Pebble

Pebble Round 2 Starts Shipping!

TLDR

#Pebble Round 2 is in production!!

Finally! 😌 We’re not out of the woods yet, but we have successfully built the first two hundred full watches, the watches have arrived at our warehouse and we’re sending invites to folks to confirm their order and receive their Pebble Round 2 now.

We’re extraordinarily excited to get Round 2 out onto your wrist. I love all my children equally - but the truth is that most days you’ll find me sporting a PR2! It’s incredibly light, sleek and feels amazing to wear. We’ve developed several leather straps that we’re proud to share today that perfectly match and complement the aesthetic of the watch.

Thank you to many beta testers (wrists pictured above!) who helped test the software and hardware over the last few months.

The first PR2 watches arriving at our warehouse, along with 30,000 straps

Here’s the rough manufacturing and shipping schedule (subject to changes - there may be more delays):

  • We are manufacturing PR2 in batches. The next batch of 1000 watches will start production immediately after the Mid-Autumn/National Day holiday (Oct 1-7) in China and ship out at the end of October.
  • The next batch (all remaining orders) will begin production at the beginning of November and begin shipping out at the end of November.
  • As of today, we expect to finish shipping all preorders by the end of December.
  • We’re doing what we can to pull in the schedule. Right now the schedule delay is roughly in line with what we experienced with PT2 (estimated ship in December, started shipping in April, completed by July).

The most difficult part of Round 2 production so far is making the stainless steel case. It’s created using CNC milling, then polished and coated with PVD. Over the last 3 months we’ve received several rounds of samples from our case supplier - each round of samples exhibited (ultra annoyingly) different cosmetic issues. During some rounds, only 15% of cases passed our incoming quality control checks. The ones that passed went into production, the ones that failed were rejected or sent back for ‘rework’ until they passed. When I said above that we are not out of the woods yet, there’s still a possibility that these issues could come up again in future batches.

Everything else, including the display, battery, buttons, silicone straps, leather straps, environmental and drop testing, FCC/CE/IC certification and software is ready and waiting for the metal cases. In fact, unlike with PT2, all the straps are finished and sitting in our warehouse ready to ship out ahead of the watches!

Accelerated lifecycle testing

Drop testing

Waterproof testing

#Strap options

We’ve created several leather strap accessories for Pebble Round 2. If you had one of the original Pebble Time Round watches, you’ll recognize the feel and finish of these. The leather is nubuck leather - soft and velvety. It feels and looks great!

As a small token of our appreciation for your patience, we’re offering everyone who pre-ordered PR2 an option to add a leather straps to their order for $5 (below our cost to make these fine straps). You can preview the options below, featuring real photos (the display is really that nice!) of each PR2 colour and strap. Visit order.rePebble.com to pre-select your strap choice.

Watch: Black 20mm · Strap: BlackFeaturing AWW1 by pbhgl

Watch Color & Size

Silicone Strap (Included)

Add a Leather Strap +$5 (optional)

#What you need to know about Pebble Round 2

As with Pebble 2 Duo and Pebble Time 2, we’re trying to be as upfront and clear as possible. We want to set your expectations accordingly and make sure that everyone is happy with what they get. It's incredibly awesome that Pebble is back, but there are some differences from the last time around. There's no hundred-plus person company behind this project. It's just me and a few other brave souls. Ironically, that's actually one of the reasons why it's more likely to succeed long-term!

With that in mind, I’ve written a blunt and honest review of Pebble Round 2 that you can read before you confirm your order.

  • Pebble Round 2 is the ultimate evolution of the original Pebble Time Round. If you had a Pebble Time Round before, it's exactly what you probably dreamed of - exactly the same but with no bezel and more battery life.

  • The display on PR2 is much better than Time Round! Not only is it larger, with less bezel, it’s optically bonded with the glass lens and made with newer technology that dramatically improves the contrast and darkness of black colours.

  • Everything that you love about Pebble is here: long battery life, amazing e-paper screen, buttons, fun quirky design.

  • Developers have already created 1,400 apps and watchfaces especially for PR2. An additional 3,000 Time Round apps and faces automatically scale up to fit the larger display.

  • Each watch includes a new Pebble magnetic charger - the same charger that works with all recent Pebble watches.

  • Round 2 comes in two sizes. The case is 41.5mm in diameter. The only thing that changes is the width of the strap (20mm and 14mm).

  • Each watch includes a matching silicone strap, with optional leather straps as accessories. Straps are standard quick-release, you can swap it out for any standard 20mm or 14mm strap depending on your selected size.

  • We worked hard to make the buttons feel ultra nice and clicky.

  • The average battery life with current version of PebbleOS is 8 days. Disabling the touch screen, switching to a watchface that refreshes less frequently and disabling shake-to-backlight pushes battery life to 10-14 days. We’re still working on improvements - as you’ve seen with P2D and PT2, we’ve been able to deliver great results over time.

  • It runs all the old Pebble watch faces that you know and love - browse them at apps.rePebble.com (tap the selector on top to change to PR2). You can sign in and begin to collect your favourites! For developers, we've updated the SDK to add a new way to make apps purely in JavaScript, and CloudPebble is back!

