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Pebble Time Smartwatch Receives Overwhelming Support On Kickstarter 141

Posted by Soulskill from the will-it-run-crysis? dept.
DJAdapt writes: Pebble Time, the successor to the Pebble & Pebble Steel smartwatches, has gone up on crowdfunding site Kickstarter, hitting its $500,000 goal in 17 minutes and hitting the $2M mark in less than an hour. The new wearable is touting a color e-paper display and microphone for responding to notifications. It also has features Pebble users are already familiar with, such as seven days of battery life, water resistance, and an extensive library of watch faces and apps. Will any of you be jumping on this? Holding out for the Apple Watch? Waiting for wearables to get more capable?
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Pebble Time Smartwatch Receives Overwhelming Support On Kickstarter More

Pebble Time Smartwatch Receives Overwhelming Support On Kickstarter

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  • Watches (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:15AM (#49124897)

    I freed myself from wearing a watch about 10 years ago. No longer having the familiar restraint around my wrist has made me feel free. I much prefer a phone in the pocket to a phone on my wrist.

    Why we ever moved from pocket watches to wrist watches is a mystery to me.

    • Re:Watches (Score:5, Insightful)

      by arth1 ( 260657 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:22AM (#49124923) Homepage Journal

      Why we ever moved from pocket watches to wrist watches is a mystery to me.

      Primarily because you can glance at a wristwatch without having a free hand or any specific clothing.

      And you can also wear a wristwatch to bed. I like being able to see whether I can sleep for an hour more without fumbling around.

      • I like being able to see whether I can sleep for an hour more without fumbling around.

        You need one of those ceiling projector clocks. I've had one for years and it's the nuts. Just look at the ceiling to see the time.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Vlado ( 817879 )
        I read somewhere, a long time ago, that wristwatches became "popular" during first world war. The reason was that watches were needed for executing coordinated attacks along the front. Wristwatches allowed you to check time, without letting go of your weapon. This also accounts for wristwatches being worn on the left hand. It allowed you to aim your rifle while being able to look at the watch along the arm that supported it.

        • Sounds implausible. Only the officers would have needed to know what time the barrage would lift (or whatever) and they generally didn't carry rifles.

        • Try strapping your watch on your right wrist (if you're left handed), and you'll understand why we carry them on our left wrists.

          • Try strapping your watch on your right wrist (if you're right handed), and you'll understand why we carry them on our left wrists.

            FTFM (Fixed that for myself)

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Vlado ( 817879 )
              I don't understand what your point is.
              I'm left handed and I've always carried my watch on the left hand.

          • Once again, the simple answer is the right one.

        • You wear your watch on the arm opposite your handedness so you can manipulate the crown with the correct hand.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Vlado ( 817879 )
            That doesn't really work all that well for lefties.

            I'm a left-handed person and I always wore watches on my left hand. First of all it didn't cause me any problems to do so. Second of all it would be awkward to operate the watch on the right hand, since button-placement is ergonomically better suited for wearing watch on the left hand and operating it with the right one. Try winding a "legacy" analog watch with your left hand, while wearing it on the right one. You can, but it's damn uncomfortable.
            The o
          • I'm right handed and wear my watch on my right hand, it feels wrong on my left, always has.
        • it was before this actually... Anglo-Burma wars and Anglo-Boer wars towards the end of the 1800s saw wristwatches become popular with the british millitary officers as they found it difficult to use a pocket watch from the saddle or while trying to shoot a pistol.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by blang ( 450736 )

        Wearing a watch in bed is idiotic. Your skin needs to breathe now and then. Do you wear your shoes to bed as well? You deserve also to wake up with the imprint of the watch on your forehead,.

        • It really depends on the kind of watch band you have and how tight you wear it. If it's something like leather, cloth, or rubber then you definitely should take it off daily. If you have a metallic band and it isn't completely tight against your wrist, then there should be enough air flow around the watch band to not have any problems. If you have a full metal watch, and wear it to bed, and wear it in the shower, then it should remain relatively sanitary, and you really don't ever have to take it off.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by arth1 ( 260657 )

          Wearing a watch in bed is idiotic. Your skin needs to breathe now and then.

