Pebble Watches have my interest! - 29/01/25

Just now, I heard about a revival of Pebble watches. This interests the fuck out of me.

Fitbit idolizing and my Charge 2 (2018 - 2020)

See, Fitbit devices are a weird hyperfixation of mine - they have been ever since I first saw my Year 5 teacher wear her Fitbit Charge 2. My 9(?) year old brain saw its small black screen and green lights and imagined a world of possibilities from one's wrist.

In reality, the device couldn't do much more than track exercise and play an awful clone of "Flappy Bird", however, my young mind - for some reason - believed it to be a supercomputer.

Eventually, my stepdad got a Charge 2 for his birthday that he didn't want, and I started wearing it. I used all of its features, from a configuring third party app called "Fit notifications" to playing that Flappy Bird clone, I really used every function of that watch, and was itching for more.

Disappointing upgrades with my Charge 4 (2020 - 2022)

By Year 6, I really wanted the Charge 3 as it had a full touch display. I never got one this time, but in Year 7 I got a Charge 4. I was... disappointed. At this point, many of my friends had Apple Watches with full colour displays and full apps, and this watch had a basic greyscale display and none of the functions I had itched for - in fact, it removed the Flappy Bird clone! How dare they!

By Year 9, I was spending every morning in form class next to my sketchy friend who had an Apple Watch. He'd always show it off, and my Charge 4 felt so inadequate.

Discovering the watch of my dreams with my Sense (2022 - present)

However, one day, my Charge 4 broke, and Fitbit awarded me a "50% coupon" for EVERY device in their store. I, of course, thought - I'll save the most money if I buy the most expensive watch! Thus, I purchased a Fitbit Sense for the low price of £110. That watch was like my dreams come true. As Fitbit had purchased Pebble in 2017, it had all of Pebble's features. This meant I had access to a full SDK of possibilities. I learned some JavaScript pretty quickly and signed up to publish apps to Fitbit's gallery, and honestly I just loved my watch. I had a device just as capable as my friend's Apple Watch, while also having a much better battery life and the ability to make my own programs for it!

I still wear my Sense everyday, but it's showing it's age:

Google gives Fitbit OS a slow and painful death

But see, I can't just get a new Fitbit! The Fitbit Sense and Versa 3 devices were in fact, the final devices marketted as "Fitbit OS devices". In 2021, Google bought Fitbit, and for the first time since Fitbit bought Pebble, Fitbit had not released any Pebble-powered smartwatches in 2021. The following year, I recall watching keenly for the announcement of Fitbit's three new smartwatches, the Fitbit Versa 4, Fitbit Sense 2 and Google Pixel Watch (With Fitbit). The Pixel Watch ran WearOS, an Android-based OS, so I didn't care for it. In previous years, new Fitbit smartwatches were accompanied by a new software update for the older watches too. And well, yes, the Versa 4 and Sense 2 had new software but it was heavily nerfed. Many features were missing, and it appeared to most as if Google intentionally nerfed these devices to sell more Pixel Watches. To add insult to injury, developers who were willing to work around the lack of documentation for these devices were met with the discovery that Google had instructed the Fitbit Gallery review team to deny ALL apps for these devices (Custom clockfaces were allowed though).

Now, the Pixel Watch is on it's third iteration, and the Versa 4 and Sense 2 are still for sale. It's safe to say the days of the Pebble-powered Fitbit watch are gone, and that even those two devices' lives are numbered.

Still. I love my Fitbit Sense. I get to enjoy a hackable system built entirely out of readable JavaScript, with a secure layer keeping things like my Google Wallet in check! (Which still works!!)

Return of Pebble and why it might be my saviour

With all of that said, Google recently open sourced PebbleOS, and a revival of Pebble hardware is supposedly going to take place. This may just be the Sense replacement I've been praying for. It seems like this thing will be able to handle things the Sense can't like MP3 playing. It's unclear whether it will have Google Wallet (I'd guess not), but honestly? I don't care. Take my money. I want a Pebble.

With the decline of Fitbit OS and Google's focus on WearOS, Pebble's return might just be the breath of fresh air smartwatch enthusiasts like me have been waiting for.
back to "Eve's Blog"
back to "Eve's Website"