This is really cool. It does make me miss the Pebble watch though as they dove into color e-ink for certain models as well. They seemed way ahead of the time and it's such a shame they couldn't make it through.
Pebble did not use e-ink screens, it used a reflective memory in pixel LCD (I believe made by Sharp), refresh rates were never a problem using that technology, because it's just a LCD that has some tweaks for lower standby power usage. More on it: https://www.sharpsde.com/technologies-for/memory-in-pixels/m... It still requires a very small amount of power to keep the screen functioning.
E-Ink uses a completely different technology that does not require energy to continue displaying an image on the screen. Only requires it to change it. Operates by moving charged polymers to make them go to the surface or fall away, similar to etch-a-sketch (edit: I was thinking magna doodle) toy, but charge/not magnetism.
Exactly. I recently retired my Pebble, after the battery life was reduced to 1-2 days. I wish there were more watches out there like this. I found the Garmins to be much dimmer, and the Fossil to be poorly laid out for displaying much text (and the UI/UX was awful). I would pay AWU prices for a next-generation Pebble Time Steel, even if only added HR and a few other updates.
E-Ink uses a completely different technology that does not require energy to continue displaying an image on the screen. Only requires it to change it. Operates by moving charged polymers to make them go to the surface or fall away, similar to etch-a-sketch (edit: I was thinking magna doodle) toy, but charge/not magnetism.