          That's two disjointed statements. Wearing a band that slides the width of the watch up and down makes skin breathing no issue at all. Not wearing an appropriate band is going to cause problems whether you sleep with the watch on or not.

          Do you wear your shoes to bed as well?

          What purpose would it have? Unlike a watch, which does tell the time, also in bed.

          You deserve also to wake up with the imprint of the watch on your forehead,.

          That says a lot more about your sleeping habits than mine.

      • Because you can launch a synchronized attack from the trenches without everyone fumbling to stuff their watch back into a pocket. Then fashion took over.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Jhon ( 241832 )

      "I freed myself from wearing a watch about 10 years ago. No longer having the familiar restraint around my wrist has made me feel free. I much prefer a phone in the pocket to a phone on my wrist."

      And I felt the same way -- until I started wearing a pebble. I like keeping my phone in my pocket rather than taking it out 50+ times per day to see if an email or text is trivial or not.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by BlackHawk-666 ( 560896 )

        Here's a hint, they are all trivial. If someone can't be bothered to talk to you in person, it's probably not something that needs your attention immediately, if ever.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by LordNightwalker ( 256873 )

        Same here. I stopped wearing watches because I had allergic reactions to the metal, and for the past 15-20 years I used my cellphone as my watch instead. I don't often need to check the time, and when I do, odds are I'm behind a computer anyway. When I ordered my Pebble, I was a bit concerned because I didn't know how my skin would react to the plastic, but fortunately, the Pebble didn't provoke any reactions.

        For me, the main benefits my Pebble brings to the table are moving the notifications out of my p

        • sounds cool. does it work iwht iphone?

          • Yes, but not sure if you can reply from the watch on ios. For Android it's a recent addition. Google is your friend, or you can contact their support through the site, they're relatively responsive.

        • Same here. I stopped wearing watches because I had allergic reactions to the metal, and for the past 15-20 years I used my cellphone as my watch instead. I don't often need to check the time, and when I do, odds are I'm behind a computer anyway. When I ordered my Pebble, I was a bit concerned because I didn't know how my skin would react to the plastic, but fortunately, the Pebble didn't provoke any reactions.

          You can easily replace the Pebble's watchband, as it is standard 22mm. I hated the original silicone watchband and bought a nice leather one on Amazon for $20. Now the Pebble feels and looks nicer.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

        I simply set most notifications to silent and treat them like email, to be looked at when it suits me. The only ones that actually vibrate are ones I wish to read quickly, everyone else has to wait until it is convenient.

      • I like keeping my phone in my pocket rather than taking it out 50+ times per day to see if an email or text is trivial or not.

        This. I didn't realize how annoying it actually was until I didn't have to do it anymore. I like my current Pebble 2 quite a bit, and am looking forward to the Pebble 3.

    • Re:Watches - Jewelry, Not Functionality (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SlashdotOgre ( 739181 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @02:46AM (#49125193) Journal

      There are some functional benefits to a wrist watch over a pocket watch such as the ability to tell the time even with your hands full, but really, watches (particularly at the higher end) are more about being a piece of jewelry than funcitonality. Consider the fact that a $10,000 Rolex or Omega automatic is typically substantially less accurate than a $100 Seiko with a quartz yet people still pay the substantial premium. Heck, I've found myself guilty of wearing an automatic watch set to the wrong time because I was in a rush in the morning and wanted to wear the watch for the look.

      There's tons of better, more accurate sources to tell time, but people wear watches anyway. When you start viewing watches as just a piece of socially acceptable (typically male) jewelry, they tend to make much more sense.

      • That is the problem with a lot of these smart watches. The Pebble is awesome in terms of functionality and battery life (well, compared to other smart watches anyway), but it looks like a cheap digital watch from the 70s, and most other smart watches look like crap. There's a couple of ones that look at least halfway decent: the Moto 360 and LG Urbane are round (which I prefer) with a choice of metal bodies and metal or leather straps. I was disappointed by the appearance of the Apple Watch (square, but

        • Recently, I saw a picture of a diamond-encrusted Apple watch band / case. I'm sure there will be a market for third parties, catering to people with more money than either common sense or fashion sense to 'improve' their smart watch in one way or the other.