  • Health (steps and sleep tracking) works just as well as it did 10 years ago. It’s good, but if you want full health/fitness tracking with GPS etc, you should probably get a Garmin or something. We’ve compared step counts to the Apple Watch (roughly the same).

  • It has a touch screen! Yes, Pebble has entered the 21st century. Navigate the OS with touch, or disable touch entirely. Your choice!

Things to be aware of:

  • Similar to PT2, the top and bottom case is CNC milled stainless Steel 316, with a hardened ceramic-like PVD coating and glass front lens. It’s strong, but not invincible. If you bang it against things, it may scratch, crack or break. Tile is especially hard on all smartwatches - all glass smartwatches cracklwhen they’re dropped face down against hard tile. Tile is an extremely hard surface.
  • If you have a mild nickel allergy, the PVD coating should be sufficient barrier, but we do not recommend using PT2 if you have a more severe nickel allergy since stainless steel 316 contains ~10% nickel. If you used a Pebble Time Round or Time 2 with no problems, you should be ok.
  • Pebble Round 2 is water resistant, but less so than our other watches. You can wash hands with it on, be in the rain, dunk it in water, have a bath/shower, but I wouldn’t recommend exposing it to hot water (ie hot tubs) or submerge it for long periods of time.
  • We’re continually releasing software updates - just check out our changelogs! There are many quirks, bugs and rough edges in all our software. We’re constantly working on it all! We’re very responsive to feedback through the Pebble app. If you run into a problem you have two options - wait patiently for us to fix it, or help to develop the feature you want (we’ve merged dozens of amazing PRs to open source PebbleOS and Pebble app!). If you are the type of person who can’t deal with rough edges or things not working perfectly, we recommend you cancel your order now.

We offer a 30-day warranty. We will ship you a replacement during that period if you encounter any hardware defects and return it . We think this is a fantastic watch, and we stand behind it. But we can't stand up behind it forever - life happens. We’re also a much smaller company than before. We can’t afford to bring these new watches to market unless we can contain our exposure to risk. To balance that, we’re clearly stating our terms in the interest of being as transparent as possible, enabling you to make an informed decision.

In practice, we ignore this 30-day limit and continue to support everyone who reports problems to us long after they’ve purchased.

We don't offer buyer's remorse refunds. The information about what Pebble is and does has been around for 14 years now. You all should have a pretty good idea of what the product is and whether you want it. It's also very hard to do reverse logistics worldwide (ie getting watches returned). If you don't want a Pebble, please don't order one 😉.

#Address and order confirmation email

Over the next few months, everyone who pre-ordered a Pebble Round 2 will receive an email from [email protected] inviting them to click a link and enter more information to complete their order. Here’s some info about that process:

  • Add-ons are available to purchase (extra straps, charge dongles)
  • You must pay any duties, tariffs, VAT or taxes owed before shipping
  • After confirming your information, your order will be locked. You will not be able to refund after this, but you can change your address right up until your order ships using the same link.

After you confirm, your order will ship out within 1-3 weeks (depending on availability of the watch color and accessories you selected) from our fulfillment center in Asia. The shipment will take 6-10 business days to arrive at your address.

Please do email us if you have any problems or questions after receiving the email. Please do not email us asking if your order confirmation email has been sent out. Check your inbox and spam folder and wait for the email from [email protected].

#FAQ

I ordered a PT2 and PR2…

Thank you for your support! You’ll receive free shipping on your Pebble Round 2 shipment. We will email you to reconfirm your shipping address and ask you to select your strap. No additional payment is required unless you add accessories to your PR2 order.

How much are tariffs for orders sent to the US?

For shipments to the US, the tariff on each Pebble Round 2 is around $11 which you’ll pay be asked to pay when you receive your address and order confirmation email.

How are tariffs, VAT, taxes and duties for non-US countries handled?

For shipments to countries other than the US,  you’ll be asked to pay your taxes, duties, tariffs, and fees when you receive your address and order confirmation email. Most shipments are sent DDP* (Delivered Duty Paid), which means you’ll receive your package in the mail with zero hassle - there will be no additional charges or customs forms to fill out when your package arrives.

*Except to a few select countries (including Ukraine, Brazil, Armenia, Algeria, Bahrain, Nepal and a few smaller island nations). For these countries, no taxes, duties, tariffs, or fees are paid when you receive your address and order confirmation email. Instead, when your shipment arrives in your home country, your customs agency may charge taxes, duties, and tariffs directly to the shipping carrier, who will send you a bill or charge you upon delivery.

What is the VAT + Handling Fee?

For shipments to all countries (except US), we may include a small handling fee that covers the administrative costs of ensuring all taxes are properly paid at customs. This helps prevent your package from being held at customs and ensures you won't receive any unexpected tax bills after delivery. The handling fee is calculated as 5% of the combined duties/tariffs and VAT, plus $1.

Can I modify my order later?

No. After confirming your order you cannot modify your order (including address). Please triple check your order items and address before confirming.

How will my order be shipped?

All shipments are sent via courier (varies by country). We will send you a tracking number as soon as your shipment is dispatched, allowing you to monitor your package's journey to your doorstep.

Email us from the account you placed your with and we’d be happy to answer any questions you have! [email protected]

Stay in the loop

Get updates on Pebble news and products.