The $225 Pebble Time 2 is a refreshingly fun smartwatch

售价 225 美元的 Pebble Time 2：一款令人耳目一新的趣味智能手表

The new $225 Pebble Time 2 smartwatch feels like a toy, and we mean that in the best sense of the word. The refreshed version of the indie smartwatch brand, rebooted by its original founder, feels casual, fun, and playful, — not like a mini-computer on your wrist. Its quirky watch faces and simple apps and games give it a sort of hacker energy, while its physical buttons, e-paper screen, and long battery life provide its retro vibes. 这款售价 225 美元的新款 Pebble Time 2 智能手表感觉像个玩具，我们是褒义地这样形容它。这个由原创始人重启的独立智能手表品牌，其焕新版本给人一种随性、有趣且俏皮的感觉，而不是像戴在手腕上的微型电脑。它那古怪的表盘、简单的应用和游戏赋予了它一种“黑客精神”，而物理按键、电子纸屏幕和超长续航则带来了复古的氛围。

The first thing you’ll notice about the new Pebble Time 2 is that the device looks nothing like an Apple Watch. Where the Apple Watch has an OLED touchscreen display, the Pebble opts for a color e-paper screen. Where the Apple Watch comes in a range of band types, from sporty straps to high-end metals and leather, the Pebble Time 2 has a silicone watch band, making it feel more like a Swatch rival than a fancy smartwatch. And instead of picking between different aluminum finishes, as with the Apple Watch, the Pebble Time 2 offers a choice of colors: blue, red, silver, or black wrapped around its stainless steel frame of silver or black. 关于新款 Pebble Time 2，你首先会注意到的是它看起来一点也不像 Apple Watch。Apple Watch 采用的是 OLED 触摸屏，而 Pebble 则选择了彩色电子纸屏幕。Apple Watch 提供从运动表带到高端金属和皮革等多种表带选择，而 Pebble Time 2 则配备硅胶表带，这让它感觉更像是 Swatch 的竞争对手，而非一款奢华的智能手表。此外，它不像 Apple Watch 那样提供多种铝金属外观选择，而是提供蓝色、红色、银色或黑色等颜色，并搭配银色或黑色的不锈钢边框。

The watch’s 64-color e-paper screen is always on but can be backlit (via an RGB LED) with a flick of your wrist or via taps. Like almost everything on the watch, you can customize this, too. (I set mine to light up with a single tap instead of two.) This display is more muted compared with an Apple Watch’s Retina display, but it’s easy to see in bright sunlight, and the trade-off here means the battery can last a long time: about 21 days on a charge, depending on use, with a charger included in the box. 这款手表的 64 色电子纸屏幕常亮，但可以通过手腕翻转或点击来触发背光（通过 RGB LED 实现）。和手表上的几乎所有功能一样，你也可以对其进行自定义（我将我的设置为了单次点击亮屏，而不是默认的两次）。与 Apple Watch 的视网膜显示屏相比，这块屏幕色彩较暗淡，但在强光下依然清晰可见。这种取舍带来的好处是电池续航极长：根据使用情况，单次充电可使用约 21 天，包装内附带充电器。

But where Pebble really differentiates itself from other smartwatches is its software and, especially, its community. The community is really the reason the watch still exists at all — after the company behind the original Pebble shut down. 但 Pebble 与其他智能手表真正的区别在于其软件，尤其是它的社区。正是因为社区的存在，这款手表在原 Pebble 公司倒闭后才得以存续至今。

Pebble had first begun as a Kickstarter project before ultimately making its way to Google, by way of a Fitbit acquisition. Before its exit, the company sold 2 million watches, generating $230 million in sales. Even so, its founder, Eric Migicovsky (who has since co-founded the messaging app Beeper), openly shared that Pebble’s financials weren’t able to sustain the business, which forced the sale. Fitbit kept the watch’s servers and app store alive until mid-2018. After that, the job was taken over by Pebble’s own user community, an unusual show of brand loyalty that effectively kept the product on life support for free. Pebble 最初是一个 Kickstarter 项目，最终通过 Fitbit 的收购被谷歌收入囊中。在退出市场前，该公司售出了 200 万块手表，创造了 2.3 亿美元的销售额。即便如此，其创始人 Eric Migicovsky（后来联合创立了消息应用 Beeper）公开表示，Pebble 的财务状况无法支撑业务运营，这迫使公司不得不出售。Fitbit 维持了手表服务器和应用商店的运营直到 2018 年年中。此后，这项工作由 Pebble 的用户社区接管，这种罕见的品牌忠诚度有效地让该产品免费维持了生命。

