code they don't have acces to either.
[1]: https://github.com/coredevices/pebbleos-nonfree/tree/57a94e2...
- I'm sure its happened before, but this is the first time i finally get to see some sort of modern hardware in KiCad.
Pretty cool to see all 6 layers, paste layers, and adhesive layers as well.
I've always wondered how the cake was made and if big projects do/could use KiCad.
Seems like a lot more work relative to those Single Layer PCBs on YouTube for things like emulators and custom PCBs. Glad I now know for sure, that I can't do this.
- It's great to see the app open-sourced! Hopefully this can be distributed on F-Droid one day soon!
And the ability to choose app repos is also a wonderful development. Nothing against Rebble at all, but more choices and more openness is always better!
by tylervigen
1 subcomments
- This is awesome. What a way to do a relaunch. I was a Pebble user in 2013 on first release and saddened when it all broke down. I was so turned off from that experience that I swore off smart watches (I wear a Casio now).
This could get me back, though I’ll admit the appeal has gone down since I’ve realized how nice it is to create separation between me and my notifications.
- (Un)related new post made by rebble today: https://rebble.io/2025/11/24/rebble-in-your-own-world.html
Doesn't address the multiple feed support for the app store, and seems to be calling Eric to action a few times, but it would be too much of a coincidence that these two posts come out so close to one another.
- I'm excited that the back will screw off so we can replace the battery. I'm curious about waterproofing. Will that hold? Will we need to replace a gasket or other parts, in addition to the battery?
- They've made two big changes that are surely the result of the recent drama:
* The companion app is now completely open source, ensuring that the community can continue supporting the watches if Core goes under.
* You can subscribe to multiple app stores while optionally paying for services, and Core will maintain their own store. This seems to placate Rebble so they can do their thing and provide their paid services.
Seems like very good steps forward overall.
- I plan on picking one of these new Pebbles up in the next batch. I loved my original Pebbles (I still have my old Time Steel). Before the Pebbles came back and PebbleOS open-sourced, the only real open smartwatch option we had around that I'm aware of is the PineTime, which I currently wear every day rocking Infinitime.
Will be fun to pick up one of these again and be able to hop back and forth between it and the PineTime! Great stuff, Eric and team.
- I look forward to a year or two from now when there will be dozens of pebble clones just rolling out of factories for the price of a midrange Casio watch.
This along with valve's hardware announcement is quite a shot at all the entreched hardware manufacturers.
by freedomben
0 subcomment
- Love to see this! I personally find this incredibly exciting. There is a major death of hardware out there that is user-respecting and hacker-friendly, and it warms my heart immensely to see such committments. I'm buying two today (one for me and one for my wife)!
- Don’t have much to add except huge congrats on relaunching. What a move, not only bringing it back from the dead, but also doing it in a way that many people dream that companies would. I just bought an Apple Watch, but this is really tempting.
- > We are trying our best to get into mass production and ship out at most several thousand Pebble Time 2s before CNY [which starts in January].
> Realistically, at this time we’re forecasting that the majority of people will receive their PT2 in March and April.
If the factories close for 3 weeks for CNY, then why will the second batch arrive 2-3 months after the first batch?
- This is great news! I know the new Pebble has a small team and is focused on being a long term sustainable enterprise. This should help with that goal quite a bit.
I received my Pebble 2 Duo about a month ago, and it is awesome. Nice job and thank you! I feel 10 years younger :)
- I see a future where FOSS designs for consumer products compete with commercial releases.
It will take far more sophisticated micro-manufacturing (like 3d-printing but different tools handling more types of materials).
Get the jacket in your exact size with the best materials. Benefit from having incrementally improved from the original (for example under arm vent zipper angle improved). All of it unbranded or custom branded.
Seems hard to believe annual released, mass manufacturing will compete.
by Forgeties79
0 subcomment
- Sitting here with my white pebble 2 duo just glad they resolved all this drama. Was not fun seeing the explosion days after getting it!
- Is it me or is the "Rivian blue" that he refers to in the video not that close to the color of actual Rivians? IMO the watch band/insert color is less green and quite a bit lighter. Not bad, per se, but I feel like this is not the best descriptor since it might make people think it's a different color.
- As someone who has been working on a pair of smart glasses running RTOS, and having to make companion apps for both iOS and Android, I am very interested in reading your approaches to a lot of the same problems I have faced. There's not a lot of information out there on these topics.
- In terms of long-term market viability, have you considered whether your success could encourage Apple or other large competitors to make a battery life-optimized version of their smartwatches?
I understand that some Pebble fans are all about the customization, and will be with you forever. But probably many people care mostly about the battery life, which is severely lacking in watches from Apple, Google, etc.