          Now that nobody has a 'classical' style computer, case modders have to go somewhere.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

            Recently, I saw a picture of a diamond-encrusted Apple watch band / case. I'm sure there will be a market for third parties, catering to people with more money than either common sense or fashion sense to 'improve' their smart watch in one way or the other.

            Don't laugh. Turns out custom straps actually are quite important, and it's a mistake many Swiss watchmakers forget about. The fact that Apple provides a wide range from the get go signals other manufacturers to step their game up.

            A horologist's take on t

    • Re: (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I freed myself from wearing a watch about 10 years ago. No longer having the familiar restraint around my wrist has made me feel free. I much prefer a phone in the pocket to a phone on my wrist.

      Why we ever moved from pocket watches to wrist watches is a mystery to me.

      The chances of my wristwatch battery dying (they last years between "charges"), or it automatically syncing to a new time zone (when I don't want it to), or contracting a virus (when I never want it to) are pretty much zero, and yet I've just described struggles people go through daily with their "watch". Why the hell would I subject myself to that when a wristwatch will pretty much just work non-stop.

      You "freed" yourself, as if the burden of a wristwatch was akin to the struggle of enslaved African Americ

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by siddesu ( 698447 )

      Why we ever moved from pocket watches to wrist watches is a mystery to me.

      Apparently, they were needed by pilots in the early era of flight. They needed to keep track of time, and at the same time they had to control the aircraft, which, at the time, was a hard physical work. So, wrist watches became a necessity, then cool, then a fashion item.

      My intro to aerodynamics book told a story similar to this one: http://monochrome-watches.com/... [monochrome-watches.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by DrXym ( 126579 )
      Yes I find reaching into my pocket and fiddling with a phone to find out the time to be extremely liberating.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by blang ( 450736 )

      Same, but involuntarily, I developed extremely sensitivity to nickel. and could no longer wear anything on my wrist except gold or titanium. I bought skagen titanium watches, but first one they had used stainless steel for the claps, so it game me a horrible itch, next one the glass broke, and last one the latch broke. That some $300 wasted on low quality Danish junk that looks nice but can't stand up to normal wear. I still look for watches, but they all advertize their material for the face side. The bac

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pmontra ( 738736 )
      I also don't understand why people want to handcuff themselves with gadgets. It's been 22 years for me since I freed myself but I understand that everybody makes his own rules :-)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      I still prefer watches, but fancy one as in useful like the old school Casio Data Bank 150/300 watches. I wished smartwatches were like those without requiring those big phones.

  • Waiting for a 2+ year battery life which is what I expect of my watches.

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by markdavis ( 642305 )

      >Waiting for a 2+ year battery life which is what I expect of my watches.

      I assume you are joking? A "dumb" watch battery life can't be compared to a smart watch. And if you are seriously waiting for a year year battery life, you will be waiting decades (or longer). Of course, if all you want is time/date and maybe an alarm or stopwatch, then you should be fine with a traditional watch.

      Meanwhile, I have been VERY happy with my Moto 360 and its 2-day battery life. As long as I can reliably get 24 hours

      • Re:Battery life (Score:4, Insightful)

        by arth1 ( 260657 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @02:28AM (#49125141) Homepage Journal

        I assume you are joking? A "dumb" watch battery life can't be compared to a smart watch.

        Why not?
        The smart watches just need to be far more frugal and, dare I say it, smart? Passive NFC powered devices already exist, for example.

        A pacemaker can run 5-10 years on a battery. A wristwatch that mechanically moves hands and dials runs for years on a single battery.
        Saying it can't be done is copping out. It's like saying we could never have an electric car that could go for 300 miles on a charge.
        We can, and we should.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          I've got a very nice Tissot watch. It has touch screen, compass (yes it actually turns to point north), barometer, altimeter, stop watch, alarm, thermometer, and both physical hands and a little lcd display, it's also water resistant to 30m and is has a titanium body. (Yes it also does time and date).
          If I want to make calls, check the weather forecast, or interface with other devices, I have a phone in my pocket. (which also does a lot of these functions, and is needed to make the pebble useful anyway).
          Why

        • A dumb watch has a hardware logic circuit to drive a segmented display. A smart watch has a general purpose CPU that has to render the time using a supplied font to the pixels of the display. This might be just a blit from a pre-rendered buffer, so long as the fonts align to the pixel grid. But even with a "paper" screen, the CPU is *always* going to be an order of magnitude more power hungry than a hardware implementation.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by rdnetto ( 955205 )

            Yes, an individual render operation is always going to be more expensive. But it's not necessary to always update the screen - given that watches are usually held in a specific orientation when being read, you could easily reduce power consumption by an order of magnitude if you only rendered the time when it was actually being read. There's also the possibility of drawing power from the wearer's movement, similar to an automatic.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AmiMoJo ( 196126 ) *

          Passive NFC powered devices already exist, for example.

