If you’ve been paying attention to the wearable tech space over the last couple of weeks, you might have heard of the return of the Pebble, or now known as Core smartwatches.
Long story short, Eric Migicovsky, the founder of the Pebble smartwatch brand, launched two new smartwatches – Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2 – effectively bringing the once-dead e-paper-powered Pebble smartwatches back to life.
But since Google still owns the rights to the Pebble name, Migicovsky had to opt for “Core” instead. Upon the Pebble founder’s request, Google also kindly made PebbleOS open source, which is the prime reason that enabled the existence of these watches.
While Pebble fans, including myself, are stoked over the return of the “Pebble” watches, there’s one thing you must consider first before splurging RM700 to RM1,100 for these watches, and it’s the warranty coverage the products are provided with.
Core smartwatches to be given only 30 days of warranty coverage?
Under the list of FAQs stated on the rePebble website, Core Devices, the company behind the two new smartwatches, will only be providing a warranty against manufacturing defects for 30 days after customers receive their order.
Yes, that’s a 30-day warranty. Not 1 year or 6 months, but 30 days. But to be fair towards Migicovsky, his team at Core Devices only consists of four people and like I’ve mentioned above, the warranty coverage period has been clearly stated on the rePebble site.
The FAQ also stated that just in case your watch turns out to be defective, you may ship it back to Core Devices, and once the company has received the watch, they will ship you a replacement at no charge. Beyond that, no further details regarding the warranty have been given, as the company promises to publish a full legalese warranty at a later date.
When asked about why only 30 days of warranty. Migicovsky answered through a thread within the r/Pebble subreddit, explaining that Core Devices is a small company and they want to be very careful about setting expectations while being upfront with their customers. The CEO added that he doesn’t expect there to be any issues, and will do everything he and his team can to limit any potential problems.
To take the risk or not? Your call
Additionally, Migicovksy has also been transparent in stating that the Core smartwatches are not made for everyone. In one of his blogs, he even listed categories of consumers who might not be the most suitable to get one of his new watches.
Among others, this includes consumers who are looking for a perfectly polished smartwatch. The founder emphasised that the Core smartwatch project is a labour of love rather than a startup trying to sell millions of watches.
Buyers are informed that the products may have rough edges (literally), things could break, will get delayed, and could not last as long as you’d like, and some features will not be ready at launch.
At the end of the day, it’s all up to you to decide if these risks are worth taking or not. In my case, I was among those who were stoked about the return of the “Pebble” smartwatch, having missed out on its “golden era” a decade ago, but after giving my purchase decision a second thought, I decided to cancel my pre-order. This is despite my fear that products like these might be gone and never come back again.
Sometimes, practicality is just more sensible than passion
After all, paying over RM1,100 for a smartwatch (Core Time 2 plus shipping fee) isn’t a chump change whatsoever. Just in case anything happens to the watch after the 30-day warranty period, I will be left on my own with probably a broken watch and little to zero hope of fixing it.
But if you’re a do-it-yourself (DIY) kind of person, and are willing to source parts such as the physical buttons and fix them on your own, then you might have better reasons than me to go ahead with your purchase.
Still, this doesn’t mean that my passion for simple, practical, and quirky wearable products like these has faded. In fact, I wish Migicovksy the best and hope his first two products will become a success, and will give him enough funds and motivation to make more of them.
And if or when that happens, I might finally happily whip out my hard-earned cash to purchase the more matured next generation of Core smartwatches that (hopefully) come with warranty support that’s longer than 30 days.
