What Happened To Pebble Smartwatches?

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Pebble was the pioneer of smartwatches entering the scene way back in 2012 years before Apple. Not only did Pebble enter the scene early, but they were a fan favorite raising tens of millions on Kickstarter and delivering products that were packed with value. For $150, the original Pebble watch could perform basically every task you would expect out of a smartwatch from displaying notifications and tracking stocks to monitoring your workouts and sleep. On top of all of its utility, Pebble boasted battery life that ranged between 7 to 10 days which is still unheard of today. Given all of these advantages, it's not surprising that the launch of the Apple Watch actually doubled the sales of Pebble in the 6 months following the launch. Yet, just one year later, the entire company of Pebble was acquired by Fitbit, and operations were shut down. So, what happened to Pebble? This video explains the reasons contributing to Pebble's rapid fall and why it was nearly impossible to survive once the Apple watch caught on.

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Timestamps:
0:00 - The Nosedive Of Pebble
0:30 - Spectacular Start
3:10 - Smartwatch Domination
4:46 - Shifting Desires
6:43 - Race To The Bottom
8:43 - Lack Of Profitability & Growth

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Disclaimer:
This video is not a solicitation or personal financial advice. All investing involves risk. Please do your own research.

[parvezahmedjalil]

Pebble still felt like the best smart watch even today.. I have a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 now, but still can't beat pebble for utility

[benkamminga]

I've owned 2 different versions of Pebble watches and loved them! I think Pebble really goes to show that first to market doesn't always mean success.

[J]

Pebble classic was my first ever smartwatch. It keeps coming back to me because it was the watch that changed the way we use our watch and it was awesome.

[MrDan]

Even though Pebble went out of business a few years ago I am still using mine today. For the most part it still works with most of it's features.

[plutoniumshore]

These were great little watches. I wish I still had mine.

[enzocarlesimo]

The best smartwatches ever made, they were so cool, sad they werent successful

[MrMajani]

Not only that but Apple getting into a sector is usually a huge green light for many hardware manufacturers to FOMO in as well which turns the competitive landscape into hell for anyone who isn't an established hardware company

[ronakpatel]

I remember when this channel was at 11k subs it has grown so far so fast

[IncendiaHL]

Wearing my pebble time right now. It's still a kickass watch!

[Klemmbaustein-Messi]

5:03 and I totally agree. Me too. I priorise battery life and a good readable display like the used transreflective displays of the Pebble watches. That's why I'm using the Amazfit BIP / BIP S. They have the same display and a huge battery life of 1 month(!). How I wish, there will be another Smartwatch with bigger transreflectiv display and similar long batterylife.

[fuseteam]

Oof so they missed the boat when they declined that 740 mil aquisition

[randyspears]

I own 4 Pebbles and I switch them out from week-to-week. They do everything I need. I tried another brand for awhile, but Pebble simply does everything and need with days of battery life.

[LordWaterBottle]

Man, imagine if pebble sold to Citizen. We would probably still have their fundamental tech and ui in the marketplace. Nothing has met it's *blind* utility since, and no touch driven interface can.

I still wear a pebble to this day, rotating between 5 separate Pebble Times and two different Time Steels. All still have a longer battery life than any applewatch save the super chonky one, and they are all much slimmer.

Honestly a Pebble does everything a Watch in the modern day needs to do. It has notifications for every app I use, it sets timers, stopwatch, literally any sort of watch face you could desire, and in it's heyday several on smartphone watch face designers. You can wear any sort of strap you desire.
It's readable in sunlight. It had a baclkigt that can blind you in the darkness if you set it so (the setting is appropriately named "Blinding").

They're also just full of charm. The Quiet Time mode (do not disturb) flashes a tiptoeing mouse. When you mute an app's notifications, an ostrich puts it's head in the ground. When you clear your notifications it plays a paper shredder animation, which is surprisingly smooth for a display of its power draw.

I have an android so I can sideload the application whenever I change phone.
If you're on Android, I would definitely say that a pebble is worth it today, but you have to be comfortable with a little but of hackiness, as the pebble main servers are down forever :(
However, there is a community project, Rebble! They have replacement servers you can subscribe to for things like weather, and they have an updated firmware that redirects the app and watchface/app store to a beckup they host for free.

If you can find one for sale, especially an uninterested private party that has just had one in a drawer for a few years, you can get a pretty good deal these days, maybe $50 on the cheap end shipped. I would personally buy one in good condition for $100 with no hesitation.

[TheMagicMinute]

Loved my pebble. Got me into the smart watch space. Though I have to admit I shelled out hundreds for the series 0 on launch day. Still wearing a Apple Watch today.

[mannykhan]

A lot of mistakes in this article. The original kickstarter campaign raised 10M dollars and pebble watch at that time couldnt monitor your sleep. It didnt even have a HR sensor. It was just a secondary display on your wtist. I was one of the early kickstarter backers.

[rymikai]

had a pebble and i love the lil games you could get on it! and i loved the easiness for making custom watch faces, sad the bracelet of my old watch broke (and i think by then i lost it + the charging cable)

[neeljavia]

Only if they had a few years more, they could have moved to better UI and software focusing on utility.
They could have become the Fitbit of lifestyle smart watches.
However it's surprising that tech enthusiasts were ok with lcd displays and outdated UIs just to have phone calls and email on the wrist.

[livemint]

i just bought Time Steel few days ago and its still usable!

[gtrance]

That’s one heck of an interesting case study.

[weatheronthes]

I never owned a smartwatch (or wore a watch) when Pebble was still around, but my first watch I put any effort into wearing was a Fitbit Inspire 2. I wore it because I wanted to track my heartrate and have an extra step counter. I ended up liking the Fitbit enough to upgrade to a Samsung watch because I wanted to be able to check notifications and have something with a bit more uses overall. My Galaxy Watch 5 is most certainly an upgrade, although the Fitbit has much better battery life. A Pebble watch, if it could do everything my Samsung watch can do with a less fancy screen or something to improve battery life, could have definitely been one of my considerations. I specifically wanted the cheaper model of the Samsung watch partially because I like the more "tech on your wrist" look that the cheaper watches provide over the more expensive ones that look like fashion statements more than anything else.