          Radio transmissions obey the inverse square law, so the amount of energy you receive rapidly decreases as distance increases. That's why RFID devices only work at extremely short range, typically less than 2cm. If you wanted to keep your phone in your pocket it would either need to send out extremely powerful transmissions or the watch would need an extremely large antenna to receive enough energy to do anything useful.

          Can't change the laws of physics, captain.

          A pacemaker can run 5-10 years on a battery. A wristwatch that mechanically moves hands and dials runs for years on a single battery.

          You make a very common mistake which is to vast

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by risom ( 1400035 )
        >>Waiting for a 2+ year battery life which is what I expect of my watches. I> assume you are joking? A "dumb" watch battery life can't be compared to a smart watch. It appearently can, this one claims 8 months: http://www.withings.com/us/wit... [withings.com]

        • That is not a real smart watch. There is no matrix display, no text, graphics, no apps. I wouldn't be able to see my appointments, no notifications, no weather info, no Email, no voice response, no wikipedia lookup, just time.

  • Already in it (Score:5, Informative)

    by Nemyst ( 1383049 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:26AM (#49124949) Homepage
    And quite excited about it. This is essentially the first consumer device with wide appeal that I can think of which will have a color e-paper display. It also comes with better materials than their first watch (which it obviously directly supersedes, unlike the Steel which is classier), especially the Gorilla Glass front, as well as a mic and a new, quite neat UI. The price might be a bit high overall and I'd have wished for a larger screen with less bezel proportionally, but getting the same battery life on a much more dynamic and modern watch is great.

    The fact it's well on its way to beat all previous Kickstarters by a long stretch should be a testament to the fact that yes, people want smartwatches, but not necessarily any sort of smartwatch. For me, Wear devices are automatically out because they have poor battery life and their screen shuts down while inactive on top of being not great to read in the sun. A smartwatch should be usable in all situations a normal watch is, at the very least, and the battery should be long enough that you can make a trip for a few days without worrying about a charger. The Pebble guys seem to have understood this, and it's paying off.

    • I also joined in because I want to support the tech of color eInk.

      And I really liked the idea of a UI based on time for a watch, being able to scroll forward or backwards in time...

      It will be really interesting to compare this with the Apple Watch, which I also plan to get. It will be very interesting to see which resonates more with the public - a more polished experience, or a much stronger battery life?

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        Good to see there are people to whom buying cheap trinkets is a matter of personal pride and sense of achievement. It is because of heroes of conspicuous consumption like yourselves that the capitalism and the global warming are strong, and the rivers in China run in all colors. Keep up the good work, you're what your watch.

        • Good to see there are people to whom buying cheap trinkets is a matter of personal pride and sense of achievement.

          The achievement is not in the trinket; it is in the advancement of technology generally. I don't care for trinkets, I care for things I buy to be useful tools. It may or may not be, but as a side effect I support color eInk which is a technology I hope spreads to other products because I like the qualities it offers.

          It is because of heroes of conspicuous consumption like yourselves that the ca

    • What I would really like to see if the same colour e-paper available as an SPI-driven module for the maker community (Arduino, Raspberry Pi, etc).

      After watching the Pebble Time video on Kickstarter, I'm wondering why we haven't heard of any advances on colour e-paper in such a long time. The previous colour e-paper displays had weak, almost pastel-like, washed-out colours and had a slow refresh but this new display seems to have amazingly rich colours and a really fast refresh speed.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Nemyst ( 1383049 )
        I think they've come out and said this can hit around 30 fps without trouble on the Pebble itself. E-paper displays have quietly been improving it seems since that model isn't a special display made just for Pebble (I can't find the post again but someone had dug up a screen which seemed to fit the Time's specs exactly). Thing is, they're still somewhat washed out compared to normal LCD screens and tend to tear easily (this is why the new animations are brilliant, since they all integrate this tearing effec

        • I'd like to see a bigger, super-widescreen version of this thing. Even with only 64 colours, with the same DPI it would be nice for dynamic arcade cabinet marquees.

