Pebble Steel
getpebble.com
getpebble.com
Which is exactly what comes to mind for me. I think it really works against what they're going for with the product.
The silver one also looks rather decent if you put a better wrist strap on it. For example: http://instagram.com/p/i1r-EyNxSO/
Secondly (call me close-minded) I honestly don't get what use/niche 'Smart Watches' fill.
Got a notification? Whip out your phone.
Got a notification and need to respond? Whip out your phone.
Got a notification and need to respond but are 10 meters away from your phone? Sprint like hell to your phone...or conversely, wait till you find your way back to your phone.
Got a notification but don't want to obnoxiously check your phone in front of your significant other/friend/coworker/familymemeber/human? Newsflash: You're still being obnoxious when you check your watch/Glass.
Want to change your music? Come on, your phone lockscreen does that in one button touch too.
Want to check your "team's score"? Google Now. NFL app. Lockscreen changers. Etc.
Want to personalize your watch? Let me link you to a personalized watch store. http://www.amazon.com/Watches-Mens-Womens-Kids-Accessories/b...
Want to have a watch that works underwater? See above link.
Want to customize your watchband? See above above link.
Want to read it in sunlight? ...
Want to wake up (assuming you charge it at some other time) with it's gentle vibrations? Lots of smartphone apps ( and of course Jawbone Up, Nike Fuel Band, FitBit, etc) do that as well.
Want to know the time? Well...Sure.
I just don't really understand the rationale behind smart-watches [as they currently stand].
[Edit: I've read the below comments and I now understand.]
Pebble solves that. Plus the white version is, as far as I'm concerned, a nicely stylish accessory too.
That justified the use, for me.
There are also a lot of interesting third party apps. The ones I like locks the phone and vibrates the Pebble if it the Pebble and phone are disconnected.
I have built tennis and squash scoring apps. I wear the watch day to day, however I get most value from the watch by keeping track of my racquet sport games from my wrist. Not sure if you've played before but after a couple intensive rallies it is really easy to forget what the score was, or where the next serve needs to be from.
There are plenty of other custom applications people can use to assist them in day to day activities. Something my friend has mentioned is when riding his scooter, he can use google maps without looking at his phone because the notifications are pushed to his pebble...
I started out liking the alerts for using google maps, but ended up finding it intensely annoying when driving in the city since there ended up being far too many notifications when going through roundabouts etc (approaching, turn off roundabout, distance to next turn).
Relatively minor annoyances (including double notifications sometimes when unlocking) compared to the utility I get from it though.
The funny thing is I read all this stuff about people disliking the look of the plastic Pebble, but all I've heard from people who see it has been positive (I don't wear it as a dress watch though).
I am working to convert them over to v2 of the SDK.
Tennis app is almost ready. Doing the squash one will not be too hard.
Well that scenario is more like this:
Fish your phone out of your pocket or bag, unlock the screen, pull down the notification bar, navigate to the app...
vs
Look at your wrist.
Pebble is quite convenient especially when you're on the go. Walking while staring at your phone is quite hazardous. Also, when my phone is in my pocket, I usually don't hear it ring but I definitely feel when something strapped to my wrist vibrates.
My phone is in my pocket. I don't need to respond to every minor notification. The only important one is when it rings and it makes a lot of noise then as well.
Although... it may be that I want one because my phone lives in my purse/bag since girl pants tend to avoid pockets like the plague, whereas men tend to have pants pockets where they can put their phone. It would take one second to look at a pebble vs a few seconds or more to look for my phone and a lot of the time, it's some trivial message that could have waited but there's only so much sound/notification customization I can do. I could be shaving a couple minutes and a bunch of effort and annoyance every single day with a Pebble.
Unfortunately, as you mention, design has never been their strong point. I don't think I can walk around with one and not have it look like a bulky mens watch.
Before Pebble, I'd get one notification (perhaps from Facebook), but after checking that one notification, I end up getting lost while catching up on my entire News Feed.
Now, I glance at the Pebble. I get that one notification. If it's important, I act on it. Otherwise I dismiss it and go about living in the real world.
