I Love Pebble.

I bought my Pebble as an experiment. I wanted to see what smartwatches were, but bought the wrong watch. The only good one, in fact. Pebble is the only company in the current smartwatch market that understands the users. Pebble evolutionised the watch. In the 19th century, all people needed was the time and date. For example, a passsenger on a cruise ship knew that the ship was leaving at 9 o’clock on Saturday. Now, people need to know a little bit more than just the time and date. They need to know next events on their calendar, and Pebble lets you access this via a button press. Pebble also understands that apps are not worth it, and is betting on watchfaces with complications. Pebble exchanged the usual touchscreen for the buttons, which are much easier to use without looking. For example, I can open an app, see a quick note in Evernote and go back to the watchscreen without looking at the screen (except for looking at the note :) Can’t do that with an Apple Watch, huh? With the new Time 2, Pebble’s highest end model has both the looks, the functionality of a smartwatch and the fitness features of a Fitbit. Just look at it- killer!

The only downside is that Pebble is still seen as a “geek” brand, a spiritual successor to the Casio Calculator watch. That is not true. For a long time, Pebble didn’t get into health and fitness, but now every Pebble is a fitness tracker enough to rival the $119 Misfit Ray.

Pebble Time 2 costs $199. The Apple Watch Sport 42mm costs $349. You can get a really nice strap for the Time 2 for $49. The other hundred you can save and get a coffee for the next month. Which one do you pick?