          Hell, make them ultra-big and give us the ability to free-form cut three sides and the length of the side with the controller and we could have full-side artwork cut to the profile of the cabinet, too.

          What I wonder is, how much would it cost at those sizes.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by q4Fry ( 1322209 )
        E-Paper != E-Ink

  • I love my Garmin Fenix2. Accurate Heart Rate Sensing, GPS, swim stroke analysis, power meter, plus it keeps time pretty well. 7 Days of Battery Life, 24+ hours of continuous data collection. I'm eagerly looking forward to the Fenix3.

    Prior to that, I'm normally a bit fan of purely analog for the watch.

  • Brightness? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by xlsior ( 524145 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @01:49AM (#49125023) Homepage
    I can't help but notice how over-exposed most of the live videos of the actual display are (brightly washed out hand/wrist in the background), which makes me wonder how readable the screen really is without using the backlight...

    (The first generation pebble has a pretty low contrast ratio too, using a Memory LCD screen -- not true e-ink, although it was advertised as such)

    That said, the new model does look interesting.
  • Unlike the colossal cluster fuck that is Matchstick TV which is nothing more than a half million dollar bait and switch vaporware.

    Kickstarter should only ever be used for new projects. Established businesses, artists, engineers, etc should not be allowed to sully the waters for people or projects that could legitimately use it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by radish ( 98371 )

      Kickstarter should only ever be used for new projects. Established businesses, artists, engineers, etc should not be allowed to sully the waters for people or projects that could legitimately use it

      So what you're saying is one of the world's most successful smart watch manufacturers, with a healthy cash flow and established production and retail channels shouldn't be using kickstarter to launch their third generation device?

  • Will any of you be jumping on this?

    NO

    Holding out for the Apple Watch?

    NO

    Waiting for wearables to get more capable?

    NO

    I still wear a nice Tag watch, but it is more bling than an essential, I "currently" see no value in a smartwatch over my smartphone which I always have with me anyway and my phone has a much better size screen.

    • I "currently" see no value in a smartwatch over my smartphone

      I agree completely. I also have and love my current (Pebble) smartwatch. It's an accessory, not a replacement.

      I also currently see no value in a bluetooth headset over my smartphone, but I've got one of those too.

  • I'm getting ready to go to jail. I say this because someone with a wearable watch is going to use it as a hands free device to talk when I am stuck on some sort of public transport causing me to commit an assault.
    • Say two people are sitting there on a bus having a chat, do you give a shit? I doubt it. Replace one with a device and while it can be vaguely irritating it's really no cause for violence. Chill the fuck out dude.

    • Re:Jail (Score:4, Funny)

      by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Wednesday February 25, 2015 @11:51AM (#49127533) Homepage

      If you are an American, I can understand this sentiment completely. Given the lack of affordable health care, especially psychiatric care (do you have "Poor Impulse Control" tattooed on your forehead?), the penal system is perhaps the best option for getting the help that you clearly need.

      USA! USA!

  • 'nuff said.
  • ask me the time and you will get one of two responses. Daytime or Nighttime depending on the darkness.
  • https://www.ischool.utexas.edu... [utexas.edu] This reminded me of this inspiring paper.
  • ...I was excited to see this, and backed it immediately. My Pebble has changed my use pattern of my phone quite a number of positive ways. I didn't realize how many email notifications, calls, texts, etc. that I was reaching in to my pocket to check and respond to, but could have ignore for a while (or forever). Also, I have Tetris (err... Pebtris) on my wrist! :)
  • But not a $179 upgrade.

  • I was a supporter of the original pebble, and I still love it. I feel no need to replace it with anything else because it already does everything I want. Also, it looks like the new one is slightly bigger, which makes me less interested. However, I support the company, and like their general philosophy -- that the watch should supplement, not replace your phone. I like the 7-day battery life, and the ability to read the thing even in direct sunlight.

    I don't see a strong need for color, but as long as it loo

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