Pebble allows me to keep my phone in my pocket, which makes "whipping out my phone" the barrier to an action that will ultimately lead to my distraction.
It _has_ gotten me back in the habit of wearing a watch though, after something like 20 years of relying on a phone if I wanted to know the time I now feel like I'm "missing something" when I don't have it on my wrist.
(Turns out probably the most useful thing it does as a "smart watch" is being used as a replacement for the bicycle computer I lost - I now use Runkeeper running on my phone and the Pebble on my wrist to do the keeping track of speed/time/distance that I used to do with my ~$20 bike computer. Not a spectacularly successful outcome for a ~$130 toy…)
What are some examples? Doing any physical work is a perfect example. Maybe you're cooking, or plugging together and configuring a rack full of networking or AV equipment, or soldering, or building a house, or basically doing any of the million things people do every day where an interruption long enough to check a smart phone is a serious disruption to the flow of work.
And what happens when you're not just receiving 1 notification per hour or even every 10 minutes but perhaps 10 notifications in 1 minute? Not all day, but all it takes is 10 notifications per minute to happen once or twice a day to make having a smart watch worthwhile.
It may not be the sort of thing that is ever useful to you, but that's fine, don't buy one. But they are plenty useful for a lot of people.
That and my old watch died about a year before I got my Pebble, it's nice to have a watch again.
If you've ever paid attention to the wrists of the SF hipster crowd vintage digital/calculator watches are common. American Apparel even sells them in store: http://store.americanapparel.net/category/index.jsp?catId=ca...
Intentional or not, the silver watch is a nice throwback while the matte black is distinctly modern IMHO.
I've worn a Casio F91W for about 25 years so every decade I'm in fashion at least once :)
Clicked through and got this message that the promotion "isn't active." (http://imgur.com/pOt9KsR)
Stop burning money, team Pebble. You're welcome.
I think we need a round face. Years of watch making tells us its clearly more attractive and what most consumers prefer, and a round display will be more 'revolutionary' then just a tiny smart phone on your wrist.
Watches greater than $20 is (hopefully) every single fucking watch in existence. You're deluding yourself if you think that manufacturing costs of these things will become so low you could buy one instead of lunch, and have it work at least until dinner the same day. If you want a quality, but commoditized watch at a bargain price, you'll be looking at $150 to $250, which will last you for 4 or 5 years, and can be serviced when needed. (Isn't this place the same place that bemoans Apple every time a new iPad or MacBook Air comes out on how unserviceable they are?)
Watches over $300 are arguably jewelry (and I'm being very generous here). Watches over $1,000 are starting to become timepieces, and people still pay good money for high quality watches that can last generations. The watch on my wrist right now is has been running constantly for over 10 years old, and has been serviced once (basically an oil change). What other mechanical device have you ever owned that has run constantly for ~5 years and not needed service? Your car can barely go 50 hours of continuous use at 65MPH before it's recommended to change the oil.
And round face? Really? Years (centuries, actually) of watchmaking have given us a round face because watches have always been manufactured on a lathe, which has a habit of producing round objects. Round faces are not "clearly more attractive". In fact, marketing of high end watches suggest that a half convex rectangle (width sides are straight, length sides are convex) is the most attractive watch shape, which is precisely what the Pebble is.
Sorry for the rant, but seriously, $20 is the worst number you could have pulled out of your ass, along with the round shape statement. Listen, I own, and probably dislike the Pebble (as a watch) just as much as anyone else that dislikes it, but your comment here is just completely uneducated and lacks any facts whatsoever.
http://www.amazon.com/Casio-A168W-1-Electro-Luminescence-Bra...
I have a couple of Skagen watches too, but honestly the Casio is the one I reach for every day.
Given that the faceplate is just that, a plate, I would have thought that the common 'roundness' was due more to trying to match the shape described by the hands than anything lathe-related, empty corners not looking pretty. Where square faces with hands exist, the design of the face usually tries to fill in those corners somehow.
