Pebble shutdown almost 8 years ago now and there does still not to be a replacement or alternative that can: last up to a week of battery life, do basic things like allow you to get and read notifications, and be a watch.
it's also very small, light and thin, pretty much impossible to find such compact watch since I don't want to carry bulky brick on my wrist (so no thanks expensive Garmin bricks with shorter battery life)
I'm now on my 2nd one, first I had brand new, it fell apart just before end of 2y warranty (basically the body inserted in frame without gluing, it felt outside, I could put it back and connect, just display colors were reversed but since it was in warranty I just used warranty to get money back, they improved gluing with newer versions), then went for OLED watch and gave up after maybe half year, gave new OLED watch which need to be charged at least twice a week to wife, it has unreadable AOD in sunlight (beause you need full brightness in sunlight or very least B&W AOD display instead other useless color combinations) and just bought second hand Bip for 20USD and I couldn't be happier, I'm thinking I could stock few of them into drawer in case something will happen to this one
plus for people with too much spare time Bip firmware is somewhat hackable with extended functionality
BTW TBH I don’t really like Amazfit/Xiaomi, their terms tell you they can get basically all your data. With Pebble I felt a sort of trust, which I also have with Apple (but sleep tracking on a 1 day battery smart watch is bit of a bad joke).
I used the Bip U Pro on Android with GadgetBridge which is really amazing and perfectly privacy focused. Sadly when I switched to iOS I found nothing equivalent.
I want Pebble back.
Bip U has already just regular TFT display with poor battery life, maybe a better readability than OLED, but not comparable with transreflective displays and their battery life.
As you said you can use Gadgetbridge if you don't trust them, though I find GB experience very poor always losing connection compared to their own app, not sure if you can disable internet connection for the app to keep using it which would resolve privacy issues (I use also GBoard without internet access).
I use the open source Gadgetbridge app instead and it works well: https://gadgetbridge.org/
Actually there is something that does that, my favorite watch: https://www.withings.com/us/en/steel-hr
The battery lasts a month. The only thing which would improve it would be NFC payments, but one can't have it all.
Also looks good IMO.
https://www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/BZ1005-51E.html
https://www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/BZ1000-54E.html
In theory, its capabilities included phone search/filter and visual/vibration alerts. Not quite a smartwatch, but at least some connection to the digital ecosystem.
I was excited when I heard about this, particularly the Eco-drive, as it meant no charging would ever be necessary. I have one non-Bluetooth Eco-drive which has been running continuously for 12 years without changing the battery.
In practice, the Proximity was a disaster. Owners reported dropped connections, late notifications, and a terrible iOS and Android app. The first two problems, from what I read, related to insufficient power. It wasn't enough to maintain a Bluetooth connection. The third issue is common to many companies that do not have mobile app engineering in their wheelhouse.
Citizen discontinued the models. They have a real smartwatch now (https://www.citizenwatch.com/us/en/product/MX0008-56X.html) but it is not Eco-drive.
Then that thing was banned, again IIRC.
It’s not disssimilar to how Cambridge Analytica gave FB an excuse to clamp down on their API and put much more content even more in their control. The API for many things became useless after the clamp down. Not that a response wasn’t required.
However, in both situations, it was like throwing the baby out with the bath water
It can be a tricky tradeoff. For example, I think the blowback around Apple AirTags and Find My Network is way overblown. But I do draw the line at sharing my location tracks and related absent checking a box somewhere in a menu.
Once Fitbit hid basically everything by default and almost no one changes defaults, it was hard to know if a user was even using Fitbit or not without already being friends with them.
Edit: I agree whole heartedly. Whatever specifics were done with location sharing is not good and shouldn’t be done by default. I am pretty open with my location, but it’s under my control and I’m usually actively opening up my privacy and location. 100% agree there and also agree over the excessive reactions to AirTags
I'm not talking about a reduced functionality style offline mode either; the watch computes all metrics locally, you can load OSM for navigation, copy MP3 files to it and copy GPX traces off of it.
[1] https://www.fossil.com/en-ch/smartwatches/hybrid-smartwatche...
Edit: it shows the time using physical arrows, so you have it accessible 24/24 (they glow at night).
Unfortunately, the Vivoactive line seems to lag behind in tech from the product lines with the more traiditonal displays. So I've moved to the Venu line, which has an "always off" AMOLED display and better sensors. The display is also much more vibrant, but at the cost of being a lot harder to just glance at since it's usually off.
If they can bring the better sensors to a Vivoactive, I'd definitely go back to the always-on display it offers. I miss that always-on and much closer to e-ink style feel the transflective display has.
You can use some features with GadgetBridge, but you still need the account to initiate the server-based pairing.
I purchased a refurbished Samsung Galaxy 42mm. I can last well into 1.5 days without charging (it usually gets topped off). The newer Samsungs can barely last a day.