Reply With QuoteWished they kept the face clean and didn't put that logo on.
https://blog.getpebble.com/2014/01/0...teel-ces-2014/
I surprise myself by being tempted to try one in brushed steel. Not at all hopeless for a smartwatch.
Anybody at CES by any chance? How does it feel in flesh?
Wished they kept the face clean and didn't put that logo on.
not so sure about that,??
Agreed.Originally Posted by zeroeseight
They seem to have different tables for water resistance than traditional makers:
IS IT WATERPROOF?
Yes. Pebble Steel is rated at 5ATM. You can swim, run in the rain, or wash dishes with your Pebble Steel.
The one with the word indicator is interesting.
Thanks OP for the post.
That does look interesting...
Thanks to the OP for posting this.
It's certainly a step in the right direction. I have no interest in the original one simply due to form, not function. However, I will admit that I am tempted by this one.
Pre-ordered one yesterday, which should arrive in mid-Feb according to the link!
Concept has interested me, but previous implementation didn't really appeal.
I like the look of the dual display ?GMT skin.
The thought of an apps store is quite interesting too!
The displays with those animations seem more responsive than something like the seiko epds. I'm tempted.
Interesting little videos in that article.
I'm sure this technology will become mainstream over the next year or two but I can't see Pebble being the platform that will become mainstream.
The smart watches by Samsung and Apple will no doubt be the market leaders and I imagine that their products will walk all over the niche offerings from the likes of Pebble, especially from a Marketing perspective.
They look a bit "Beta-max" to me.
All this wearable tech is being rushed out in a catchpenny effort ahead of Apple getting it right.
Yeah, just like Apple did not stand a chance in the mobile phone market dominated by the big boys.
Whether someone buys Pebble and others before long is a different story.
The trend - if two points can be called a trend - seems to be the production of a more "upmarket" offering; MetaWatch have anounced the Meta.
Having thought I'd never like the look or concept of one, I'm veery tempted. I shall be less quick to judge them now! I'm sure I could use much of the functionality on a regular basis, and the ability to change the look/display is a great idea. Several watches in one.
I agree with most comments in this thread in that it now looks more like a proper watch than before and I'm tempted. The functionality has always interested me but having seen the original on wrists on the train etc. they looked cr@p.
Shyewei - please do a review when yours arrives! I'll only need a tiny bit of persuasion to get one.
I agree, but I think it maybe still some time before we see a watch from Apple.
They will only enter the market when its right for them, and that will be when they feel they can add something others can't. Remember how long MP3 players had been around before Apple thought of putting a hard disk into one so you could have your whole collection in your pocket and not just a few tracks, or how long smart phones had been around before Apple gave them a touch screen and GUI that worked without a silly little stylus?
The smartwatch market is still waiting for that 'killer app', and personally I will not buy one until there is a good reason to. At the moment all these smartwatches are just duplicating whatever info I have on my phone, and my phone is always within easy reach, just as easy as looking at a wristwatch.
This new Pebble does look good though, a big improvement on their first effort, and a move in the right direction.
Sorry to bump an old thread- has anyone received theirs yet? Very tempted but would love to get the impressions of someone who has one on their wrist!
A colleague has received theirs. Initial impression is a bit underwhelming, it may be steel but it still feels a bit cheap. It was a brief look, may have a longer look later.
A First looks story would be great!
Is this mechanical?
Would love to read about peoples impressions.
Winding is a bit too stiff :)
Guy at work said exactly the same. Feels cheap, doesn't have much functionality. i.e. some of the advertised apps don't exist in the UK.
He sold it on ebay and made £60 profit.
Bump for this thread.
My matt black steel arrived last week and I've not had it off my wrist since.
Big fan of the original pebble but the steel moves the game on. One review I read said they were disappointed no one noticed they were wearing "the future" and that kinda sums it up for me. Very few people realise it's a smart watch until you get a notification. Also, unlike the original pebble it works with a t shirt or a suit.
