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I do charge my Pebble Time Round daily, and it's not waterproof :/

Yet I still backed the Pebble v2.




The PTR is a bit of a different beast: they sacrificed battery life and water resistance for styling. The result is (IMHO) the best-looking smartwatch available. I've been drooling over the PTR ever since it came out (I have an OG Steel). When they announced the "limited-edition" polished gold model during their Kickstarter campaign, I jumped at it, even though it will effectively a previous-generation model (I also got a Pebble 2 to use as a "beater" watch).

I think that Pebble understands better than most that, to many people, a watch is a piece of jewelry more than it is a gadget or piece of equipment—hence why very expensive watches often have less functionality and reliability than a $10 quartz Casio. IMHO, the PTR and OG Steel are the only two smartwatches on the market that really appeal to this demographic.

I think that Pebble's challenge is that the traditional watch market seems to be shrinking—most of the people I know that wear an Apple Watch or Android Wear are people that wouldn't otherwise be wearing watches, and are more interested in the gadget aspect. Regardless of hardware, I don't think that Pebble will ever be able to compete in that market; Pebble support will always be an afterthought for app developers, compared to the ease of the native Apple and Android SDKs. In my experience, Pebble is already falling behind here—the quantity and quality of apps isn't that great (though perhaps I'm missing out on some good apps because my Steel is too old?). They do seem to realize this, and seem to be actively trying to build a larger developer community.

Also problematic for attracting developers: the Pebble app store has no built-in payment facilities, and developers must resort to clunky third-party solutions (such as KiezelPay) to sell paid apps and watch faces. This might not be Pebble's fault, though—I'm guessing that they're restricted by the requirements placed on them by Apple (and perhaps Google) to be in their stores.


One buys the PTR mostly for the looks since it lacks the battery life and water-proofing of its siblings. A good reason to buy a watch for and it looks mighty fine! [1]

Still, a daily charge is too often. I charge mine every other day. Do you have a watchface showing the seconds ticking by?

[1]: https://twitter.com/aerique/status/770983686539972609




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