Data, ego, and the future of Pebble: how the Core vs. Rebble feud could undermine the comeback of 2025

Now, I’m not going to pretend like I have a perfect grasp on the situation. This is something that I chose to share as a preface, because even after hours of reading, I realized that a lot of threads in the tapestry of this story lead to events in the past, for which we have little more than claims. That being said, I do believe that even in challenging situations, it’s not that hard to keep on track and do the right thing.

Before the Pebble 2 Duo and Pebble Time 2 got their namesakes, they were called “Core”. The company still dons that title, even though Eric Migicovsky — the original founder of Pebble, and current CEO of Core — managed to get the rights to the "Pebble" name back. He’s also the man who managed to convince Google to allow PebbleOS to become open-source (one of my favorite things to happen in 2025, by the way, so thank you Eric!).

However, all of this went down in 2025. Sure, a lot of it was probably planned ahead of time, but it mostly happened this year. But Pebble — the original company — got sold off to Fitbit in 2016 (which later got acquired by Google in 2021). But as you might’ve noticed from posts and articles online — some maybe authored by yours truly — Pebble smartwatches remained functional. How?

Well, it was all thanks to Rebble — an unofficial group of developers, which liked the Pebble so much, that they dedicated years of hard work to keeping it alive. Since December 2016, the Rebble Alliance has scraped the old Pebble app store, found a way to make the old Pebble app functional again, and maintained all of the watch faces and apps, originally uploaded to the platform, so that they continue being available. All of this: free of charge (of course, they accepted donations, but the fact still remains). Even Eric himself has claimed that he donated thousands to their cause, which was a very bittersweet happening.

So it is a complete bummer that these two sides, which effectively want the same thing, are now bickering over data, that practically none of them own. And I’d hate for my highly anticipated Pebble Time 2 to be less cool of a watch merely because of this.

The Core of the data dispute

From what I understand, the following is going on: Eric — and Core, for the sake of the new Pebble devices — wants Rebble to share all the data from the old Pebble store. This absolutely makes sense — the point of the new Pebble watches is for them to be backwards compatible with the entire legacy library. And as a developer, I’d love to see the watchfaces I made on these new models. 

Rebble, on the other hand, claims that the data is theirs. And I understand that too. This sounds absurd, but it’s true — Rebble has been maintaining this storefront for longer than any of Eric’s companies have been alive at this point. Rebble’s team has done a ton for the community, and no one has any right to deny that.

Core has offered to pay Rebble a small sum per user to access the data to keep things fair. This is another show of good faith, which I think must be acknowledged — it is good that Eric isn’t trying to undermine Rebble’s contribution to Pebble as a whole. And now, we reach the issue:

• If Rebble makes the data public, what would prevent Core from copying over the entire server, cutting them off in the process? The agreement to pay would still be there, but the need to get paid would no longer exist.
• On the other hand, if Core doesn’t get access to the data, a huge part of what gives Pebble its identity can’t happen. Not to mention that the lack of day-one access to the myriad of appstore offerings will certainly contribute to the new smartwatches’ sales performance.

It is not hard to understand both sides of the argument. But it is also the correct thing to take a step back and analyze the situation, and reach some valid conclusions. All of the above — it’s just assumptions. It’s not objective reality, and through good will, partnership and active communication, it might never come to be.

Moreover, a large number of Pebble fans both new and old raise valid concerns online. Eric himself is part of the discussion, but he seems to be ignoring them, which doesn’t look great.



A very astute observation indeed. How come there is a demand for Rebble to make the old data open-source, while the new Pebble app’s frontend is decidedly closed-source? It is just odd, especially after Eric described the battle to get PebbleOS to become open-source as a difficult one. This lack of reciprocity is a critical misstep, but one that is still well within reach of getting corrected. 

