The Maker of the First Smartwatch Pebble is Relaunching Its Iconic Smartwatch Line
The Pebble watch was the first generation of smartwatches. Then the company went bankrupt. Now, almost 10 years later, the iconic watch, some of which are still in business today, is set to be relaunched.
According to the entrepreneur, the essence of Pebble is several things. The smartwatch should be unusual and fun, and feel like a gadget in an important way. The new watch will display notifications, allow you to control music with buttons, have a long battery life and “not try to do too much.” Migicovsky decided not to repeat past mistakes and will now own the new company alone, without borrowing money from investors who will be able to use their power to change the company as they see fit. Migicovsky made enough money from the sale of his startup, the developer of the messaging app Beeper, to Automattic last year, and from being an investor in Y Combinator, that they will have enough money to launch the new project alone.
The new company will have a different name, since Google owns the Pebble trademark.
There’s certainly reason to believe that interest in smartwatches is still strong today. After Pebble went bankrupt, a community quickly formed that, among other things, created an app store and has supported the used-device market ever since.
