I used a super-cheap Chinese smartwatch (Amazfit Bip S) for years and recently switched to the Pebble. The Bip's battery lasted forever and it did check a lot of feature boxes, but overall it was clunky to use and not in any way hackable.

I switched to a Pebble 2 Duo recently and while the features are comparable on paper (multi-week battery life, reflective display, basic health tracking, etc.), everything is just nicer on the Pebble. The software is thoughtful and fun and there are tons of third-party apps, so it can do all kinds of things the Bip could never do.

There really isn't a huge market for this kind of thing; most people, including nerds, want a watch with a brightly colored screen and tons of health metrics and service integrations. I imagine Pebble will stay a boutique brand this time around.

If there is market for long lasting watch, I think it is if it looks like a traditional round watch. Or if it can work as outdoors watch. Garmin is moving from transflective to AMOLED for better colors, and there might be spot for rugged, long-lasting, cheap watch.

I think Eric has more-or-less implied that they will probably make a Pebble Time Round successor (no doubt with worthwhile battery life this time, given how much more the Duo is)

They sold the whole production run of Pebble 2 Duos, and they are keeping the company small to be sustainable this time. I think they have a chance.

The Pebble software is second to none in nailing the basics. I'll definitely continue to choose Pebble over no-name brands on AliExpress.

> They sold the whole production run of Pebble 2 Duos,

They actually sold more than the whole run; I ordered one, and recently got an email informing me that they don't actually have the parts to fulfill the order.

The key value of Pebble to me was its incredible C SDK that made it super easy to write custom apps for it. I remember way back I got full turn-by-turn navigation working on it.

One thing I don't understand:

> Pebble 2 Duo is sold out! We are not making more. If you want a Pebble, I recommend pre-ordering a Pebble Time 2 soon.

Is this supposed to be a collector's item? I'm not sure I'd want to invest in an ecosystem where damaging the device means I'm out or stuck waiting in line for replacement - with no guarantee the new device will be similar enough.

Pebble 2 Duo were reusing the existing stock of Pebble 2 housings and displays. This model was intended as a limited run from the beginning.

Pebble Time 2 are designed from scratch and expected to be still available after the pre-order batches have been shipped out.

Thanks for the clarification.

I just hope supporting this limited run model will not consume too much resources.

I think they have a very clear niche: nerdy techies (like me).

The question is indeed if it's a big enough market to carry to the company. I hope so.

The Pebble brand name definitely helps them break back into the market. Even some of my non-techy friends recognize the name.

except for the apps for those cheap watches, all your data is uploaded to servers somewhere all the time I assume.

I heard that no one likes him because he has no morals, but that's just what i heard