Pebble (watch)
Pebble is a discontinued smartwatch developed by Pebble Technology Corporation. Funding was conducted through a Kickstarter campaign running from April 11, 2012, to May 18, 2012, which raised $10.3 million; it was the most funded project in Kickstarter history, at the time. Pebble began shipping watches to Kickstarter backers in January 2013. Pebble watches can be connected to Android and iOS devices to show notifications and messages. An online app store distributed Pebble-compatible apps from many developers including ESPN, Uber, Runkeeper, and GoPro.
| Also known as | Pebble |
|---|---|
| Developer | Pebble Technology, Corp., Pebble Devices, Corp in California. |
| Manufacturer | Foxlink Group in Taiwan |
| Product family | Pebble |
| Type | Smartwatch |
| Generation | 1 |
| Release date | January 23, 2013 |
| Introductory price |
|
| Discontinued | December 7, 2016 |
| Units sold | 2,000,000+ as of December 2017 |
| Operating system | Pebble OS; uses a customized FreeRTOS kernel. Can communicate with Android and iOS apps using Bluetooth. Portions of Pebble OS are closed source. |
| CPU | STM32F205RE Cortex M3 CPU |
| Memory | RAM 128 KB (84 KB OS, 24 KB app, 12 KB background worker, 8 KB app services) |
| Storage | Pebble Time series: 50 slots for faces/apps stored on watch, infinite can be loaded from the connected phone. Pebble Classic series: 8 slots for apps/watch faces, 100 KB per slot for a total of 800 KB user accessible space. The Kickstarter version has 4 MiB (32 Mibit) flash. Originals built after October 2013 and all Steel watches have 8 MiB (64 Mibit) flash. All models also have 512 KiB SoC flash memory |
| Display | 32-millimetre (1.26 in) 144×168 pixel Sharp Memory transflective LCD |
| Graphics | Pebble Classic/Steel: 1-bit black-and-white transflective LCD; Pebble Time: 64 (6-bit) color e-paper. |
| Sound | None |
| Input | 4 buttons 3-axis accelerometer with gesture detection magnetometer and ambient light sensor, microphone on Pebble Time models |
| Camera | None |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 2.1 and 4.0 LE (used for iOS 7 notifications) + EDR |
| Power | 130 mAh, 7 days (assuming c. 20–30 notifications a day, and a per-minute updating watchface) |
| Current firmware | Version 4.3 |
| Dimensions | Pebble: 52 mm × 36 mm × 11.5 mm (2.05 in × 1.42 in × 0.45 in), Pebble Steel: 46 mm × 34 mm × 10.5 mm (1.81 in × 1.34 in × 0.41 in) |
| Mass | Pebble: 38 g (1.34 oz), Pebble Steel: 56 g (1.97 oz) (with default watchband attached) |
| Successor | Pebble Time (both normal and Steel variants) |
| Related | Fitbit |
| Website | pebble.com |
A steel-bodied variant to the original Pebble, the Pebble Steel, was announced at CES 2014 and released in February 2014. It had a thinner body, tactile metal buttons, and a Corning Gorilla Glass screen. It was available in two finishes: black matte and brushed stainless steel, with both a black leather and a matching steel band.
In 2015, Pebble launched its second generation of smartwatches: the Pebble Time and Time Steel. The devices were similarly funded through Kickstarter, raising $20.3 million from over 75,000 backers and breaking records for the site. In 2016, Pebble shut down their subsequent Time 2 series watches and refunded Kickstarter backers, citing financial issues.
On December 7, 2016, Pebble officially announced that the company would be shut down, and would no longer manufacture or continue support for any devices, nor honor any existing warranties. Pebble's intellectual property was purchased by Fitbit, a wearable technology company specializing in fitness tracking, who also hired some of the Pebble staff. Further clarification on the transition timeline and efforts to render Pebble OS and its watchfaces/apps more self-sufficient was posted to the Pebble Dev Blog on December 14, 2016. Support for the Pebble app store, online forum, cloud development tool, voice recognition, and voice replies ceased in June 2018, although support for some online services was restored by the unofficial "Rebble" community.