Nostalgia sells. You know it, I know it, and so do a host of companies. I’ve been whiling away hours on old Nintendo Gameboy games recently, and loved every minute of it. Why? They’re simple, fun, addictive, wonderfully designed, and don’t take up days of my time to enjoy. But there’s nothing nostalgic, fun, or wonderfully designed about the new Pebble smartwatch, or to give it it’s official title, the Core 2 Duo.
It’s a has-been throwback to a time when all smartwatches looked like toys, and tech fiends were looking towards anything that may give them a glimpse of the future. The Pebble 2 did the job 10 years ago, but the world of watches — smart and otherwise — is very different now, and unfortunately the Core 2 Duo has no place being on your wrist in 2025. No matter what my colleague Mark Jansen says.
Why not a Pebble?
I bought an original Pebble. A red and black one, and I wore it, used it, and liked it. But that was a long time ago, and even then the tech was clunky, and the design and materials looked and felt cheap. However, if I wanted to wear a smartwatch, there really wasn’t much choice. Today there’s more choice than it’s reasonable to expect. It was also a time when wearable tech made you look like a geek — I know because I also wore Google Glass — and tech companies had no idea how to combine tech with style. See the hideous original 2014 LG G Watch for evidence.
I bring up the LG G Watch for good reason. Is there anyone, at all, anywhere thinking nostalgically about the G Watch? I’d be shocked if there was, yet here we are, looking at a $150 reissue of a similar, yet technically less impressive, smartwatch originally launched two years before it. The Core 2 Duo is not really a modern take on the Pebble either, and even the creator says it’s almost exactly like the Pebble 2, uses old Pebble parts, and a very similar spec sheet. The design? It’s as bland as it gets. It’s not even visually jarring enough to be called ugly like the G Watch.
If any other company launched a plastic watch with a shapeless square body, a 1.26-inch monochrome non-touch screen, no heart rate sensor, no dust resistance rating, and then charged $150 for it in 2025, it would be rightly dismissed and quickly forgotten. The Core Time 2 is coming at the end of the year, and it has a metal frame and a bigger, color touchscreen. It’ll cost $225. I see why it’s coming back (the creator has a compelling story) and rather like it for that, but I don’t think we need it. Not when there are so many alternatives.
Everything is better?
Yes, a lot of alternatives. Lets say you’re in the “I don’t like smartwatches” camp, and the Core 2 Duo’s minimal tech and plastic case appeals in some way. Great, but do you also want to look like you’re 13 years old? That’s how old you’ll look with the plastic-fantastic, style-vacuum that is the Core 2 Duo on your wrist. I’m going to assume if you’re willing to part with $150 on this silly piece of tech, you’re not short of money. So go and buy a Swatch x Omega Moonswatch instead. It’s a plastic watch that has no tech at all, and at least it’ll make you look like an adult.
Perhaps you are slightly into smartwatches and want long battery life? Excellent! Buy the superb Casio G-Shock DW-H5600. It has solar power and may never need charging, plus it tracks fitness, has a heart rate sensor, shows notifications, and has an iconic design that will never go out of style. Plus, it’s immensely durable and comes in several different colors. It’s a proper watch with carefully designed smart features, and fitness tech built with the help of experts at Polar.
What if you want a smartwatch, but haven’t had one since the original Pebble? Brilliant, you’re in for a real treat when you buy one today. If you’ve got an iPhone the Apple Watch Series 10 is its perfect partner. It’s superbly designed, wonderfully comfortable, highly customizable, and integrates with iOS in a way the Core 2 Duo simply cannot. If you have an Android phone, the OnePlus Watch 3 is my top recommendation. If you want a few weeks of battery life on a single charge from your Android smartwatch, the Mobvoi TicWatch Pro 5 can deliver it in its low-power mode, and is also a great choice.
I’m not saying don’t buy it, but…
I’m not saying don’t buy a Core 2 Duo. If you’re a developer or “hacker” then it’s ideal, and it clearly fills a gap in the market. You’ll probably have a lot of fun tinkering with it. I suppose if you’re nostalgic for the original Pebble, that’s fine too. But if the Nokia 3210 taught me anything, it’s that these nostalgia-fueled re-releases are fun to look at, but hateful to use today.
If you’re planning to unironically wear it around, where people can actually see you, and then expecting it to not only look good but also perform like a 2025 smartwatch, then you really need to think twice. Smartwatches today are completely different to what was technologically acceptable in 2012, as is our relationship with always being connected, plus the watch world in general is very different too.
Watches are more than just an accessory or a device to tell the time. They’re desirable, aspirational, and can be as trend-driven as a pair of high-end sneakers. Don’t believe me? Think about how the aforementioned Moonswatch brought Swatch and Omega to mainstream attention when hordes of people queued to try and get one in 2022.
The perfect piece of retro wearable tech already exists
A lot of people care about, and are interested in, watches today, and smartwatches are a big part of the reason why. I know smartwatches introduced me to watch collecting. I also think the Pebble was an important watch, but it was of-its-time, and that time has now passed. Nostalgia isn’t enough of a reason to wear a watch that looks like the Core 2 Duo, and the technology will likely feel archaic to anyone who owns and uses a smartphone made in the last five years or so, and not in a Gameboy-game good way.
I’m not going to end without pointing those who really want a piece of retro, nostalgic wrist wear in their collection in the right direction. Go and buy a Casio CA53W Data Bank watch. It was the height of cool in the 80s, and today it’s yours for $30 with a battery that should last for five years. It’s a true piece of wearable tech history which still looks fantastic today.
The Core 2 Duo does not look fantastic today. The Pebble had its moment, and it should live on as a page in the history books, not on your wrist.
