Pebble Time — Is This the Smartwatch for You?

The estimated reading time for this post is 7 minutes

Setting a record for the most successful Kickstarter project ever, the Pebble Time smart watch raised over $1,000,000 in the first hour of its campaign. By the time the campaign ended 30 days later, Pebble Time was funded with over $20 million.

The excitement over Pebble Time, which promised improvements over its ancestor the Pebble Watch, was dampened somewhat by a slight delay in its delivery. But now Pebble Time has now arrived for Kickstarter backers and is available for ordering at Best Buy. Has Pebble Time lived up to its record-breaking Kickstarter fervor?

Pebble Time is the second generation smartwatch to come from Pebble. Compared to its predecessor, the Pebble watch, Time has upgraded hardware, graphics and software as well as a higher price at $199. So, does the newer version have enough features to make it appealing to you?

Design

Pebble Time works with both iPhone and Android, making it one of the only smart phone-agnostic smart watches. You pair the watch with Bluetooth to your phone, so the Time works in sync with compatible apps.

Pebble Time comes with a 1.25 inch glass screen, framed by a stainless steel bezel. The Time is water-resistant up to 30 meters so you can keep it on when you shower, swim and dance in the rain.

Strap

The strap that comes with the watch is a smooth rubber with a traditional buckle and plenty of holes to fit nearly any wrist. You can easily change the strap by pressing tiny levers and popping it off.

The back of the watch has a magnetic port both for charging and transferring data. Pebble is counting on third-party developers to take advantage of this port for smart straps that can do things like measure your heart rate, extend battery life or turn your Pebble Time into a GPS. These smart straps haven’t yet been developed but hold promise for the future.

Display

A major update to this watch is the addition of color to its screen. Like its predecessor, the Watch has an e-ink display that has the advantages of 1) using minimal battery life and 2) being displayed constantly.

But the colors of the screen are limited and somewhat faded, making the display more difficult to read. Think of a Game Boy Color screen and you get the idea.

Pebble Time has a backlight which you can activate by shaking your wrist or pressing a button. That helps your ability to read what’s on the screen but you may be choosing apps and watch faces based on how well you can see them if your vision isn’t 20/20. The backlight is only on for a few seconds which may not be enough time to read your notification.

Another update to Time is the addition of animation. You can see objects move on the screen, such as a waving flag or a moving second hand. When you dismiss apps and notifications, they disappear off the screen in a fun puff of smoke, like the Road Runner escaping Wile E. Coyote.

Navigation

Pebble Time, like the first Pebble watch, comes with four buttons for navigation. Press the buttons to activate and control apps, get to settings, dismiss notifications and more. There’s no touch screen, so scrolling through multiple apps can be cumbersome. This gives you an incentive to keep only the apps on your Time that you’ll actually use.

Apps and Watch Faces

Pebble Time launched with over 8000 apps and watch faces, and is compatible with ones that worked on the original Pebble watch. You need to download the new Pebble Time app to your smart phone to use the watch and choose apps and watch faces. If you had the Pebble watch app from the earlier version of the watch, Pebble suggests that you delete that app.

The Pebble Time app imported all of my apps and watch faces from my original Pebble watch, which was very convenient. You can shop for new apps and watch faces on the Pebble Time app by tapping the three stacked lines in the upper left corner of the app.

Unlike the first Pebble watch you’re able to store up to hundreds of watch faces on the Time. The original Pebble watch only let you store eight watch faces, but you probably won’t want to store hundreds on your Time then have to navigate through them using the buttons to find your favorite one.

Most of the apps and watch faces are free, some require an accompanying smart phone app (to get data such as weather, sports scores, etc.), and some are paid. With Time you can choose from watch faces and apps with color and animation.

You can get watch faces and apps to match your mood, deliver data or celebrate holidays. This weekend the Pebble blog suggested apps and watch faces you could get for Independence Day. Many of these apps are useful in general, such as Yelp! and Uber, so the blog post is worth checking out: Pebble Up Your Independence Day.

What You Can Do with Your Pebble Time

Your use of the Pebble Time will be based on two factors: what Pebble Time does on its own and what apps you download to the watch.

Native Pebble Time Functions

Without any apps, Pebble Time can tell you the time, set an alarm and advise you of notifications. Your wrist will buzz when Time alerts you about an event such as a phone call, text message or app notification. You can’t answer or reply to emails or text messages but you’ll be aware of them to avoid missing something important.

With Android you can set which events you get notifications for, with iPhone you get all notifications you have on your phone. You can set a Do Not Disturb time for notifications on your watch by going to Settings => Notifications => Do Not Disturb and setting the time.

You can link Pebble Time to your calendar and see upcoming and past events by pressing the top and bottom buttons on the right side of the watch.

You can control your music playing on your smart phone using the buttons on Pebble Time.

Pebble Time Apps

As with a smart phone, Pebble Time is more powerful with apps. You can shop for apps in the Pebble Time app on your phone and add them and delete them as you like. The more you use your Time the more you’ll figure out which apps are the most useful for you.

You can get apps such as:

• Pandora
• Evernote
• ESPN
• MisFit (an activity tracker)
• This Button (lets you activate an IFTTT recipe with the push of a button)
• TripAdvisor
• PayPal
• Leaf (to control your Nest thermostat)
• Directv remote
• Find My iPhone

and more.

You’ll have fun exploring and trying apps to make your Time work best for you.

Battery Life

Pebble Time boasts a battery life of 7 days which means you don’t have to worry about charging it nightly. You can even go away for a weekend and leave the charge cord behind which is a very good thing because the cord is designed especially for Time. Don’t be fooled by thinking the very similar cord for the Pebble watch will fit. It won’t. Boo.

Your Time’s battery life will be affected by how many notifications you get, how often you use the backlight, how many apps update data, apps with animation, and other ways you use the watch. Putting the Time through heavy use, I’ve gone five days before the battery ran low.

If all you use the Time for is checking the time, you’ll maximize your battery life. But then again, if that’s all you do, then you don’t need a smart watch.

Availability

The Pebble Time comes in white, black and red for $199, available at the Best Buy website in the US with shipping this week. Check on availability in other countries at the Pebble website.

Your Thoughts

Are you excited about the new Pebble Time? What would you use the Pebble Time for? What would you like to see on the Pebble Time? Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!

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The campaign, WeMontage College Homesickness Giveaway, runs until August 23, 2015. You can find out more at: WeMontage will give away its removable photo wallpaper to students (and parents) who upload photos via Facebook and Instagram.

Good luck to any Wonder of Tech readers who enter the contest!

* Pebble image (edited) courtesy of Andrew Urquhart via Flickr and Creative Commons