When you first pick it up it feels very light compared to my other bracelet watches (baby tuna and omega smp) but both of then are pretty chunky. Also once it's on then you don't notice it and it's comfy to wear.
Software still has a few tweaks to go but it's getting better all the time.
Yes it's emerging technology but for me the pebble is genuinely useful.
Nice wee article here
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx_mobile.html
I bought two of the original pebbles, one in white and one in black, with a view to keeping one and punting the other. Mrs donkey liked the look of the white one, got a five minute tutorial from me on what it can do and she won't be parted from it now. It means her phone stays in her bag but she can read texts on the move and now consciously avoid my phone calls instead of just not hearing them :D If technology gets more than 10 mins airtime from Mrs donkey then it's very definitely a good thing.
Two rubbish pics.... One showing a standard watch face and one showing music boss app that allows you to skip backwards and forwards on phone and adjust the volume level.
I think you'd be surprised how much you end up using it !
Good review here
http://www.pocket-lint.com/review/12...e-steel-review
Lazydonkey: ta for the review and the link. I'm proper tempted!
Today's face is a retro casio inspired affair.....
Great write up, mine arrived about 6 weeks ago and I've been mental busy so its not been out of the box yet :(Bump for this thread.
My matt black steel arrived last week and I've not had it off my wrist since.
Big fan of the original pebble but the steel moves the game on. One review I read said they were disappointed no one noticed they were wearing "the future" and that kinda sums it up for me. Very few people realise it's a smart watch until you get a notification. Also, unlike the original pebble it works with a t shirt or a suit.
When you first pick it up it feels very light compared to my other bracelet watches (baby tuna and omega smp) but both of then are pretty chunky. Also once it's on then you don't notice it and it's comfy to wear.
Software still has a few tweaks to go but it's getting better all the time.
Yes it's emerging technology but for me the pebble is genuinely useful.
Nice wee article here
http://www.forbes.com/fdc/welcome_mjx_mobile.html
I bought two of the original pebbles, one in white and one in black, with a view to keeping one and punting the other. Mrs donkey liked the look of the white one, got a five minute tutorial from me on what it can do and she won't be parted from it now. It means her phone stays in her bag but she can read texts on the move and now consciously avoid my phone calls instead of just not hearing them :D If technology gets more than 10 mins airtime from Mrs donkey then it's very definitely a good thing.
Two rubbish pics.... One showing a standard watch face and one showing music boss app that allows you to skip backwards and forwards on phone and adjust the volume level.
Best bit about that pic above is your choice of music, fantastic tune :)
Mmm quite tempted by these.
Where's the best place to get a steel from?
You buy them online
https://getpebble.com/
Be aware that i ordered my Steel in Feb so there is quite a delay on them right now but the originals are easily available. Lots on ebay for £90 and i just sold mine on here for £70.
I think we're years off of having smartwatches that actually have the features you want combined with a level of build quality.
Essentially I think it will be a partnership between one of the tech giants, like Sony, Samsung or LG and one of the Swiss companies, most likely Swatch using Google's new Android Wear software that will be the real game changer.
These current iterations are aimed squarely at the non watch wearing techie market.
Thanks - looked on there earlier but wondered if there was a UK stockist or anything. The steel isn't available to order at present. Saw you'd recently sold yours as well. Damn - I'd been looking for one of the originals to try as well, must keep an eye on things!
What features do you want in a watch? If you read the forbes article i posted above i think he uniquely highlights the issue......most people want a watch that tells the time! A pebble tells the time and alerts you if you get a call or a message. It combines that with a 5 day battery life.
Do you need a colour screen on a watch? Browsing eBay on a watch? Don't think so? Especially not if it means a one day battery life. That's where samsung have gone wrong.......they've tried to miniaturise the phone into a watch and people don't need that.
On the pebble i change watch faces now and again, it's quite cute having the temperature on the watch but other than that i don't need any more features.
I've took the plunge and got one from ebay.
I've not looked into these for a while and only saw this thread via the bump - but the notification of messages and calls will be good enough for me. I miss far too many when I'm out and about at weekends.
