The Pebble line was PCMag's favorite set of smartwatches. Now they're dead. Pebble's lineup combined good-looking screens, an open OS with a great third-party development community, long battery life, a small form factor, and low price.
I'm going to break the hard truth to you: there's nothing out there that really compares. Pebble's failure was some mix of internal financial mismanagement and a general global lack of enthusiasm about smartwatches in general. All the alternatives out there, while they do some things better than the Pebble, generally fail at one or more of Pebble's greatest strengths. Nobody's making a good smartwatch with a full e-ink screen, for instance.
A recent Gartner study underscores that smartwatches just haven't set the world on fire. People don't find them useful, they get bored, or the products break, leading to a 29 percent abandonment rate, the research firm said. Consumers find them too expensive and unappealing to wear.
That said, we found the five best alternatives to Pebble's products we could drum up here at PCMag. I am not including any Android Wear watches on this list because the operating system is in a potential future Pebble situation. Google has delayed Android Wear 2.0, as it doesn't seem to know what to do with it, and Motorola recently backed away from Android Wear. It just doesn't feel like an OS with a lot of legs right now. That might change in 2017. If you were considering Pebble, you may want to take a look at these wrist bangles instead.
Apple Watch Series 1 ($269)
The Apple Watch is the watch of choice for iPhone owners. It's heavily supported by and integrated with iOS, it'll get new features as time goes on, and it has a lively developer community. It also makes a pretty decent fitness tracker. The Series 1, Apple's lower-priced smartwatch, isn't waterproof or as bright as the more expensive Series 2, but it runs all the same apps. Aside from its iOS-only nature, the Apple Watch's one-day battery life is its biggest failure when compared to Pebble's products.
Samsung Gear S2 Classic ($299)
The Gear S2 Classic is the best smartwatch for Android users right now. It's small and comfortable, with a Fitbit-like, app-centric user interface that makes a lot more sense than Android Wear does. The Gear S2 is also getting a lot of the new features in the larger Gear S3, including an always-on display. Like the Apple Watch, it's more expensive and has shorter battery life than the Pebble, but it's your best bet for a full smartwatch experience.
Martian Aviator ($279)
Martian's smartwatches look much more like watches than little computers, but they deliver notifications well and are able to do a wide range of things via voice commands. The Aviator has five-day battery life, gives you critical information on your wrist, and works with Amazon's Alexa to answer a queries through the microphone and speaker.
Fitbit Charge 2 ($149.95)
Fitbit, which just bought Pebble, makes a very smartwatch-like fitness tracker called the Blaze. But compared to true smartwatches like the Gear S2 and Apple Watch, the Blaze's lack of apps makes it a frustrating purchase. We prefer the Fitbit Charge 2, which is a dedicated, accurate, and good-looking fitness tracker with idle alerts, automatic activity tracking, guided breathing sessions, interchangeable bands, and the option to connect your phone for GPS.
Vector Watch Meridian ($160-$300)
Street prices for this one vary very widely, but it's the smartwatch that most looks like a Pebble, offering notifications and Internet data on a square, always-on screen with 30-day battery life. It lacks Pebble's vibrant app store.
For more, check out A Look Back at Pebble's Rise and Fall.