“A lot of the things that I do are designed to be frictionless,” Eric Migicovsky, founder of Pebble and Beeper, told me towards the end of an interview, and it perfectly encapsulates the concept behind the unusual Index 01 smart ring.
In case you missed it, the Index 01 is not like the Oura Ring. It has a single physical button to activate its single feature, which is to record very short voice notes and save them on your phone.
It’s designed to easily bridge the gap between a busy, idea-filled brain and noting down those snippets of information.
Migicovsky revealed his journey in creating it, other versions he experimented with, and at the same time, conveyed the very personal importance of a succinct reminder.
Why a note-taking smart ring?
A project in development for years
I spoke to Migicovsky over Zoom on the day of the Index 01’s launch.
His demeanor was just as it is on his recently launched YouTube channel, Tick Talk. Friendly, engaging to talk to, and at his most animated when discussing Pebble and Index 01, immediately showing his passion for these projects.
“I’ve had this specific idea since 2015, and I’ve had this idea of an idea since 2008,” he said about the Index 01.
Perhaps surprisingly, he added that he wasn’t a “religious note taker,” and the more we talked, the more I realized this was true because it was less about notes and more about reminders.
“I’ve never had a notepad or one of those E Ink slates. I’ve never gotten into that. My handwriting is terrible,” he laughed.
“What I do is, I feel less stressed when I have a to-do list that’s written down. I feel this pressure, this stress, these ideas rumbling through my brain. And if I don’t write them down, that stress just continues to increase.”
Flashes of inspiration
Use it anywhere
Credit: Pebble
Just like the Pebble smartwatch, which Migicovsky has previously said he built to his own requirements. The Index 01’s focused simplicity neatly solves his own note-taking conundrum.
“It’s designed for me. If I was driving somewhere and I had an idea, or worse, I had three ideas, I would repeat them to myself in my mind over and over and over again until I got off the highway and got to the point where I could write some things down.”
Understanding how Migicovsky’s flashes of inspiration arrive is crucial to understanding the Index 01 and who else will benefit from it.
“I bicycle everywhere,” he continued. “I would get an idea while I’m biking. Happens all the time. I love it. It’s one of the reasons why I love bicycling, because it allows my mind to just wander a little bit and turn over ideas.
“My previous state-of-the-art solution to this was pulling over so that I could take my phone out and type it in. Or, if I’m driving and my wife’s in the passenger seat, I’ll tell her the idea and ask, ‘Text me that idea.’”
If you read this and identified with one or the other situation, the Index 01 should start to make sense.
“I think the people who are going to get a kick out of this product are people who experience this on a regular basis already. I don’t think that I’m going to turn a new chapter over for someone who isn’t already the type of person who keeps lists.
“Everyone solves this problem in a different way, but if you don’t recognize that you have a problem, it’s probably not going to be of much use to you,” he smiled.
The Index 01 was nearly very different
Health tracking and a touchpad
The Index 01 is a simple, frictionless device that solves one, quite specific problem, but as Migicovsky revealed, it was nearly a lot more complex.
“We looked at initially doing health monitoring as well,” he admitted.
“It was something we tiptoed around. There are a lot of rings that do that, so the technology was available. We looked at different types of input devices, like touchpads, so you were able to swipe. We even looked at having like a D-pad, like on a controller, so that you could have four buttons.”
In the end, simplicity and long battery life won over.
The Index 01 uses a hearing aid battery, and it could last up to two years with modest daily use, and a lot of that is down to the use of a single button.
“A button allowed us to make the battery life so long. One of the properties of electrical circuits is that when a mechanical switch is open, no current can flow through it. That allowed us to turn the entire system off, effectively, when the button is not closed.
“Whereas if you need a touch sensor or something else, you’re constantly putting power through that sensor in order to read the state of it. You can’t get the low power consumption that we have with them.”
Remember to always leave a note
Or record a reminder
Credit: Pebble
The Index 01 is not Migicovsky’s first wearable product, as it follows the original Pebble and the new Pebble.
He continues to wear a Pebble smartwatch and has done so since the very beginning. He then showed me a ring he wears on his little finger, and explained its significance.
“I studied engineering in Canada, and there’s a tradition that all engineers, when they graduate, get an iron ring. It’s kind of a sad story; the iron comes from a bridge that fell down. And it’s meant to be a reminder that your actions have consequences as an engineer.”
From the Pebble smartwatch he still wears to the iron engineering ring, and now a new product expressly designed to act as a simple, fuss-free way to remember ideas, reminders are clearly important to Migicovsky.
“I don’t think there’s a way that I could go back to a world where I don’t have a memory-capturing device on my body, supplementing my feeble brain,” he laughed, and after our conversation, I wasn’t surprised to hear it at all.
If you have identified with Migicovsky and can already see how the Index 01 will fit into your life, it can be pre-ordered now for $75 ahead of its 2026 launch, when the price will increase to $99.
