Pebble Time: Still a Rockstar, But Now on a Crowded Stage

A lot has changed since Pebble released its first smartwatch in 2013. For one thing, it pretty much had the market to itself. But as I wrote back then, there was no chance they'd keep it to themselves:

A Kickstarter project for a device you wear on your wrist, but that needs a smartphone to do anything really interesting, has raised more than $5.3 million in eight days. This is this far and away the most anyone has ever raised on Kickstarter, and it’s happening – with a gadget in a category that has a pretty dismal track record – at a sales pace that would make even Apple sit up and take notice.

At the time, wearables were just beginning to get mainstream notice. Google Glass, unveiled a year earlier, has since gone from exhilarating fantasy to market flop. A big handful of Android manufacturers have jumped in. And a few weeks ago a little company in Cupertino, California decided to get into the act.

Apple's entry into the smartwatch sweepstakes is a game changer. Given the company's sway it's a safe to say that because (and only because) of Apple, we'll know for sure if the smartwatch is destined to become a mainstream item and whether the market can support even one iPhone smartwatch, say nothing of two.

Pebble chooses to believe this is all good news. And it has backed up this bravado by releasing its latest smartwatch right smack in the middle of Apple's product launch tsunami for Watch.

Pebble Time is the company's third model, but the company's first major software re-boot, wrapped in freshly-designed cases strangely evocative of the Apple Watch. It has produced another winning device.

Time is a significant upgrade, inside and out, a smartwatch that should instantly appeal to smartwatch enthusiasts and to new customers who want one that is simple to set up and use, goes days between charges, eschews bells and whistles and is relatively inexpensive.

Subtle improvements make Time more stylish and "wrist-friendly" than its predecessors — like Apple Watch, once you strap it on (I tested both with sports bands) you almost don't know it's there. It's more fashionable and less utilitarian than the original, which I described as "attractive in a MoMA kind of way."

But the real news is under the hood. Pebble has put a lot of thought into what a smartwatch should and shouldn't be, and has decided to double-down on the notion that more of less is more. In so doing it directly challenges Apple's vision for what a smartwatch should be, today.

With Watch, Apple seems to be prototyping what might eventually become a successor to the iPhone: Your go-to, fully functional, self-contained computer and communications device worn on the wrist instead of carried in the pocket. Pebble still sees a smartwatch's power as a smartphone noise filter, a tool to eliminate the many "false positives" that prompt us to reach for our phones like a Pavlovian dogs only to discover that wasn't necessary.

Time is content to do a few things exceedingly well, convinced that it is only these few things that make a smartwatch necessary.

The original Pebble alerted you to messages, emails, caller ID, calendar events, social media gestures. Now these are more animated, with icons indicating the source (email, message, Twitter, etc -- another nice visual clue to help you decide what's important this second.) The big conceptual upgrade is what Pebble calls Timeline: your calendar(s) in a neat linear display that is more digestible than anything on the desktop or your phone for the events that matter most -- by definition, what's happening now and next.

Pebble dedicates two buttons to Timeline: Previously, the top and bottom buttons of the right side were used to slide through available watch faces, a much less important task (choosing faces is now deeper in the menu, and can also be done via the companion smartphone app). The top button shows your calendar events now and next. The bottom, upcoming, including the time until to your next event.

Those two buttons also still serve a second purpose. They are customizable and with force touch will "quick launch" any app or built-in feature you've programmed. I have mine set to alarms (I use the vibration to wake up without disturbing my wife), and the archive of notifications — very handy when I've muted everything for a meeting and want a quick scan of all incoming I missed, in preview mode.

Time still has a total of four buttons, which manage all navigation — no touch screen or dial, as with Watch. Nav is simple back-and-forth and up-and-down scrolling, with the center right button acting as the shortcut to settings and, in context, as "enter."

The buttons have a much lower profile than on the original. They are inconspicuous, but easy to manipulate.

Time and Watch really can't be compared, except that they will be. After living with both for several days it seems to me they will largely appeal to very different audiences. Some of the differentiation will be on price — Pebble Time will retail for $200, while the least expensive Apple Watch is $350.

In starker terms the decision might come down to productivity tool vs. lifestyle choice (and a peek into the future). And a watch you can keep using even if you give up your iPhone — Pebble has always also worked with Android phones, and often is more powerful on that open platform, especially in the early versions of the Pebble OS.

With Watch, Apple has essentially prototyped  the iPhone killer. It offers immersive experiences — meals in addition to snacks. You can create some messages, ask Siri some questions, make and take phone calls. (Pebble Time has a mic, but — so far — it is meant to dictate replies to Gmail under iOS, and an a far wider range of apps in Android, including SMS, Hangouts and WhatsApp.

Pebble Time is handsome, but Apple Watch a thing of beauty. Time's new color e-paper display adds a subtle dimension, but it can't hold a candle to Watch's crisp, hi-res display. While Apple claims 18 hours of "normal" use, Pebble still boasts a week; in my experience it's more like 5 days. Still, that eliminates range anxiety — the hesitation you might have to use it so you can conserve power.

Pebble's battery advantage also means that Time's watch face is always on. I found this especially handy when driving or lying down, situations when Watch, normally dark, wasn't always able to sense that my gesture meant "show the time."  When behind the wheel, this is maybe more than just inconvenient.

Pebble's simplicity doesn't mean there aren't a plethora of apps — about 6,500, including hundreds of watchfaces. It also pairs with Misfit and Jawbone for activity and sleep tracking. And coming down the pike are smart straps, which makes Pebble a platform for the additional features — health, geolocation, extended battery life — that live in the band, not the watch.

Is there a better choice between Pebble Time and Apple Watch? That's almost a riddle. I wouldn't — couldn't — buy a smartwatch that doesn't last for days. I might not use a tiny touch screen very much. Making calls on the world's smallest speaker phone seems silly.

But make no mistake: Wearable computing of the sort Apple is promoting with Watch is the future, in some way, shape or form. And choice is a wonderful thing.

Today, though, less remains more for me.