{"id":398229,"date":"2026-01-07T20:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398229\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T20:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T20:20:15","slug":"its-back-pebble-resurrects-its-round-smartwatch-after-a-decade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/398229\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s Back: Pebble Resurrects Its Round Smartwatch After a Decade"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pebble Round 2 isn\u2019t meant for everybody. It doesn\u2019t have the fitness-tracking features of a Garmin wearable<\/a> or even those of flagship smartwatches<\/a> from Apple<\/a>, Google<\/a>, or Samsung<\/a>. Instead, it\u2019s meant to follow the same core philosophy behind the Pebble Time 2<\/a> as a playful device that\u2019s fun to use, with long battery life, and an always-on e-paper screen visible without a glow in any lighting conditions. <\/p>\n

With preorders now underway, you can snag the Pebble Round 2 for an attractive $199, and it\u2019s expected to ship in May. It\u2019s a stylish alternative to the square Time 2, with the same thin frame and light, stainless steel design as its predecessor, the Pebble Time Round<\/a> from 2015. It comes in three colors (gold, silver, and black) and two wristband sizes (14 and 20mm). <\/p>\n

What Goes Around<\/p>\n

The original Pebble smartwatches were among the first to popularize the category before the company was\u00a0acquired by Fitbit<\/a>, which was\u00a0subsequently\u00a0acquired by Google<\/a>. They were known for simple designs, with a pleasant e-paper screen and long battery life. Years later, Pebble co-founder Eric Migicovsky was still on the hunt for other wearables that filled the same niche of simplicity plus longevity, so he resurrected the brand<\/a> after Google open-sourced the Pebble software. <\/p>\n

\"Pebble<\/p>\n

\n Notice the watch and the ring. (Credit: Pebble)\n<\/p>\n

The Pebble Round 2 is now the third product being offered by the company, alongside the Time 2 and a smart ring<\/a> for recording your thoughts called the Index 01<\/a>. The Round 2 eliminates the large bezels of its decade-old predecessor, and increases the expected battery life from three days to 10 to 14 days. It has access to the same Pebble store<\/a> as the Time 2, complete with new and old watch faces and simple apps. <\/p>\n

The screen on the Round 2 is a memory-in-pixel, color e-paper design with a refresh rate between 30 to 40 frames per second, allowing for some simple animations. The lower power use of the screen is what grants the watch its longevity, and it’s meant to be visible under any lighting conditions and not cast a glow in darkened rooms. <\/p>\n

While the watch doesn\u2019t have all the health, lifestyle, and safety features of big-name competitors from Apple or Samsung, it does support basic activity and sleep tracking, including step counting. Otherwise, it\u2019s meant to show your phone\u2019s notifications and provide a spot for simple apps without aiming to replace the functionality of your smartphone. <\/p>\n

Recommended by Our Editors<\/p>\n

A New Start for an Old Favorite<\/p>\n

The Pebble Time 2 will start shipping in March for $225 and includes a heart rate monitor and an even longer battery life expectancy of three to four weeks. Oddly, the Round 2 doesn\u2019t have the heart rate monitor for active exercise tracking, and won\u2019t last as long, but it does look like a more traditional watch at a glance and is slightly cheaper. <\/p>\n

\"Pebble<\/p>\n

\n The new watch does look stylish. (Credit: Pebble)\n<\/p>\n

Once they\u2019re available, we\u2019ll test the models to see how these classics fare against modern competition. In the meantime, check out our picks for best smartwatches<\/a> currently on sale.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Newsletter<\/p>\n

\n Get Our Best Stories!\n <\/p>\n

Your Daily Dose of Our Top Tech News<\/p>\n

\"What's<\/p>\n

Sign up for our What’s New Now newsletter to receive the latest news, best new products, and expert advice from the editors of PCMag.<\/p>\n

Sign up for our What’s New Now newsletter to receive the latest news, best new products, and expert advice from the editors of PCMag.<\/p>\n

\n By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use<\/a> and Privacy
\n Policy<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

Thanks for signing up!<\/p>\n

Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!<\/p>\n

About Our Expert<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Andrew Gebhart<\/p>\n

Senior Writer, Smart Home and Wearables<\/p>\n

Experience<\/p>\n

I\u2019m PCMag\u2019s senior writer covering smart home and wearable devices. I\u2019ve been reporting on tech professionally for nearly a decade and have been obsessing about it for much longer than that. Prior to joining PCMag, I made educational videos for an electronics store called Abt Electronics in Illinois, and before that, I spent eight years covering the smart home market for CNET.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I foster many flavors of nerdom in my personal life. I\u2019m an avid board gamer and video gamer. I love fantasy football, which I view as a combination of role-playing games and sports. Plus, I can talk to you about craft beer for hours and am on a personal quest to have a flight of beer at each microbrewery in my home city of Chicago.<\/p>\n


\n Read Full Bio
\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pebble Round 2 isn\u2019t meant for everybody. It doesn\u2019t have the fitness-tracking features of a Garmin wearable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":398230,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[64,63,213,105],"class_list":["post-398229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-gadgets","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=398229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398229\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/398230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=398229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=398229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=398229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}