Are there any comparable alternatives to Pebble even now? I’ve yet to see one, but I haven’t followed the market very closely since I stopped using one.
Surprised this hasn't been mentioned on this thread yet. Hardware wise the closest is probably the Pine Time from Pine64. Software and services wise this isn't on pebbles level though. https://www.pine64.org/pinetime/
As others mention hybrid watches are probably the closest alternative.
Early PineTime adopter here. The lack of physical buttons is such a massive downgrade that I can't really bring myself to use mine anymore. The apps are also very lacking compared to the Pebble. Specifically timers, stopwatch, alarms. I have no other watch to recommend, I just stopped wearing one. I do occasionally update the firmware and see if things have improved, but they're still not as good as I'd like. I do support them and what they're doing. The hardware itself is maybe just too flawed. I hope that we see more stuff get support from the same OS. Something with more buttons.
With the Pebble I had app shortcuts on the long press of most of the buttons and could pretty much navigate it blind to start a stopwatch ASAP and lap as needed without looking. I had tons of saved timer presets. The alarms could actually wake me up (before the vibration motor broke). PineTime won't let me save timer presets, set timers over an hour or so long, and it's not obvious enough when the timer ends. I think it vibrates once instead of doing it until dismissed. These are basic things, and to me they matter even more than seeing notifications from my phone appear. I even used my Pebble without a phone for months at a time before.
The bangle.js:
- ships significantly faster
- has an always-on display with similar 4 week maximum battery life
- can be updated without flashing
- has a thriving app ecosystem
I have a bangle.js. It's... alright. Does the job. Feels cheap. OS is nightmarishly slow. Only one physical button, so annoying and fiddly to set with a touchscreen (interacts badly with the slow OS). Has GPS, but doesn't really work. Has heart monitor, but doesn't really work. Not terribly stable.
Oh wow I did not realize they were just $35, I expected a price around $150. I've never been a smartwatch person because I couldn't see myself wearing one over some of my mechanical pieces, but for $35 i'm very tempted to try.
I own a Pinetime, and I agree it's close to the Pebble (I used to own a Pebble Steel). My Pinetime gets around 3ish days battery life, usage dependent.
I wanted a watch that I could control my media player on my phone with, gave me notifications, and didn't cost me an appendage. The Pinetime was $35USD shipped (IIRC), and while I can't dismiss phone notifications from my watch, it does at least show me the notifications from my wrist. I'm very happy with mine.
One problem with the smartwatch market is that it's hard to know what "comparable" means to any given person.
I've found an Amazfit Bip to be a totally satisfactory replacement for my Pebble Time, but it doesn't cover every single usecase. It does have a battery life measured in weeks though (usually 3-4 for me, less if I use the GPS to track a bunch of exercise), which is a pretty nice selling point.
Do you build your own apps for it? I'm interesting in understanding how hackable it is? For example, can you write an app that pulls the GPS data from a run off it, or is that data readily accessible somehow?
Not OP, but you can't really make your own apps for it. There are third party clients for it, though, and you can export data through them.
I like mine, except for the fact that the front fell off and I had to glue it back on. The battery lasts for 3 or 4 weeks, you can receive notifications (but not respond to them) and it looks fairly stylish.
I haven't done any hacking of any of my smartwatches. If that's important to you, then I don't really have any recommendations for you (and it highlights my point about different people's definition of "comparable").
I want my watch to have time/date, alarms, timers/stopwatches, the ability to read phone notifications, always-on screen, and battery life measured on the scale of weeks. Step and heartrate tracking are also nice perks that the Amazfit Bip also includes.
Not in my opinion. The closest I’ve found are hybrid watches which will forward alerts (but generally with no text), but certainly nothing with the screen, battery life, and OSS vibe.
I can confirm that it's pretty good, but mine often loses track of time and needs to be calibrated via the app. I don't have it constantly connected to my phone, and only connect it ocasionally to sync, so maybe that could be the cause. I've even once had the calibration refuse to work, which required a hard reset of the watch to fix.
It's elegant, and the smartwatch features are unobtrusive, but I wouldn't trust it for any precise tracking, or even time tracking.
I had a fossil hybrid for awhile, and actually rather enjoyed it (gods below it was huge though - 44mm face). The problem was, if it wasn't my daily driver (that is to say, always within communication range of my phone), the battery would drain so fast. And it was a relatively uncommon coin battery, not a rechargeable battery.
I wish that hadn't been the case, but after replacing the battery 3x in one month because I swapped out watches occasionally, it went into retirement.
Pinetime is new to me, going to dig in more. But at first glance, I'm not sure I like the IPS display, honestly. The always-visible e-ink Pebble display was one of the biggest features to me.
I've been using a Garmin Instinct for a few years, and it's never let me down. It has a monochrome display that is not affected by sunlight with incredible battery life even when using the GPS. It's also tough as a brick
These are marketed as fitness devices first, which they are, but the smart watch features are comparable to the Pebbles. The lack of a touchscreen, the long battery life, and the epaper-like display are all there.
Strange, when I looked before I didn't really see anything but I could be getting mixed up with the Bip. Well I'm going to be all over that this weekend!
I've been using a Garmin Vivoactive 3 for a few years after owning a Pebble Time that eventually stopped working. I've been pretty happy with it: it also has a retroreflective screen that's always on and perfectly visible in sunlight, the battery can last about a week depending on usage, and Garmin's IQ app ecosystem is solid.
The notification functionality is not as customizable, but otherwise I haven't really been missing the Pebble much.
Fossil Neutra, I think. They have an eink display and 2 week battery life. I don't use one though, been enjoying my citizen ecodrive for the past few years.
Fossil has a couple hybrid smartwatches, under their own brand and under Skagen. They also license the technology to Citizen.
I’ve used a few Fossil watches and found the battery to be very good, but the software to be lacking. One example is that if you receive a notification, you have to click the center button to select it, and then the down button to scroll down. The buttons on some models are quite mushy, which makes navigation even more frustrating. The light is also unimpressive and hard to trigger.
I don’t love the styling of the current Fossil models. The Skagen version looks nicer to me, but sadly the software forced you to display a Skagen logo instead of one of the four complications that’s available on the Fossil-branded version.
I don’t know what I’m going to do when my Fossil dies. The battery is down to 4 days if I remember to put it in airplane mode every night. I’m considering the Apple Watch Ultra, which should get around 5 days of battery in low power mode but I don’t love the styling, don’t need the sporty features, and don’t love the price.
The "closest" I found that filled the void Pebble left are these hybrid watches like the ScanWatch I mentioned. All fully digital ones just go overboard with features, I find them too gimmicky and they come with an awful battery life. I don't want another smartphone on my wrist that I need to charge every night...
I miss the simplicity, yet the huge amount possibilities (via their store and SDK) and watch faces the Pebble had. They still managed to keep the device distraction free along with a good battery life. I'm all ears for any good Pebble-like smartwatch if anyone knows one.
