Summary
You probably know by now that Pebble is back. Everyone knows that. But the marketing for these products couldn’t quite use the term “Pebble.” Now, that’s changed, and nature is healing.
Core Devices, the company behind the new Pebble revival, announced that its upcoming watches will drop their “Core” branding and adopt the classic Pebble moniker. The Core 2 Duo will now be officially known as the Pebble 2 Duo, and the Core Time 2 will be the Pebble Time 2. This comes after the company managed to successfully reacquire the trademark—with permission to use the name Pebble, the devices are now just going to be called Pebble. The actual company behind them will continue to be called Core Devices, because “we make the devices that are part of your core daily life.” Maybe it will eventually look into branching out into new product categories unrelated to Pebble? Who knows.
There are some news on the actual watches to be shipped, too. The company also announced a minor delay for its first product, the Pebble 2 Duo. The first batch of pre-orders, which were slated for a July shipment (so right about this week or next week), is now estimated to ship by the end of August, with the second batch following in mid-September.
The company stated the delay is a strategic decision to enhance the watch’s durability. The team is working to improve the device’s water resistance beyond the initial target of an IPX8 rating, which certifies it as splash-proof and submersible up to 1 meter. After successfully meeting this specification, they want to see if certifying it to go even further is possible, testing the device’s integrity at depths of 5, 10, 15, and even 20 meters. This iterative testing process, which requires 5-7 days for adhesives to cure between each cycle, is apparently the primary reason for the adjusted production timeline. The good news is that this isn’t an awful delay—just one more month, hopefully.
This hardware delay has provided an extended window for the software team to polish the new Pebble mobile app, which should be compatible with most older Pebble models and is currently in a closed beta on TestFlight for iOS and available for pre-registration on the Google Play Store. An open beta is expected to launch within the next two to three weeks. Sadly, we do have some bad news—US-based orders will incur an additional tariff of approximately $10 per device, so you won’t be spared from that if you buy one of these. Hopefully, though, we can actually check these out by ourselves soon.
