- Core Devices announces Pebble Round 2
- The new smartwatch has a big e-paper screen
- It also promises a week of battery life per charge
After a phoenix-like rise from ashes in 2024, Pebble continues to soar back into the smartwatch space with an all-new Pebble Round 2.
If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the new wearable arrives a decade after the original underwhelming Pebble Time Round. Instead of a lackluster rehash, the Pebble Round 2, from Pebble platform savior Core Devices, appears to fix virtually all its predecessor’s shortcomings.
The Pebble Round 2, which will be shown at CES 2026 but will not ship until May, features a color e-paper display and an edge-to-edge 1.3-inch screen. Put another way, the screen’s face is significantly larger than the original Round’s, which had a massive, inert bezel.
The other major update is the battery life. Pebble is rating the new round at up to seven days of battery life. The Pebble Time Round was rated for just a couple of days. Core Devices achieved this without significantly increasing the watch’s thickness. The Pebble Round 2 is 8.1mm thick, which is just slightly thicker than the Pebble Time Round.
It’s even cheaper than the Pebble Time Round, priced at $199 compared with the Pebble Time Round’s $249.
The Pebble Round 2 is also a very much a wearable of its time, tracking steps and sleep, and including both an accelerometer and a magnetometer. It even has a touch screen, though Pebble says you’re free to ignore it. There’s even water resistance (though the level of protection, listed as “30m target,” is currently unclear).
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The new Pebble Round 2 joins the Pebble Time 2 (square and featuring another large e-paper display) and the still-fresh Pebble Index 01, a smart ring that has no interest in your health but can be the bit of on-your-finger short-term memory keeper you were missing (it can record short voice notes).
The growing stable of wearables lends credence to the impression that the open-source Pebble platform is shifting from survival to growth mode. For more than a decade, it’s been held aloft by long-held adoration among a small contingent of Pebble fans (I’m one of them). For a period, the focus was on software updates to support the original Pebble watches.
Open source remains at the heart of Core Devices’ efforts, but the reported 15,000 apps and “thousands of Watch Faces” now have new homes, including this latest watch, which is now on pre-order and should arrive in May.
Color options on the stainless steel frame will include matte black, brushed silver, and polished rose gold. Unlike many of today’s best smartwatches, the Pebble Round 2 will support both iOS and Android.
Will the second Round be a knockout for Pebble? It’s too soon to say, but Core Devices promises that all images provided are of real, working Pebble Round 2 models, and we will be seeing them in person at CES 2026.
That will be our first chance to determine whether Core Devices has truly fixed all of the original Round’s problems and created a smartwatch alternative at least as compelling as an Apple Watch or a Samsung Galaxy Watch.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
