Pebble offers a smartwatch with a heart rate monitor.
They didn't want competition in the low price tier, that's it.
Pebble was also dying, hence they snatched them cheap.
I can only hope that Pebble itself will be leveraged. Their products are way better than that smartwatch Fitbit released. Maybe getting Pebbles into more brick-and-mortars
I have had a fitbit charge hr and liked it. (Got money back after a forgivable issue, rubber band stared peeling off.) Reasons for not getting a new one was because I rather want a waterproof device with more features.
I'm saving for a pebble now, but ideally a steel (looks best) with time interface (sounds really intuitive) and hr monitoring.
So please please please pebble don't go out of business!
(Like others have mentioned it is less about displaying time though and more about silent notifications so I don't have to pull my giant phone in a meeting to see who is trying to contact me, getting a reminder when I need to run for the train etc.)
They replaced mine when that started happening about three months in. Now, four months later, it's happening again. Maybe they'll send me another replacement, but it does seem like just switching to Pebble is a sensible idea, if those products remain available and supported.