Me as well, I have a drawer of watches and I want to use one but the 1-2 day battery life is just a dealbreaker .. 30 days will probably make me care to put it on again after the charge is done.

Fellow Home Assistant/Apple Home user here.

You may already be aware, but Apple Home/Siri can talk to Home Assistant directly using https://www.home-assistant.io/integrations/homekit/ which is how I have it set up. You can also have HomeKit devices paired directly with an instance of the HomeKit Bridge, or expose devices in your Apple Home to Home Assistant.

Out of interest, what API access are you missing?

Time to cut out the middle man (Apple / homebridge) and speak to HA directly? I didn't check the capabilities of Pebble, but knowing HA, there's probably a way.

There is a (relatively recent, for the Pebble-verse) Home Assistant app on Rebble that works with the current Home Assistant version. You can even do voice control and stuff.

You can also do timers, reminders, web searches and similar basic assistant things with Bobby - another recent addition to what the Pebbles can do: https://rebble.io/2025/03/24/introducing-bobby-our-new-pebbl...

Just out of interest, what is the benefit of GPS on your watch if you already have it on your phone?

Does it at least have heart rate?

They are making a b&w one as well.

>My concern with the Pebble Time 2 is the lower contrast that color e-ink has compared to grayscale

That's not eink technology, it's most likely Sharp Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) LCD display, where the difference between BW and color isn't as bad as in eink technology which uses actual pigment particles inside the pixel cells that "cloud" the contrast.

I hear it all the time in reviews or discussions of tech products. I don't think it really means anything other than "color" or "color scheme", it's just a more product focused way of talking about it.

Exactly. I was considering it, but not if it’s ugly like this.

I don’t even care about colours. If the other one had a heart rate sensor I would’ve ordered it.

Yeah, I don't like the rounded corners.

Yeah, I agree with that. I really like the classic Pebble look and am disappointed that they have gotten away from that for this watch. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to still get a Time 2 (for the increased durability), or switch to a Duo 2 (to get the look I enjoy).

I'm going ahead when there is general availability. I would not have liked it if I would have missed this design bump while waiting for the older model to still arrive.

it looks superb. I love the small bezels and E ink display.

Did you buy it with a credit card that offers an extended return period?

I think my credit card offers a 3 month return period (2 months longer than an average store's 30 day return period).

Checking the time and specific notifications without getting distracted by apps :)

> What would you use this watch for?

* Because its battery lasts 30 days you can use as an alarm clock that doesn't wake your wife. Unlike the Apple watch, you don't need to leave it charging overnight and you can configure it to emit light only when you press a button.

* Because you're wearing it at night and can control its light you can use it as a flashlight if you need to go to bathroom.

* Because its screen is reflexive you can store barcodes from the library and gym cards on the watch and use it to authenticate on those places.

* Reading and replying messages while driving, control music from your phone and making phone calls while driving and not getting a ticket for distracted driving.

And then there are all the other health related things: heart rate monitor, step counter that you can also use to measure swimming strokes, etc

Pebble has a long track record of delivering. As someone who preordered and received a Pebble Time Steel before Pebble was bought by Fitbit, I can attest that their steel watches are very high-quality.

It's a production sample, not the final quality — he mentioned this in the video

Hard disagree. For one thing, no one is "supporting" this. It's not a Kickstarter, it's pre-orders. You can get your money back (including the credit card fee, if you ordered early) before it ships.

Secondly, he has said that he's trying to build an enduring company. And thirdly, he has said that he's building these in part because he wants to have a watch for himself. That aligns incentives and means that there will be ongoing manufacturing.

Lastly, he has gotten all the software open sourced, which means that if he closes up shop in a year, then anyone else can come in and build a competitor.

I'm a bit lost here, and to be fair my memory from that long ago is a bit hazy... but I was a initial Pebble kickstarter and also got whatever the metal one was called.

They were totally fine products, I enjoyed using them. I am no longer using them, but such is the nature of consumer gadgetry.

I don't recall getting rogered at any point in that process?

One big difference this time is that the source code is all open. That's the main reason I was happy to give them my money again.

Maybe. I still enjoyed my Pebble till it died. I think I will enjoy the new one just as much.

I thought Fitbit bought them out and then after the sale announced that they were shutting it down instead of doing anything with it. I’m happy to be proven wrong if this isn’t the case.

aren't they going with open source firmware / OS this time around? even if it gets sold, user support will be possible

> Why would anyone support this knowing how it went the last time?

"How it went"? Seriously?

What about this: the Apple Watch Series 0 up to 3 no longer work with modern iPhones (or Android, anyways). Series 2 and 3 were released after Pebble went out of business.

And I still can use my old Pebbles with Android's latest phones.

TL;DR: Pebble's "sell you out" worked better than Apple's "sticking with you".