If Apple realized there was a big enough market to justify making a $200 Apple Watch Basic, how much could that undercut your business?
Relatedly, when will we learn more about the other "core" devices that you're contemplating, and which you alluded to in the video? Building more of a unique ecosystem could help with the moat.
- Apart from all the awesome annoucements, what really makes me happy is how quickly this went from internet drama to both parties moving towards doing whats best for the community.
Props to Core and Rebble for making Pebble what it is today and casting a bright future for theses watches. Been happily wearing my Pebble Steel for the past month after replacing its battery, looking forward to the PT2!
- Ew open you say? Micropython-watch is actually useful, you can program it do things while on the run. Did not make it perse, but I added webrepl-button to it.
https://github.com/timonoko/t-watch-2020-micropython-hacks
by noman-land
1 subcomments
- I'm very not in the smart watch game but a fully open watch with a bunch of sensors and connectivity sounds very appealing. However, I find square watch faces to be extremely unattractive. What's the latest in open watches with round faces and relatively thin profile?
- I wish someone would take on an open-source project for a sports watch with full features like vo2max estimation, etc.
like a cyanogenmod or lineageos but for an older watch model
someone has completely decompiled the firmware for the Garmin Forerunner 245 which is very similar to a Fenix 5
imagine if someone took on making open firmware for it
https://github.com/anvilsecure/garmin-ciq-app-research/
if taking on a brand name might incur lawsuits there are other watches like the wahoo rival which was completely retired and they got out of the business (it was only $99 too)
or there are other ppen hardware options from China
by riazrizvi
1 subcomments
- Is there a vibration mechanism? That’s a must-have in a watch for me.
- Do they want the community to help fix bugs (Even tho I suppose they don't hv any secret sauce), or enable users to customize the software...
- My current smartwatch is $7 I got from the thrift store. Not only does it offer everything an Apple Watch offers, but it also measures blood pressure (surprisingly accurate) and has a small flashlight, and I charge it once every 3 weeks. The only issue is its app is limited and you can’t customize anything besides the watch faces and the wrist strap. So having that, it’s really hard to compete if you are just going to offer another smartwatch, which is a great strategy to open source the software and allow customization, even on the hardware level to some degree. Myself and a lot of people would be interested to have that!
- Great solution, great example of how open source should be done.
- That's good to hear!
If the health monitoring is reliable, im sold. I want to move on from apples clutches despite the pebble hardware not looking particularly attractive to me
by yjftsjthsd-h
6 subcomments
- > Yesterday, Pebble watch software was ~95% open source. Today, it’s 100% open source. You can download, compile and run all the software you need to use your Pebble. We just published the source code for the new Pebble mobile app!
Except...
> Another important note - some binary blobs and other non-free software components are used today in PebbleOS and the Pebble mobile app (ex: the heart rate sensor on PT2 , Memfault library, and others). Optional non-free web services, like Wispr-flow API speech recognizer, are also used. These non-free software components are not required - you can compile and run Pebble watch software without them. This will always be the case. More non-free software components may appear in our software in the future. The core Pebble watch software stack (everything you need to use your Pebble watch) will always be open source.
So 100% FOSS, except for the parts that are closed source now, and any that they add later.
- Eric, congrats. Typo in the first photo caption: "in all it's glory" -> "in all its glory"
by fijiaarone
0 subcomment
- So is the FORTRAN75 compiler, but it’s still being used.
- Love open source
by weinzierl
3 subcomments
- "Grant of Copyright License. Subject to the terms and conditions of this Agreement, You hereby grant to Core Devices and to recipients of software distributed by Core Devices a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license to reproduce, prepare derivative works of, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense, and distribute Your Contributions and such derivative works."
A few years from now we will see the usual HN thread were contributors lachrymosely complain about how their precious work was stolen by a good-turned-evil organization.
- Also includes news about a new Appstore, which can probably be seen as a reaction to the stories from last week:
We’ve created our own Pebble Appstore feed (appstore-api.repebble.com) and new Developer Dashboard. Our feed (fyi powered by 100% new software) is configured to back up an archive of all apps and faces to Archive.org (backup will gradually complete over the next week). Today, our feed only has a subset of all Pebble watchfaces and apps (thank you aveao for creating Pebble Archive!). Developers - you can upload your existing or new apps right now! We hope that this sets a standard for openness and we encourage all feeds to publish a freely and publicly available archive.
https://ericmigi.com/blog/pebble-watch-software-is-now-100pe...
- kotlin tho lol
- [dead]
by Currybongos
1 subcomments
- [flagged]
- [flagged]
- [flagged]
- This title is misleading. As explained in the comments, there are still non-free binary blobs in the firmware. Please reserve phrasing like "100% X" for things that are indeed "0% Not(X)."
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