GoKawiilTwelve years ago, I was traveling overseas to the UK in the summer with my wife and then-tiny kids. And on my wrist was a Pebble watch.
I still go overseas each summer to visit my in-laws, but my kids are taller than me now and my beard is grayer. But his year, I had the chance to put a new Pebble Time 2 on my wrist for a while during the trip, and it brought back a lot of the old smartwatch feelings from the 2010s. Now that I’m back home, it has found its way onto my wrist again. That surprised me, because Pebble’s comeback is remarkably well done. It also turns out that smartwatches haven’t changed all that much over the past 12 years — or have they?
The $225 Pebble Time 2 is part of a new wave of Pebble watches that includes a round model arriving in about a month. But it isn’t like the Pebbles of old. It’s a nicer piece of hardware, done up to look and feel retro. In that sense, nostalgia may be playing tricks on my memory. The Time 2 has a backlit color screen and buttons on both sides to control the interface, but it also has a touchscreen (which old Pebbles never had). aIt also offers optical heart-rate tracking and basic step and fitness features. More importantly, you can download a vast selection of classic Pebble apps and watch faces for free.
A new Pebble mobile app syncs the watch up, and it’s refreshingly clean and easy to use. I got on my feet fast via an iPhone, and was able to load up watch faces and apps quickly, too.
Hello, Kirby. And there I was at a church fete, eating scones and jam!
Scott Stein/CNET
Goofy watch faces are back, baby
Watch faces were the best thing about the earlier versions of the Pebble — and they still are. There are plenty of clever, weird, janky, useful and downright ugly Pebble faces to try, many of which play fast and loose with copyright. (I found Kirby and Sonic watch faces; please let them stay.)
The Pebble displays the weather, counts steps, automatically tracks walks and sleep, and quickly syncs notifications. It’s all very functional, but I miss some of the Apple Watch’s finesse. Simple tasks such as muting notifications or silencing vibrations require more taps and fiddling on the Pebble. It’s swim-friendly, and its silicone band fits snugly. I like the clean steel case: It gives me a bit of Pebble Time Steel throwback feelings.
The Pebble has stopwatch and timer features, but while grilling one evening, I missed the voice-activated timer I frequently use on my Apple Watch.
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