# An Interview With Andrew Witte - Telistic Timepiece Technomania

- Show: [The Amp Hour](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour)
- Published: 2013-12-11
- Length: 1h 23m
- Episode: 175
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania
- Listen: https://theamphour.com/175-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania/

## Summary

Andrew Witte, CTO of Pebble Technology, discusses the design and manufacturing of the Pebble smartwatch, which raised $10 million via Kickstarter. He details the engineering trade-offs, including the choice of a Sharp Memory LCD for low power consumption, the challenges of Bluetooth antenna performance on a wrist, and the decision to use a single-cell lithium battery with a boost converter. Witte also explains the transition from local prototyping to overseas manufacturing with Dragon Innovation, managing component lead times, and the technical implementation of third-party app sandboxing using a Memory Protection Unit on an ARM Cortex-M3 microcontroller.

## Chapters

- [0:00](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=0) Introduction: Andrew Witte and Pebble Technology
- [3:31](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=211) Pebble's Origins: From Impulse to Kickstarter
- [10:48](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=648) Display and Power Engineering: Sharp Memory LCD
- [15:53](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=953) Battery Architecture: Single Cell and Boost Converters
- [19:57](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=1197) RF Design: Antenna Challenges and FCC Compliance
- [25:13](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=1513) Platform Design: Microcontroller vs. Processor and App Sandboxing
- [29:02](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=1742) Manufacturing Scale-up: Dragon Innovation and China
- [35:05](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=2105) Kickstarter Logistics: Customer Support and Fulfillment
- [44:49](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=2689) Quality Assurance: Testing and Waterproofing
- [52:03](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-amp-hour/2013-12-11-an-interview-with-andrew-witte-telistic-timepiece-technomania#t=3123) Market Position, Sales, and Future Outlook

## Topics

- [PCB design & layout](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pcb-design)
- [Crowdfunding & preorders](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/crowdfunding)
- [Manufacturing partners & offshoring](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/manufacturing-partners)
- [Batteries & low-power design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/batteries-and-low-power)
- [Embedded firmware](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/embedded-firmware)
- [Industrial & consumer product design](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/industrial-design)

## Most relevant to

early-stage companies

## Mentioned

- Pebble Technology (company)
- Impulse (product)
- Dragon Innovation (company)
- Sharp Memory LCD (product)
- NXP ARM7 (chip)
- FCC (other)
- CE (other)
- Y Combinator (company)
- Avnet (company)
- Agilent (company)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [T-26-012 : Founders From The Show Floor - CES 2026](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/tradeoffs/2026-02-04-t-26-012-founders-from-the-show-floor-ces-2026) (TRADEOFFS)
- [#006: Pebble’s Code is Free: Three Former Pebble Engineers Discuss Why It's Important (PART 2/2)](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-04-15-006-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important) (Coredump Sessions)
- [#003: Pebble's Code is Free: Three Former Pebble Engineers Discuss Why It's Important (PART 1/2)](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/coredump-sessions/2025-02-11-003-pebbles-code-is-free-three-former-pebble-engineers-discuss-why-its-important) (Coredump Sessions)
- [#008 - What to learn from Pebble’s story: two times most funded Kickstarter campaign ever to its eventual end, with your host, Balint Horvath, Switzerland](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-hardware-entrepreneur/2017-01-11-008-what-to-learn-from-pebbles-story-two-times-most-funded-kickstarter-campaign) (The Hardware Entrepreneur)
- [44: Light Up Strikes Back](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/embedded-fm/2014-03-26-44-light-up-strikes-back) (Embedded.fm)

## Citing this page

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