1. I want a watch that looks good, that I like the same way I require from everything else I wear like clothes and shoes etc..
2. It needs to tell the time
3. It needs to not require consistent charging, if it does require charging it need to have at least a 5-7 day battery life and charge via wireless charging pad so it can charge by being put on a bedside table or a bowl.
4. It needs to do more than notify me of a message / email via a bluetooth connection from my phone which is only in my pocket. It need to work on its own, for example stream music to blue tooth headphones and gps track me while I run without a requirement to be connected to a phone.
5. It needs to be price competitive with other pieces of consumer tech, it will never ever be a high end watch like a Rolex so it should not try compete in that market. It need to be akin to Smatphones in their evolution.
All these things will take 3-4 years of iteration and innovation to achieve. It took 5/6 iterations of iPhone / Android phones to get to a proper standar wherebye the flaws were so minimal it becomes a required purchase.
My problem with the Pebble and smartwatches of the current generation is simply the benefits (alerts you of a text email etc..) do not come close to outweighing the negatives, (a requirement to charge, it's unattractive). As any Watch that costs more than 100 quid is a piece of Jewellery. I enjoy looking at my watch, admiring it and do so of other peoples watches.
A Pebble, and smartwatches in their current form are - imo - for non watch people.
Not sure I agree, as shown by the number of members that have a Pebble or are researching getting one in this thread. I see it as some prefer a diver, others a chrono and some just want one of every watch ever made! Why can't a smartwatch just be another that we wear when the fancy takes us?
Metawatch......just love those hinged lugs, look good on a conventional watch IMVHO.
Just a shame that the Meta is not yet available. I've been using a Metawatch Strata for some time. It's a fantastic notification agent - and there is often a time and a place for such an item. I do agree with some of the comments above tho - many "smartwatches" focus on the smart element, while not looking smart. There is definitely a balance to be struck between connected and standalone smartwatches, without attempting to shoehorn all the functions of a smartwatch into a two inch square.
Last edited by Broussard; 24th April 2014 at 08:08.
Maybe it's just me but i dont need anything in 4 as i always have my phone with me. So i dont need another device with GPS, bluetooth streaming etc etc. On every other requirements you have i think the pebble already hits them..aside from wireless charging. Ok it's never going to replace my omega as my "special" watch and neither is it going to be a watch that people coo over...........but it's not meant to be.
This morning on my walk to work it allowed me to skip tracks, adjust volume and check the emails and texts i recieved when i was wandering along. Without the pebble each of those activities would have meant i'd have had to fish my phone out of my pocket and wake it.
It's not a cure for cancer but it's great tech.
Mine arrived yesterday and have to say its a natty piece of kit. I've kept it on the leather strap which in itself is pretty high quality and looks decent
Not got used to all the functions yet and have to say the pebble app is very slow on my Nexus 5 (seems quite buggy). Looking forward to trying it with runtastic and Strava as well though.
Will be using it properly for the first time at the weekend - I regularly miss calls and texts when the phone is in my pocket!
Andy Grove (CEO of Intel but also lectures at Harvard Business School) wrote in one of his business books about "10X" changes ie when you look at a new idea (or threat to your business) imagine it 10 times better before dismissing what you are seeing. His (1995) book suggested seeing the internet as being 10x faster than it was then and then trying to imagine how it could change businesses as a prescient example - I can't remember the others but it is a good way at considering something new and probably how other watch companies will be looking at Pebble.
My mock up of the apple smartwatch - I like to call it the iSmart
Apparently - the first version can even tell the time!
On another not though - sorely tempted by a Pebble and seriously doubt Apple will bring anything new to the smartwatch party if their phone tech is anything to go by. I sorely hope Pebble have some patents in place they can get a few quid from Apple for...
