Pebble has regained its trademark and will be releasing watches again
The popular Pebble brand, the creator of the iconic e-ink watch with a long charge, has managed to regain its trademark. Founder Eric Migicovsky said that the Pebble trademark has been successfully reclaimed and is now owned by the Core Devices team. This means that the gadgets originally called Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 will now be released as Pebble 2 Duo and Pebble Time 2.
The tumultuous history of the Pebble phoenix: burned by Fitbit and reborn in Open Source
Pebble started its journey in 2012 as a small startup. However, the idea of a smartwatch with an e-ink display proved to be a success and the company became a popular smartwatch manufacturer even before smartwatches became popular.
However, in 2016, Pebble sold its intellectual property to Fitbit (for $23 million), but the latter decided to close the Pebble brand.
In 2021, Fitbit was bought by Google, and PebbleOS ended up in Google's hands. In January 2025, Google agreed to open source PebbleOS in response to Migicovsky's request.
On the basis of the open source, Migicovsky founded Core Devices and started creating smartwatches again. And now it has become known that he has managed to get his trademark back. The announcement of two smartwatches under the Pebble brand is expected in the coming weeks.
These are now the Pebble 2 Duo and the Pebble Time 2. Illustration: Pebble
Why It Matters
Such comebacks are very rare in the world of big business. Moreover, Pebble was a pioneer in a market that disappeared at the very height of its growth, so they remain undefeated geniuses in people's memories. It's nice that the same person will be running the company, so there's a chance that the company will retain its spirit of innovation. However, expectations shouldn't be too high, as the smartwatch market is now more saturated than ever - from Apple Watch and Garmin to the legion of Chinese manufacturers of any price range. In any case, users will benefit from additional competition, but it should be borne in mind that the Fitbit deal in 2016 killed Pebble's chance to take a truly prominent place in the market and now it is almost impossible to do so.
theverge.com