The Index 01 has crossed the only line this ranking cares about: Pebble is shipping it. The 24 July mass-production note says the first customer orders go out this week (mass production note). The store lists the stainless-steel ring at $75 with no subscription, 4.7 g, 2.95 mm, water resistant to 1 m, one microphone, one button, and on-device speech and language model on the paired phone (Pebble Index).
December’s caveats did not expire. The 12–15 hours of recording are the ring’s life, not a charge cycle. The pickup is 5–20 cm; Pebble still says it is not for meetings. There is no documented recording indicator. Pebble still warns that its software will be rough for months if not years. Wrong-size rings are not a swapping programme.
What did expire is the March 2026 ship window from the announcement. A four-month slip on a $75 ring is ordinary. It is also why preorder pages are not ranked here. The device that exists today is the one to score.
For a ranking of conversation capture, the Index 01 will look low. That is not a slight at Pebble. It is the axis doing its job. For a ranking of “does any audio leave my phone,” it will look high. Both can be true in the same table. The Index 01 page will print the lifetime-battery note in the battery field’s caveat, because stripping the condition off “12–15 hours” would be a lie with extra typesetting.