Pebble, Meta, etc are more akin to notification agents than anything else**; they'll notify you of texts (including the message itself, if simple text), calls (including numbes / contact name), events (calendar items, etc), scores, etc, but in order to do anything about these notifications, you need to go back to your phone... There's another group of smartwatch designers who believe that the smartwatch should replace the phone, and are trying to shoehorn as much as they can into an incredibly small piece of wrist real estate.My mock up of the apple smartwatch - I like to call it the iSmart
Apparently - the first version can even tell the time!
On another not though - sorely tempted by a Pebble and seriously doubt Apple will bring anything new to the smartwatch party if their phone tech is anything to go by. I sorely hope Pebble have some patents in place they can get a few quid from Apple for...
My view is that the answer lies somewhere in the middle - and it's here that Apple will land. If there's one thing that Apple is good at, it's selling us stuff that we never knew we previously needed. Having the smartwatch act as a second screen for the 'phone might be part of the answer.
**They are also remote controls for, e.g. music players, but little else at the moment.
Last edited by Broussard; 2nd May 2014 at 07:55.
I'd mirror these comments... Except for the gardening.... That's for old people. :D
Last edited by gazzafaegreenock; 1st May 2014 at 13:19.
I was under the impression the pebble shows your messages?
I take it you cannot 'view' things such as messages, call logs etc via the phone?
Interesting, because I don't want much more than the notification devices. I really like the Bluetooth G-Shocks but baulk at spending the same money as a Pebble but didn't like the way the Pebble looks. The Pebble Steel seems to almost hit all my buttons but something's making me wait just a little bit as this area is beginning to heat up.
I really don't understand the Smartwatch that replaces your mobile manufacturers though. Particularly when screen size on mobiles is so important. Plus, who wants 2 SIM contracts? I want a companion to my phone, not a replacement for it. On something the size of a watch I can't read an article, play a game, browse the web, text etc.
Hmmmm time to update this thread i've just sold my pebble and moved to a Moto 360 running android wear. I was going to get a Pebble Time but the new design doesn't work for me and i waiting to see what the Time Steel looks like.
So after 4 days playing with android wear what are my thoughts ?
Pros
Call me a tart but the Moto looks simply gorgeous and is much much nicer on the wrist than the steel
Opening and reading a notification on the watch clears the notification on the phone
Coming back in range of the phone after being away (common for me at work as it's connected to personal phone) shows all the notifications you missed. Handy
You can start things like Strava from the watch without touching your phone
Battery easily lasts a day
Charging cradle puts the watch into a night mode that is great as a bedside clock
Cons
The display has a "flat tyre" at the bottom which means white background watch faces look a bit strange
You can't slyly look at your watch during a meeting as you need an obvious wrist movement to get the thing to light up
They still haven't worked out what it is....does it send you notifications or does it replace your watch ?
Software is a bit buggy still, it's not that intuitive
So.....if you want a watch that happens to send you notifications then the pebble is miles and i mean MILES better. The pebble OS is basic but it's slick and it works.....and it works with all android and iOS. In contrast android wear LOOKS lovely and has a real wow to it but it falls down as far as usuablity. Put it this way i got my wife a pebble almost 2 years ago and she still wears it every day......as a watch. I never get called in as IT support to work out why it's not working and she never complains about it. She has no desire to upgrade it as it just works. They seem to have a real community going and mine sold on here within 5 mins for £100.....not bad considering it cost me £200 a year ago. My moto was more expensive at launch and retained less value.
So why have i sold mine? Well as stated above i'm a tart but i also work in IT and it's just a brilliant gadget. I may never use google maps on my watch but i love the fact i can do it. Also i've stopped wearing it at work so most of my usage is casually and for someone used to HUGE seikos the steel just looks too small on my wrist with jeans and t shirt (say). In contrast the moto looks fantastic (to my eyes). Also as i wear it on rotation with another 14 watches i care less about battery life than i used to.
In conclusion i'd say Pebble still leads the way and that's a lot to with the fact they are clear on exactly what they want the watch to do - and they've got devs on board at the grass roots level. However i do worry that they become the betamax of the smart watch industry. However ill be watching (sic) the Pebble Steel closely to see if it gets closer to nailing what i want.
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