And an interesting exchange here:

To which Eric replied:



And honestly, this following remark here:

Which nicely compliments with another concern, voiced here: 

The last few captured my mind in ways that made my neurons flare up in numerous colors, indicating a mix of different emotions. True enough: the new Pebble watches are effectively riding a wave of past times: PebbleOS and Rebble’s hard work. Eric seems to be responding a bit emotionally to all of this, and I believe I understand why: Pebble is his child, his masterwork, and a device worthy of that title. I believe his outburst comes out of a place of care.

On the one hand, this is just a bunch of people trying to figure it out. It’s refreshing to see raw passion behind an upcoming tech product. Nowadays, we’re accustomed to seeing a corporate facade, intended to hide all of this. But at the same time, I kind of get why that became the norm. Because, if anything, all of this just underlines an incredible lack of communication skill. And at that point, why not just involve a mediator?

Eric is rightfully uncomfortable with Rebble’s attitude in the situation. But these people are just passionate Pebble fans — emotion is why they got where they are in the first place. That is no excuse for titling their statement as “Core Devices Keeps Stealing Our Work” (because, again — it’s their work, but certainly not their data).

Rebble ultimately asks the community what it would like them to do in a post, which doesn’t have an enabled comments section. Eric’s blog post and Reddit publication do have those enabled, but he seldom responds to the most pressing questions.

Sure, but this reads as if it is missing a key factor. Because — Eric, Rebble, with full respect — please don’t ruin the new Pebble watches. Instead, focus on…

Doing the right thing

Here’s the deal, though: this data doesn’t belong to Eric or Rebble. Technically, it belongs to whoever originally made it. Realistically — it belongs to the people. The fans. A kind reminder:

• Without fans, Pebble would’ve never amassed such a cult following
• Without the strong community, devs wouldn’t have flooded the appstore with so many creative releases
• Without Eric’s hard work, the watch wouldn’t exist in the first place
• Without Rebble’s support, none of us would have been able to enjoy these creations for such a long, dry period

Note the chain: it’s all connected. Without the fans’ hunger for awesome tech that does cool stuff, there wouldn’t be a need for innovative software, which called for optimized hardware, which then created the need for Rebble’s project in the first place. It’s all because of fandom. Eric made Pebble, because he thought it’s just so neat. Rebble made the backup, because they loved his product.

I’m certain that I know what the correct thing to do here is: making the next Pebble watches the best that they can be. That’s how it started, that’s how it should be. I understand that in this modern age it’s easy to mistrust, but I also believe that some of our historically favorite tech gadgets were born out of freedom and collaboration, not out of fear and assumptions of a worst-case scenario.

Recently, I stumbled upon this awesome video by Enrico Tartarotti:



He raises so many valid points about where we started and how we got to where we are. I don’t think I’m nostalgic — I think we’re losing something valuable with modern tech. And I’d like for the new Pebble smartwatches to serve as a reminder for how things should be, instead of another example for how bad things have gotten in some aspects.

And here’s the twist: Eric and Rebble already know this, and are low key on the same page:



In tandem with:

Both quoted from the same fervor-driven blog posts from yesterday, by the way.

That’s the spirit. Now get to it. Make them the best they can be. For me, because without Pebble, I wouldn't have ever attempted to write code (and if I hadn't failed at that, I would've never gotten inspired to pursue tech writing). For all the other people out there, still wearing their old Pebbles with their tattered straps and scratched-up screens. For the new guys, who are just now getting invested in the new Pebble 2 Duo and eagerly checking their tracking numbers for shipment updates.

Guys, don’t forget that it’s all about this. It was always about this. If you were smart enough to get us here, you must be intelligent enough to reach a mutually-beneficial resolution. And in the name of a brighter tech-fueled future, I hope you do soon, because I'd much rather be reading exciting product updates instead.

If you’re hopeful of the future like me, you can check out the upcoming Pebble 2 smartwatches here. I’m sure that they have the potential to be amazing devices, reminding all of us of why we love tech to begin with: because it is fun.