The first 200 Round 2 watches have reached Pebble’s warehouse after manufacturing problems pushed shipments months beyond the original May target.
Pebble’s Round 2 smartwatch has finally moved from prolonged delay into shipment, marking a significant step for a revived product line that still commands unusual loyalty among former Pebble users. The company says the first 200 finished watches have reached its warehouse and that early customers are now being asked to confirm their orders. According to Pebble’s own shipping guidance, the entire preorder queue is still expected to be completed by the end of December, although the company warns that production timing can still shift.
The Round 2 was announced in January as a modern reinterpretation of the Pebble Time Round, with a 1.3-inch colour e-paper display, a slim stainless-steel case and an advertised battery life of up to two weeks. It is priced at $199 and runs the open-source PebbleOS software stack, which remains central to the project’s appeal. MacRumors reported at launch that the watch is designed to work with both iOS and Android and that it focuses on basic sleep and activity tracking rather than full fitness features.
Production, however, has been slower than first planned. Pebble originally targeted a May shipping window, but the schedule slipped repeatedly as the company worked through manufacturing issues. Industry coverage from Linuxiac and Gadgets & Wearables said the first batch was only now leaving the warehouse after months of silence, with the remaining preorder pipeline stretching through the end of the year. As of early October, Pebble’s public guidance still pointed to December as the likely completion point for existing orders, while cautioning that delays remained possible.
The main bottleneck has been the stainless-steel case. Pebble has said the housing requires CNC milling, polishing and a PVD coating process, and that quality control problems at the supplier have produced high rejection rates in some batches. In some runs, only around 15% of cases reportedly passed incoming inspection. The good news is that other parts of the watch, including displays, batteries, straps, buttons and software, were already ready or in stock, and 30,000 straps had been delivered to the warehouse ahead of the watches themselves.
Pebble is positioning the Round 2 as a practical, community-driven smartwatch rather than a fitness device. The company says the watch uses quick-release straps, comes with silicone bands as standard, and offers optional nubuck leather bands at a heavily subsidised price for preorder customers. It also says the latest PebbleOS build can deliver about eight days of typical battery life, extending to 10 to 14 days with conservative settings. The watch includes touch input, but that can be disabled for users who prefer the original Pebble button-led experience.
The software ecosystem remains one of the project’s strongest assets. Pebble says the community has already produced about 1,400 apps and watch faces for the Round 2, while roughly 3,000 more from the original Pebble Time Round can scale to the new display. The company has also reopened CloudPebble and updated its SDK so developers can build apps in JavaScript. Pebble frames the device carefully, though: it is not a rugged sports watch, it has no heart-rate sensor, and users who want advanced fitness tracking are being steered elsewhere. Even so, for buyers seeking a simple, open, readable smartwatch with a long battery life, the Round 2 is finally becoming a real product rather than a promise.
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