As a Pebble fan I'm sad to say I'm a little bit disappointed. I love the pebble ethos but I think the design for the Core Time 2 is a step back in terms of style compared to the final Pebble options. I rocked an OG Pebble and it was nerdy in a way that I didn't mind at the time, but now with smartwatches being so common and having so many cheap and feature packed options with multi-day battery life I think the styling matters a lot more. Pebble in particular could have a big advantage here with the reflective display since you can show a lot of personality in the always-on watch face without it being distracting, but I think you would need a more minimal and sleek body to make that a selling feature.
As it is I find the pricing to be a hard sell given how many features you are losing compared even to cheap fitness bands e.g. lots of advanced health tracking, NFC payments. I applaud Eric on self-funding the project and I'm sure the risk and volume questions there are contributors to the cost.
All that said, I may still pick up a duo because there really isn't anything like a Pebble and I would really like this to be a success so that we can see lower prices, more styles, and an even more awesome community at some point in the future.