Smartwatch pioneer Pebble has unveiled a new round model, which the company claims is the world’s thinnest and lightest, beating Apple, Samsung and Motorola.
The Pebble Time Round is a new version of its highly-rated Time smartwatch, which eschews the square design for a circular one and is just 7.5mm thin and 28g in weight – the downside to that being it only offers two days of battery life between charges where the previous watch lasted a week.
The original crowdfunded Pebble Time smashed Kickstarter records in February and shipped in May, weighing in at 42.5g and 9.5mm thick. Apple’s Watch, released in April, is 10.5mm thick and weighs 40g at its lightest.
The colour epaper screen is always on and always readable, including in direct light or the dark thanks to an LED backlight. It connects to both the iPhone and Android devices, displaying notifications, controlling music and other smartphone features remotely and running Pebble apps, of which there are more than 6,500 available
Eric Migicovsky, chief executive and co-founder of Pebble said: “It’s the first smartwatch that looks like a classic wristwatch and furthers our mission to create useful technology that blends into your everyday life, not the other way around.”
The Time Round comes in three colours and with either a 14mm or 20mm band. Unlike the Time or the Time Steel, which lasts up to 150 hours per charge, the Round’s battery only lasts up to two days – but charges in 30 minutes as opposed to the Time Steel’s two hours.
It will be available in the US from November costing from $249 (£163), with a UK release coming later this year and Europe in 2016.
With traditional watchmakers such as Swatch, Fossil and Montblanc making smartwatches, Samsung releasing its sixth smartwatch, and a batch of new, second-generation Android Wear watches on the way, the smartwatch industry is striving for attention.
Apple’s introduction of its first smartwatch shone a spotlight on the device category, but the question of what a smartwatch is actually good for and why would anyone other than geeks buy them has yet to be answered.
