March 10th the Apple watch launched and I ordered a Pebble. I always loved the idea of the Pebble and it looked great especially the black Pebble Steel and after the launch of the Apple watch in my head I already ordered a Pebble, so I did and it arrived the next day and im the happiest Pebble owner since.

I know the Pebble Time has a Kickstarter project at the moment, but I like it simple and cheap. It is a tool just like any other device in my life and tools are here for being used and not to be pretty. I would be fairly caseous with a €400+ device around my wrist and that is not what I want from a smartwatch. Another big kicker to go with the Pebble is it’s battery live 7 days! Ok I get like 4 at the moment but that is mostly because im excited and trying it out all the time.

Their are a few apps that already got me hooked on the Pebble.

  • Wunderlist acces to all my todo’s right from my wrist I can quickly glance over them check them of or open them to see the whole note.
  • Run Keeper I don’t run, but longboard and as soon as I start a trip the watch face changes to the Run Keeper stats and shows the distance, total time and the average speed.
  • Next Train This is a transit time checker for the dutch railroads. Based on your location it will check the nearest station and when you selected one it will show all trains departing at what hour and which tack.

This last one really shows the power of the Pebble and where it is coming from. I was in a Hurry to the train station without knowing what time the train was leaving and thought it would be really cool if I could see that on my watch, so I got on the train did a quick google search and found there was an app for that. That is why the Pebble is awesome. The community is really helpful, just check /r/Pebble and within minutes you have a response back, sometimes even from the Pebble team!

Next is the notification and they work, nothing fancy just all your notification on your wrist. I really don’t like checking my phone in company with other people, but when you feel your phone virating it really hard to stop wondering what it could be and now I can just take a sneak peak to check what it is and unnoticed dismiss the notification. It just a lot more socially accepted to check your watch than it is to check your phone when in company with others and I like it a lot more.

This all aren’t life saving features and you clearly don’t need them, but for me it are the little time savers and the connivance of having it around your wrist. When out shopping with my hands full in the store to check my shopping list is just cool or when going on a longboard trip just checking the wind direction at a glance is just awesome for me. Quickly skipping sections of my podcast (im a heavy podcast listener) is amazing.

I got my Pebble for a week now and it keeps amazing me. I can’t wait for the new firmware that is going to be available for every Pebble not just the new one. Im excited to create my own watch faces or even apps with the amazing developer interface Pebble provides to everyone.