{"id":616,"date":"2026-06-26T15:46:56","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:46:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616"},"modified":"2026-06-26T15:46:56","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T15:46:56","slug":"pebbles-founder-is-pushing-the-anti-apple-watch-and-he-doesnt-need-you-to-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616","title":{"rendered":"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Eric Migicovsky, the founder of Pebble, the once-defunct and since revived wearables company (now called Core Devices), is making his low-fi, low-stakes smartwatches for Eric Migicovsky\u2014or, at least, people who also just want anything but yet another Apple Watch.<\/p>\n

Read more This Guy\u2019s Fictional Map Requires an Entire Gym to Assemble<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

\u201cApple makes it incredibly difficult for third-party devices to interact with things like iMessage or Siri or any of the built-in features on iOS,\u201d Migicovsky told Gizmodo in a freewheeling video interview. \u201cAnd that sucks. That sucks for competition. That sucks for innovation. That sucks for price.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pebble isn\u2019t like the Apple Watch or Google Wear OS smartwatches you find today. Its hacker-friendly wearables aren\u2019t trying to fix an industry; they\u2019re just an alternative for people\u2014like Migicovsky\u2014who want a long-lasting phone-connected wrist computer. The company\u2019s founder described the main tenets of the Pebble\u2019s design. They feature e-paper screens with barebones software meant to handle the minimum of what you expect\u2014checking messages and notifications, mostly (though the Pebble ecosystem is open enough that you can find or create your own use case). They have physical buttons and promise a long battery life. The reason being, Migicovsky personally hates having to routinely remove his smartwatch to charge it.<\/p>\n

Back at its height in 2015, Migicovsky said the original Pebble had around 180 employees. Now his rebooted company, made up of six staff, has launched or is preparing to start shipping four products in a single year. The product lineup includes a black and white Pebble 2 Duo, a color e-paper Pebble Time 2, and an Index 01 smart ring that\u2019s essentially an AI recording device you slip over your finger. The smart ring has a non-rechargeable battery that lasts for approximately two years because Migicovsky despises the idea of having to take it off to charge up. The fourth product is the Pebble Round 2, a sequel to the company\u2019s original rounded smartwatch from a decade ago, which will begin shipping soon.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Migicovsky, with his laid-back Canadian attitude, said he\u2019s really just making a device he would want to use. A \u201ccool,\u201d capital \u201cG\u201d gadget without a locked-down ecosystem to confine the user.<\/p>\n

There are evidently enough people who smell what Pebble is cooking and want a taste. Migicovsky wrote in a recent blog post that Pebble has shipped 13,600 Time 2 smartwatches and has sold just 7,000 of its Index 01 smart ring so far, a bare fraction of the reported 11,000 preorders.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

I strapped on the Pebble Round 2 at CES 2026, and it\u2019s striking just how much it depends on minimalism. Unlike a Pebble Time 2, it doesn\u2019t even have a heart rate sensor. It tells the time, vibrates when you get a notification, tracks your steps and sleep, and lets you skip calls with the help of physical buttons along the side. Migicovsky is more excited by how the wearable uses open-source software, meaning anyone can make their own watch faces for others to download.<\/p>\n

To understand Migicovsky\u2019s philosophy, we have to go over the company\u2019s winding history. Pebble started as a small startup in 2008 and found success with a Kickstarter for its original Pebble smartwatch in 2012. Over the next few years, Pebble scaled up and pumped out several more models. Its biggest threat came in 2015 when Apple launched the Apple Watch, and Pebble decided to face the big tech monolith head-on with a rounded smartwatch.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went through the ringer with Pebble,\u201d he said. \u201cWe did it all. We grew a big team. We hired people. We were in distribution. We were at Best Buy. We were in too many places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more The AI \u2018Jobpocalypse\u2019 Is Nowhere to Be Seen in California, the Heartland of Tech<\/a><\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

But by 2016, Pebble was getting squeezed out by Apple and Google\u2019s smartwatch platforms. Fitbit acquired the company in November of that year. Pebble IP would change hands again in 2021 when Google bought Fitbit.<\/p>\n

Migicovsky claims that he had reached out to former Fitbit CTO Eric Friedman, who at the time was Google\u2019s VP of consumer health research, about open-sourcing the Pebble OS. Google actually followed through in early 2025, and by the end of the year, Migicovsky said that the Pebble software was \u201c100% open source.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Fast forward to today\u2014Migicovsky said he built Core Devices with his own money, somewhere in the ballpark of $50,000 to $100,000 to get things started. (He admittedly is not exactly short on cash after selling his previous messaging app, Beeper, to Automattic.) What\u2019s changed in the decade since the Pebble\u2019s original conception is more the business and less the technology.<\/p>\n