Then, in 2025, Migicovsky, with the help of some ex-Pebblers and Fitbit folks at Google, convinced the tech giant to open source the original Pebble operating system. This made it possible for him to take another crack at building Pebble watches under his new company, Core Devices. Core Devices has since shipped a limited-edition Pebble 2 Duo watch and has now sold more than 25,000 of its Pebble Time 2 watches across 93 countries. Its third device, the Pebble Round 2, is expected to begin shipping in September. While Migicovsky hopes the do-over will give him a chance to correct the mistakes of the past, what hasn’t been left behind is Pebble’s spirit. 2025 年，Migicovsky 在一些前 Pebble 员工和谷歌 Fitbit 团队的帮助下，说服了这家科技巨头将原始的 Pebble 操作系统开源。这使他能够在他的新公司 Core Devices 旗下再次尝试制造 Pebble 手表。此后，Core Devices 推出了限量版 Pebble 2 Duo 手表，目前已在 93 个国家售出了超过 25,000 块 Pebble Time 2 手表。其第三款设备 Pebble Round 2 预计将于 9 月开始发货。虽然 Migicovsky 希望这次重来能让他有机会纠正过去的错误，但 Pebble 的精神内核从未改变。

Watch faces! So many watch faces! Still very much sustained by its hacker community, the device already ships with over 2,120 watch faces and apps built by Pebble developers, including over 500 new ones from a spring developer contest. This is where things start to get fun. Since the first thing many people do is customize their watch face, this large, whimsical selection showcases the community’s playful vibes. 表盘！海量的表盘！在黑客社区的持续支持下，该设备自带超过 2,120 款由 Pebble 开发者制作的表盘和应用，其中包括来自春季开发者大赛的 500 多款新作。这正是乐趣所在。由于许多人拿到手表后的第一件事就是自定义表盘，这些丰富且天马行空的选择充分展现了社区的趣味氛围。

Using the Pebble companion mobile app, you can choose from simple analog or digital displays, or you can pick from those featuring silly characters, like cartoon dogs, cats, or axolotls; various backgrounds and scenes; pixelated retro displays; giant, brightly colored numbers; text shown styled in creative fonts, like those from comic books or sci-fi; and more. You can set the screen to be a favorite meme, like Nyan Cat, or to a watch face with characters from classic video games like Mario, Kirby, Pokémon, and more. (Don’t ask about the licensing — just enjoy it while it lasts.) 通过 Pebble 手机配套应用，你可以选择简单的模拟或数字显示，也可以选择带有搞怪角色的表盘，比如卡通狗、猫或墨西哥钝口螈；还可以选择各种背景和场景、像素风复古显示、巨大的亮色数字，以及采用漫画或科幻风格字体显示的文本等等。你可以将屏幕设置为最喜欢的模因（如彩虹猫），或者带有马力欧、卡比、宝可梦等经典游戏角色的表盘。（别问版权问题——趁现在还能用，尽情享受吧。）

Despite a much smaller user base than the Apple Watch, the Pebble app store is full of creative and often niche applications across categories like health and fitness, games, tools and utilities, remotes, and others. There are many useful tools here — timers, Spotify controls, weather apps, to-do lists, calculators, navigation aids, stock trackers, a Strava activity tracker, medication reminders, health apps, calendars, and many fun, often retro-inspired, games. 尽管用户群远小于 Apple Watch，但 Pebble 应用商店里充满了创意十足且往往非常小众的应用，涵盖健康健身、游戏、工具实用程序、遥控器等类别。这里有很多实用的工具——计时器、Spotify 控制、天气应用、待办事项列表、计算器、导航辅助、股票追踪器、Strava 活动追踪器、用药提醒、健康应用、日历，以及许多有趣且通常带有复古风格的游戏。

What’s incredible about the selection is that many of these were created by individuals who simply wanted an app for a specific purpose, so they built it themselves. That could be an app for tracking a local train schedule, or their tennis score, their Claude AI usage, when to apply more sunscreen, or a thousand other things that would never make sense for an indie developer to build as a business. There are also newer AI-powered apps for those who want access to a chatbot or agent on their wrist. There are many playful apps, too, like the PebGoBrrrr app that tells time by vibrating the watch, or one where you can whack a mole for fun. (I don’t know, why not?). Among the most popular apps is the self-described “pointless” Pixel Miner game, where your little character mines for treasure. Another popular creation offers a FitCat virtual pet and activity tracker. 这些应用最令人惊叹的地方在于，其中许多是由个人开发者为了满足特定需求而亲手制作的。这可能是一个追踪当地火车时刻表的应用，或者是记录网球比分、Claude AI 使用量、提醒涂抹防晒霜的时间，以及其他成千上万种独立开发者作为商业项目根本不会去做的功能。此外，还有一些较新的 AI 应用，供那些希望在手腕上使用聊天机器人或智能代理的用户使用。还有许多好玩的应用，比如通过震动来报时的“PebGoBrrrr”应用，或者让你玩打地鼠游戏的程序。（我不知道，为什么不呢？）。最受欢迎的应用之一是自称“毫无意义”的《像素矿工》（Pixel Miner）游戏，你的小角色会在里面挖掘宝藏。另一个受欢迎的作品是提供虚拟宠物和活动追踪功能的《FitCat》。

There’s even an app you can use to make other apps. If there’s any complaint to be made here, it’s that there’s almost too much to explore. The Pebble app store could benefit from more search and discovery tools, similar to Apple’s App Store — subcategories, lists, editor. 甚至还有一个可以用来制作其他应用的工具。如果非要说有什么抱怨的话，那就是这里的内容多到几乎探索不完。Pebble 应用商店如果能像苹果 App Store 那样提供更多的搜索和发现工具（如子分类、榜单、编辑推荐等），体验会更好。