The Pebble Time has been officially unveiled, with the third-generation smartwatch being brought to life through Kickstarter.
Despite having seen huge success with both the original Pebble and more recent Pebble Steel smartwatches, the wearable maker has returned to its crowd funding roots for its latest wrist-bound offering.
Dubbed the Pebble Time, the company’s latest smartwatch promises a 7-day battery life despite moving to a more power-hungry colour display.
Unlike its LCD screen packing counterparts, however, the Time still makes use of always on e-paper technology to help further stretch the device’s limited battery life.
As with its predecessors, the Pebble Time is fully compatible with both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms.
This is a key point of differentiation when compared with the Google-locked fleet of Android Wear devices and the forthcoming iOS-only friendly Apple Watch.
Having sought $500,000 (£324,000) in Kickstarter funding, the Pebble Time hit its lofty goal in under 20 minutes – thanks to almost 3,000 eager backers.
“Pebble was first bought to life by 69,000 backers and people who supported our vision three years ago,” Pebble CEO, Eric Migicovsky said. “We could not think of a better way to share our new watch.”
Discussing the new model, he added: “With Pebble Time, we’re launching completely new hardware and reimagined software while keeping all the things people love about Pebble.”
Kickstarter CEO, Yancey Strickler, added: “With Pebble’s first Kickstarter campaign, they successfully introduced smartwatches to the world.
“We’re thrilled Pebble has come back to Kickstarter to share their latest innovation. As enthusiastic members of the Pebble community, all of us at Kickstarter are excited to help them again bring an exciting vision to life.”
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Offering wrist-based notifications, including text and email alerts, the Time lines up at just 9.5mm thick. This is down 20 per cent on its predecessors’ bulk.
Despite its thinner form, the Time has retained its water resistant coating and is still compatible with all standard 22mm watch straps.
With physical buttons present for easy use, the Pebble Time, which offers all the usual step tracking and calorie burn monitoring activity tracking, will be available in three colours at launch – black, silver and red.
While early Kickstarter backers were able to snap up the techy timepiece for just $159 (£103), the LG G Watch R challenger will set wannabe owners back $199 (£129) when handed a formal launch in May.
