The smartwatch I'm most excited for in 2025 isn't an Apple Watch or Google Pixel

Jason Cipriani/ZDNET

In 2012, a few of us at ZDNET backed the Pebble Kickstarter project, which became one of the most successfully funded projects at the time, with nearly 70,000 backers pledging more than $10 million. The monochrome e-paper smartwatch started shipping in 2013, a couple of years before Apple launched its Watch.

Also: The best smartwatches you can buy: Expert tested

The Pebble smartwatch stood out with its low $115 price, ability to work with iOS and Android, and an open ecosystem, with enthusiasts continuing to develop and release apps for those of us who still have a few Pebble watches in working condition. In 2016, Fitbit purchased Pebble's software assets and rolled many of the great features from Pebble into the Fitbit OS, while staff from Pebble helped develop the Fitbit Ionic smartwatch.

TechCrunch reported that Pebble founder and CEO Eric Migicovsky plans to bring back Pebble. After Fitbit acquired Pebble, Fitbit itself was purchased by Google. Eric stated that Google plans to open-source the Pebble software stack, and he is ready to bring back Pebble. The article stated that Mr. Migicovsky still wears a Pebble smartwatch.

The news about Pebble is interesting, and I will be charging up my Pebble watches to try them again this week. I have tested hundreds of smartwatches since 2016 and didn't follow the Pebble enthusiast space, but it is great to see the active support that makes Pebble a watch you can continue to use today.

Also: Apple's WatchOS 11.3 clobbers updates for older Apple Watches

Even though I haven't used my Pebble watch for about a decade, I am excited to see the feature list of what Migicovsky wants from a new Pebble watch. He stated the following:

Always-on e-paper screen: It's reflective rather than emissive. Sunlight readable. Glanceable. Not distracting to others like a bright wrist.Long battery life: One less thing to charge. It's annoying to need extra cables when traveling.Simple and beautiful user experience around a core set of features I use regularly: Telling time, notifications, music control, alarms, weather, calendar, sleep/step tracking.Buttons!: To play/pause/skip music on my phone without looking at the screen.Hackable: Apparently, you can't even write your own watch faces for Apple Watch? That is wild. There were more than 16,000 watch faces on the Pebble App Store!

If you want to keep updated on Pebble's development, you can check out the Repebble website and sign up for the latest news.