Pebble defends 30-day warranty with free replacements

Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky says the company’s unusually short 30-day warranty only works if buyers understand the tradeoff and trust Pebble to fix problems when they happen.

In an interview with The Verge, Migicovsky said, “I think the most important thing is trust,” framing the policy around whether people trust both the product and the team behind it. The issue has drawn attention because the revived Pebble brand is selling new e-paper smartwatches with a warranty far shorter than what buyers typically expect.

Migicovsky brought Pebble back early last year, after the original company shut down in 2016. The new watches keep the classic Pebble look but update the hardware, including larger e-paper displays. The Verge notes that some buyers were wary of ordering after seeing the warranty terms, even as interest in the comeback remained high.

That concern has been sharpened by early hardware complaints, including reports that the front glass on the Pebble Time 2 can crack. Earlier this week, Migicovsky said in a blog post that Pebble has replaced 330 Time 2 watches for free out of more than 19,000 watches “in the field.”

Pebble says it will keep replacing “reasonable reports” of cracked glass for free for now, and later may switch to offering discounted replacements instead. The company is also “looking into” selling replacement parts for DIY repairs.

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“At every step of the way we’ve communicated, over-communicated about what to expect [and] what the product’s going to be like.”

Pebble had already warned buyers of the Pebble 2 Duo and Pebble Time 2 not to purchase one if they wanted a “perfectly polished smartwatch,” saying upfront that “Things could not last as long as you’d like.” Migicovsky told The Verge that this is a “grassroots, bottoms-up relaunch” and that Pebble simply can’t match the support infrastructure of larger consumer electronics companies.

His pitch is straightforward: buyers should expect a watch that works well and feels like a real Pebble, but not the same warranty coverage or service network they’d get from bigger brands.