The low fidelity is what may be appealing about Pebble watches. You\u2019ve heard of 30- or 20-year nostalgia cycles, but there seems to be a non-insignificant chunk of gadget users today yearning for gear that\u2019s only a decade old. Migicovsky described the early 2010s as an age when tech was \u201cCES-driven,\u201d and designers threw anything at the wall to see what stuck. There are more people retrofitting old hardware, like iPods or Blackberry phones, now than in years past, and that\u2019s down to the proliferation of gadget-obsessed people (like Migicovsky) who tend to be interested in watches like Pebble.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s technology supply chain has ballooned to a point where Migicovsky can bootstrap a startup-sized company and ship boutique products to people who think like he does. He said it gives him a freedom to make gadgets that he enjoys in a way that eschews his least-favorite parts of the job as CEO\u2014namely dealing with marketers.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

That same supply chain is being squeezed by memory companies that have all shifted gears to supplying AI datacenter projects instead of consumer companies and startups. Migicovsky said that there is 32MB (that\u2019s right, megabytes) of flash memory inside a Pebble smartwatch. The cost of that memory has increased by 6x, according to him. Even companies as large as Apple, which have master command over parts sourcing, are being told how much they have to pay, and there\u2019s no room for negotiation. As a result, every gadget is now more expensive, and price hikes\u2014in some cases multiple ones\u2014have become a concerning norm.<\/p>\n

Not to mention U.S. tariffs causing havoc with shipping prices. The Pebble founder seems to be taking it all in stride. Migicovsky hasn\u2019t raised prices (at least not yet), as\u2014in his own words\u2014any device that costs $300 makes it harder to love that product. So in that vein, what\u2019s next? Migicovsky said he and his team iterated on a fifth product but ultimately scrapped it. Whatever comes next, wearable or not, it\u2019s probably going to be another open platform.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the energy that comes from a community that\u2019s hacking on something,\u201d he said. \u201cAn open platform like Pebble just breeds creativity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more America\u2019s Time Capsule for 2276 Includes Futuristic Predictions From Claude<\/a><\/p>\n

Gizmodo\u2019s The Next Interface<\/strong> is a series that explores the exciting\u2014and perplexing\u2014world of wearables in all of its evolving form factors. From fitness bands and smartwatches that track your heart rate to wireless earbuds and headbands that read your brainwaves to smart glasses that shove the internet closer than ever to your eyeballs, we\u2019ll analyze them all with optimism and a healthy dose of skepticism.<\/em><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Migicovsky, leader of the revived Pebble, is making smartwatches for himself. You’re just along for the ride.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":615,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gadgets"],"yoast_head":"\nPebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care - Long Haul Moving Pros<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care - Long Haul Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Eric Migicovsky, leader of the revived Pebble, is making smartwatches for himself. You're just along for the ride.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Long Haul Moving Pros\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-26T15:46:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b\"},\"headline\":\"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T15:46:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616\"},\"wordCount\":1242,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bfd20df9f9ec1af3e281382178de880e.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"Gadgets\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616\",\"name\":\"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care - Long Haul Moving Pros\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bfd20df9f9ec1af3e281382178de880e.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-06-26T15:46:56+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bfd20df9f9ec1af3e281382178de880e.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/06\\\/bfd20df9f9ec1af3e281382178de880e.webp\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?p=616#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Long Haul Moving Pros\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/longhaulmovingpros.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care - Long Haul Moving Pros","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care - Long Haul Moving Pros","og_description":"Eric Migicovsky, leader of the revived Pebble, is making smartwatches for himself. You're just along for the ride.","og_url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616","og_site_name":"Long Haul Moving Pros","article_published_time":"2026-06-26T15:46:56+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b"},"headline":"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care","datePublished":"2026-06-26T15:46:56+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616"},"wordCount":1242,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bfd20df9f9ec1af3e281382178de880e.webp","articleSection":["Gadgets"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616","url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616","name":"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care - Long Haul Moving Pros","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bfd20df9f9ec1af3e281382178de880e.webp","datePublished":"2026-06-26T15:46:56+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bfd20df9f9ec1af3e281382178de880e.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/bfd20df9f9ec1af3e281382178de880e.webp","width":1200,"height":675},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?p=616#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pebble\u2019s Founder Is Pushing the Anti-Apple Watch, and He Doesn\u2019t Need You to Care"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/","name":"Long Haul Moving Pros","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ed9c8f732aec56889e8fd0602fe5af4b","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com"],"url":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/longhaulmovingpros.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}