Nostalgia sells . You know it , I know it , and so do a host of troupe . I ’ve been whiling away hour on old Nintendo Gameboy punt recently , and loved every bit of it . Why ? They ’re dim-witted , fun , addictive , wondrously design , and do n’t take up days of my prison term to enjoy . But there ’s nothing nostalgic , play , or marvellously plan about the raw Pebble smartwatch , or to give it it ’s official rubric , theCore 2 duet .

It ’s a has - been throwback to a fourth dimension when all smartwatches appear like toy , and tech fiend were looking towards anything that may give them a glance of the future . The Pebble 2 did the job 10 years ago , but the world of watches — fresh and otherwise — is very different now , and unluckily the Core 2 Duo has no place being on your wrist in 2025 . No matter what mycolleague Mark Jansen says .

Why not a Pebble?

I bought an originalPebble . A blood-red and black one , and I wear thin it , used it , and care it . But that was alongtime ago , and even then the tech was clumsy , and the design and materials look and felt cheap . However , if I want to outwear a smartwatch , there really was n’t much alternative . Today there ’s more selection than it ’s reasonable to gestate . It was also a clock time when wearable technical school made you front like a eccentric person — I lie with because Ialso wore Google Glass — and tech company had no theme how to commingle technical school with style . See the repulsive original 2014LG G Watchfor evidence .

I bring up the LG G Watch for beneficial rationality . Is there anyone , at all , anywherethinking nostalgically about the G Watch ? I ’d be traumatize if there was , yet here we are , looking at a $ 150 reissue of a similar , yet technically less impressive , smartwatch in the first place launched two years before it . The Core 2 Duo is not really a forward-looking take on the Pebble either , and even the creator enounce it ’s almost exactly like the Pebble 2 , uses old Pebble part , and a very alike spec sheet . The design ? It ’s as bland as it get . It ’s not even visually jarring enough to be called ugly like the G Watch .

If any other society launch a plastic watch with a shapeless square soundbox , a 1.26 - column inch monochrome non - touch screen , no marrow pace detector , no dust electric resistance rating , and then charged $ 150 for it in 2025 , it would be justly dismissed and quickly forgotten . The Core Time 2 is follow at the end of the year , and it has a metallic element physique and a crowing , colour touchscreen . It ’ll cost $ 225 . I see why it ’s coming back ( the creator hasa compelling narration ) and rather wish it for that , but I do n’t think we want it . Not when there are so many alternatives .

Everything is better?

Yes , a lot of alternatives . Lets say you ’re in the “ I do n’t care smartwatches ” camp , and the Core 2 Duo ’s minimum tech and plastic case appeals in some way . bully , but do you also need to count like you ’re 13 years old ? That ’s how old you ’ll reckon with the charge plate - wild , style - vacuum that is the Core 2 Duo on your wrist . I ’m going to assume if you ’re unforced to part with $ 150 on this dizzy piece of technical school , you ’re not short of money . So go and grease one’s palms a Swatch x Omega Moonswatch alternatively . 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 desire prospicient battery life ? Excellent ! Buy the superbCasio G - Shock DW - H5600 . It has solar power and may never postulate charging , plus it tracks fittingness , has a heart rate sensor , shows notifications , and has an iconic blueprint that will never go out of style . Plus , it ’s vastly durable and derive in several different colour . It ’s a proper lookout man with carefully designed smart features , and fittingness technical school establish with the helper of expert at Polar .

What if you want a smartwatch , but have n’t had one since the original Pebble ? Brilliant , you ’re in for a real delicacy when you grease one’s palms one today . If you ’ve got an iPhone theApple Watch Series 10is itsperfect spouse . It ’s superbly design , wonderfully comfortable , highly customizable , and integrates with iOS in a room the Core 2 Duo plainly can not . If you have an Android phone , theOnePlus Watch 3is my top recommendation . If you need a few hebdomad of battery life on a undivided charge from your Android smartwatch , theMobvoi TicWatch Pro 5can turn in it in its low - power manner , and is also a great choice .

I’m not saying don’t buy it, but…

I ’m not saying do n’t corrupt 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 slew of playfulness potter with it . I presuppose if you ’re nostalgic for the original Pebble , that ’s all right too . But if theNokia 3210 taught me anything , it ’s that these nostalgia - fueled re - releases are fun to look at , but mean to use today .

If you ’re planning to unironically wear out it around , where people can actuallyseeyou , and then expecting it to not only take care dependable but also perform like a 2025 smartwatch , then you really demand to think doubly . Smartwatches today are entirely different to what was technologically satisfactory in 2012 , as is ourrelationship with always being tie , plus the watch worldly concern in universal is very different too .

Watches are more than just an accessory or a equipment to secernate the meter . They ’re suitable , aspirational , and can be as movement - drive as a pair of in high spirits - end sneaker . Do n’t believe me ? Think about how the aforementioned Moonswatch brought Swatch and Omega to mainstream aid when hordes of people queued to render and get one in 2022 .

The perfect piece of retro wearable tech already exists

A batch of hoi polloi handle about , and are interested in , watches today , and smartwatches are a big part of the reasonableness why . I know smartwatches introduce me to watch collecting . I also think the Pebble was an crucial watch , but it was of - its - metre , and that sentence has now passed . Nostalgia is n’t enough of a grounds to wear a watch that wait like the Core 2 Duo , and the technology will likely experience antiquated to anyone who have and uses a smartphone made in the last five years or so , and not in a Gameboy - game safe way .

I ’m not going to end without pointing those who really want a piece of retro , nostalgic radiocarpal joint wear off in their collection in the right direction . Go and corrupt aCasio CA53W Data Bankwatch . It was the tiptop of coolheaded in the eighty , and today it ’s yours for $ 30 with a battery that should last for five years . It ’s a unfeigned while of wearable technical school history which still looks fantastic today .

The Core 2 Duo does not face fantastic today . The Pebble had its instant , and it should live on as a varlet in the history account book , not on your articulatio radiocarpea .