IANAWatch[maker|historian|enthusiast]
Bullshit. There are so many useful features that can't be packed into a <$20 device, especially not one small enough to fit comfortably on your wrist.
High-precision resonators, wireless time reception, solar power and/or high quality power cells, sensors (temperature, location, direction, biometrics, etc.), utility features (chronograph, alarm, etc) are not "jewelry" features. They are strictly utile.
And, of course, having obvious "computer" capabilities like a relatively high-resolution display and high-bandwidth short-range radio is not aesthetic; it's functional.
I'll heartily disagree with that. I would eagerly own a pebble, even the ugly plastic models, because it has utility to me. I work a small number of shows per year where I spend a lot of time busy and where my team has to keep coordinated, which we do so using groupme/text messaging, and the value of reducing latency/friction of keeping coordinated is hugely valuable in those circumstances.
Also, I own an altimeter watch which I use for hiking/backpacking. It's perhaps not as useful as the GPS feature in a smartphone (or a GPS handset) but it has the advantage of working even if I'm surrounded by tall trees and it gives me useful data just by looking at it (time, altitude), plus I don't have to worry about the batteries running out. It definitely doesn't look like jewelry.
- It's a phone, therefore it can be subsidized by the carriers
- It almost does everything a smartphone can, including having a lot of screen real-estate, but only costs ~$250 unsubsidized. Perhaps like a flexible iPod touch that wraps around your wrist
If someone can come up with a $200+ wrist-mounted device that sells in the millions but doesn't meet the same level of functionality as a smartphone then I'll gladly eat my Fitbit.
Kindle is e-ink. Pebble is e-paper.
Subsidies are non-existent in many european countries, and seem to be (at least somewhat) on the way out in the US. I don't think this is a requirement.
> It almost does everything a smartphone can, including having a lot of screen real-estate
... or, it does things a smartphone might but is not convenient at - e.g., an LED light is potentially much more useful on a wrist than on a phone. an NFC device is way more useful on your hand. The second factor (think two factor auth) on your wrist is also way better than reaching out for your mobile.
It's still closer to e-paper in look and feel (readable without backlight but backlightable, for instance) than what people associate with the word "LCD screen", which is probably what the marketing/spec is trying to convey.
They have extremely high contrast, I don't think it's fair to compare them to standard LCDs (they aren't e-paper either, but they're far closer to that level of contrast). And their static power consumption is in the microwatts.
- The Pebble has replaced my desire to wear one of my 8 other (yes, I'm one of those people) watches - this really is a case of function over form for those who dislike the look.
- I'm addicted to the notifications - especially of incoming calls and SMS (or at least addicted to the feeling that I didn't miss them)
- My current resin Pebble is already showing signs of wear, the strap holder never really did it's function and the screen is now a swirly mess of fine scratches and buff marks that hopefully the new Corning GorillaGlass will remedy.
Those who make throwaway comments about the need/want for a Pebble watch should really be those who have had the opportunity to wear one for a week or so and see the convenience it brings if you're already tethered to the world by your smart-phone.
It's been most helpful when I'm skiing, biking, or flying RC planes. Checking messages at a glance is awesome. I also use it for navigating music while driving.
Probably the biggest affect of using the Pebble has been having its function as a watch - somewhat ironic. If I forget it, I'm constantly looking at my bare wrist to check the time.
I wanted to see a microphone for Siri/Google Now integration in the next hardware revision. Pebble Steel isn't that impressive to me - but I see where someone might want a fancier Pebble, rather than just a fancier band.
Seriously, though, it's kind of tiring to read.
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I guess you don't have to set the time if it runs out of juice tho?
Interestingly, not being able to _rely_ on whether or not my technology is going to get things like that right reliably might be worse than requiring manual updates to reset stuff like summertime. I always _knew_ the dumb old clock in the ~20 year old car hadn't changed timezone, I was never quite sure which of the phones, tablets, or laptops we had with us were displaying "local time" - every now and then I'd bump into two showing times an hour apart and be confused for a few seconds while I worked out if the earlier or later time was "correct".