I finally found a used 7 for $300 on FB marketplace, only 2-3 months ago. I still swallowed real hard before buying it, but I'm satisfied enough with it that even with the 7, I've been nosing around to see if any 8-solar (presumably transflective, not OLED) are around in the ~$500 price range.
Pebble Time Steel debuted at $250 in 2015, ~$350 in todays dollars, and the Fenix is much more capable not just the hardware but also health tracking.
That's why a comeback pebble is worth supporting (for me). Fenix has decent/"fun" SDK apps, but their core UX is only moderately good. I still get confused about which button to use to get to apps vs quicklooks vs data widgets vs shortcuts, and setting a 15 minute timer is way more confusing than it should be.
Apple: max 3 days battery life, and that's in the $800+ price range
AmazFit: maybe? but never enough to risk over $100-200 and no great "has buttons" option
BangleJS: no buttons.
PineTime: no buttons.
YadaYadaYada: no battery, oled screen, no buttons, or no customization
Getting another Pebble for $300 retail or $200 used with full backwards compat, their SDK and emulator, and a path forward? Sign me up!
I can also strongly recommend the Timex Expedition (analog) with easy-set alarm, and the Casio WV-58 styles.
The easyset alarm is described here: https://youtu.be/v6Fdt5y3p9A ...and it's super useful! I have like 4 versions now since supplementing and band-replacing my original from actual 1999... unfortunately you've got to chase eBay on those nowadays.
The waveceptor isn't that expensive and I use it as my "reference watch" when setting my other watches since it's atomic.
Ha, I actually did the same, albeit after using a succession of disappointing Fitbits. In the end I realised that what I mainly cared about was having the time on my wrist, and I could leave everything else. So I ended up with the steel strap, EL-illuminated version of the F-91W.
