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Pebble Announces Next-Generation $249 'Pebble Steel' Smart Watch

Monday January 6, 2014 10:19 am PST by Juli Clover
Pebble today announced its next-generation Pebble Smart Watch, the Pebble Steel, which features a stainless steel body with a leather or steel band and a face covered with the ultra durable and scratch resistant Gorilla Glass used in Apple's own products.

Along with a new metal or leather band, a deviation from the plastic band of the first-generation Pebble, the Pebble Steel features smaller side and top bezels for a slimmer, lighter profile. The Pebble Steel weighs 45 grams, two grams less than the original Pebble.

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According to Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky, who spoke to CNET, the Pebble Steel is designed to be a more formal version of the original Pebble.
CEO Eric Migicovsky describes Steel as a more formal version of Pebble: "I'm going out for dinner, I'm wearing a suit, I've got a position that doesn't allow me to wear a plastic watch on my wrist. How do I benefit from a smartwatch? How do I get notifications and run all the apps that Pebble offers without having to put something that I don’t prefer on my wrist. We took that as an industrial design problem. It wasn't really a software problem…We just had to build an aesthetically different Pebble."
The band is available in both brushed stainless steel and a matte black steel, along with black leather. Pebble Steel lasts for up to a week on a single charge and includes an LED indicator that displays battery life. Like the original Pebble, it is waterproof.


Along with the Steel, Pebble has announced that its app store will be available to users later in January. The company is also partnering with new companies to introduce a playback control app for Pandora, ESPN sports stats and box scores, and a car stats monitoring app from Mercedes.

Pebble Steel will begin shipping on January 28 for $249, a $100 premium over the existing Pebble watch. Pre-orders can be placed today on the Pebble website.

[ 163 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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TheGenerous
74 months ago
I'm still preferring old fashion watches. They are better built and look great. These examples below cost less than the Pebble.



Rating: 20 Votes
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keysofanxiety
74 months ago
Still amazes me how this product is light years ahead of Samsung's wearable.
Rating: 10 Votes
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theheadguy
74 months ago

Shouldn't this have been posted to GenericTechRumors.com or PebbleRumors.com? I see the tenuous Apple link to iWatch, but com'on let's not dilute the subject.

There's a simpler solution to your problem: scroll past this news story.
Rating: 10 Votes
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beherenow
74 months ago

Still wondering why smart watches are needed- especially if they have to ride on the coattails of the smart phone in your pocket.


I genuinely think they'll all fail based upon trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist. It's like having a remote control for your car radio. The controls are there, right there!
Rating: 8 Votes
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3587
74 months ago
I'll be saving my pennies for the iWatch thank you.
Rating: 6 Votes
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bgramer
74 months ago

Still amazes me how this product is light years ahead of Samsung's wearable.


That's what happens when you create your own vision and execute on it instead of copying others.
Rating: 6 Votes
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GoCubsGo
74 months ago
I'd actually love one and would find it incredibly useful for when I am riding my motorcycle. Pulling out a phone to look at the clock or something is fairly impossible for me. If not impossible, a bit dangerous.
Rating: 5 Votes
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Stella
74 months ago

For $250? No touchscreen, no color screen, no thanks.


If the pebble had touch and colour screen you wouldn't be getting 5 to 7 days battery life, without making it bulkier. Its large enough as it is. IMO, the Pebble doesn't really need a touch screen, the physical buttons suffice.
Rating: 5 Votes
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LordVic
74 months ago

Phone is in a bag, out of reach.
Specific type of sports.
In a meeting.
Busy area so phone can't be heard in my pocket, but the Pebble vibration can be felt.



I have a Pebble, and its extremely convenient. So, first hand experience. I do not talk to anyone about, unless they do.

Wearable devices will become very popular in the future and that spark has been lit ( think health bands ). I think smart wearable is an interesting product range and brings a lot of potential.

YMMV. As always.


add to that,

Winter :p

its -20c out. Gloves are on. jacket is completely zipped up to my neck. pockets are seeled to avoid the wind blowing in. My phone goes into the pockets on the inside to avoid direct access to the weather.

how am I going to get to my phone, and interact with it? especially if i just want to see the time? or maybe a call i missed or any notification? or control my music that i'm listenin to while walking home.

A smartwatch should be able to do all that. And since it's not a touch screen device, using physical buttons, I would never have to take my gloves off to operate it's controls, making it actually MORE useful than digging the phone out of my pocket.

I also want to say that after looking at other sites, that have REAL photos of the new Steel look, these press shots that MacRumors has shown give it no justice. The new watch ALMOST looks good enough to get out of the "geek" world.


I actually want the all black one

Rating: 4 Votes
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LordVic
74 months ago

:eek:$250!!!!!!!!!!????????????!!!!That is way to much!!!!!!!!! If apple comes out with an iWatch witch I really want and am hoping for I would be happy to pay $100 but will pay up to $150. But $250 for a pebble?


if you think $250 for a watch is crazy, you've clearly never bought a half decent time piece in your life.
Rating: 4 Votes

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