Almost a decade after its disappearance, smartwatch maker Pebble is back… kinda-sorta as Barack Obama would have put it. The company’s founder, Eric Migicovsky, has unveiled new hardware running open-source PebbleOS. Here’s the catch: Since Google owns the Pebble trademark, these are not Pebble smartwatches. These are smartwatches from Core Devices, called Core 2 Duo and Core Time 2.

Pebble became the buzzword in the smartwatch industry in 2012 through a very successful Kickstarter campaign. It came up with smartwatches that had e-paper displays and arrived ahead of the first Apple Watch, allowing wearers the ability to see notifications, create custom watch faces and access an app store.

The first watch that Migicovsky wants to ship in July is called the Core 2 Duo, which will cost $149. “It’s like a Pebble 2, but it’s made by Core devices. And then ‘Duo’ is for a do-over,” he told The Verge.

The watch has the same black-and-white e-paper display as the old Pebble 2 and even the exact same frame. “We were able to find a supplier that still had the frames for Pebble Time 2 and Pebble 2,” he said.

Migicovsky’s original company scaled quickly and couldn’t meet sales targets. Ultimately, it sold to Fitbit and a few years later, Google bought Fitbit, which meant it owned Pebble’s assets.

Allowing Migicovsky to come up with new hardware running PebbleOS is Google’s decision to release the source code in January. “I asked politely if they would open source the operating system, and they very graciously did,” Migicovsky told Wired. “We wouldn’t be able to do what we’re doing now if Google hadn’t done that. So, we’re super appreciative.”

One of the important aspects of Pebble watches was battery life. It has been beefed up significantly from seven days to 30. There’s a newer Bluetooth chip inside, a barometer and compass, and more reliable buttons. Migicovsky says the new pushers should offer up to a 30 per cent longer lifetime in testing.