Earlier this month, Pebble’s smartwatch underdog story reached a tragic conclusion : Under a crushing mound of debt and with no clear path to profitability, the startup sold its software assets to Fitbit, canceled all hardware in development, discontinued active support for existing watches, and ceased daily operations.

From a business standpoint, Pebble has little to celebrate. Although it was first to the modern smartwatch market in 2013, the company only sold 2 million watches in three years. In contrast, analysts estimate 12 million Apple Watch sales in their first year alone. Smartwatches in general still haven’t proved their worthiness to the masses, and Pebble never became more than a niche player in what is already a niche market.

But as a company, Pebble’s principles were praiseworthy. At a time when rival smartwatch makers were trying to make devices that do everything, Pebble produced products that were refreshingly low-maintenance, which is why I always drifted back to Pebble smartwatches after owning and reviewing many others. Even if Pebble didn’t produce mass-market hits, its attitude toward wearables deserves to live on, whether it’s through Fitbit or any other company that happens to be watching.

Wearing a smartwatch can be a big commitment. Most require a nightly recharge, and even the smallest ones, like the 38mm Apple Watch, are chunky enough that they look like statement pieces rather than subtle accessories.

While most of Pebble’s watches were of similar heft, they mitigated the battery problem by using e-paper display technology, rather than full-color LCD or OLED displays. The main Pebble and Pebble Time watches lasted roughly one week per charge.

But Pebble’s power efficiency had another advantage: It allowed for much smaller designs with comparable battery life to other smartwatches. We saw an example of this with last year’s Pebble Time Round, whose battery only lasted a couple days on a charge, but was 33% thinner than an Apple Watch.

Part of me wishes Pebble had pushed the slimmer design from the start, and iterated on it sooner. Anecdotally, people around me usually seemed more curious about the Time Round than any other Pebble, including women who felt like their tastes were being ignored by the rest of the smartwatch industry. Although the e-paper technology had faults—it was tough to read without ample lighting, and could only display limited colors—it enabled hardware designs that were impossible for other smartwatches.