# PineTime smartwatch

12 Hacker News commenters recommended PineTime smartwatch and 3 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** A cheap, open, hackable smartwatch that runs custom software and has good battery life. Critics say its RAM and processing power are too limited, and the case can crack.

## Why people recommend it

- Runs custom software and OSes (3 comments): "It’s pretty solid last I checked with good battery life and support for user apps written in rust" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47145899)) "very open to customization and running whatever software you feel like" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49378283)) "which even offers a choice of the OS it runs" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47050111))
- Good battery life (3 comments): "It’s pretty solid last I checked with good battery life and support for user apps written in rust" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47145899)) "Have had one for 2 years and it's brilliant. ... it runs a month for me on single charge." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47146771)) "it should even last more than a day" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47887195))

## What people warn about

- Hardware too limited for some uses (3 comments): "it really is just a little too limited IMHO" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50299917)) "barely enough for ble stack, RGB framebuffer and other stuff" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49385278)) "it's really really small and a pretty painful bottleneck" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49376298))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Pebble Time 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pebble-time-2.md): 53 recommend
- [Pebble Round 2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pebble-round-2.md): 38 recommend
- [Pebble 2 Duo](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pebble-2-duo.md): 17 recommend
- [SQFMI Watchy](https://hackerapproved.com/p/watchy.md): 6 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Pine64+PineTime+smartwatch&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Official site](https://pine64.org/pinetime/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "PineTime smartwatch", https://hackerapproved.com/p/pinetime-smartwatch/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).