Pebble announced yesterday the Pebble Time Steel. This is the stainless steel version of the Pebble Time, with the same interface and software, but in a machined metal case that comes in silver, gold and black finishes. Pebble have also increased the battery life by another 3 days to 10 days in total.

Also the new watches will have ‘Smartstraps,’ which allows third-party developers to build smart straps as add-ons to both the standard and Steel watches. The watch has a port on the back, which will allow hardware makers to access and communicate with the Pebble Time. The smart strap would add extra sensors and electronics, batteries perhaps, heart rate monitor, gps chip and more.

The Pebble Time Kickstarter has raised over $12 million so with over 54,500 backers having pre-ordered around 65,700 smartwatches. The new Pebble Time Steel will retail for $299 and will be available to early Kickstarter backers for $249. Existing backers can choose to upgrade to the Pebble Time Steel without losing their spot in the queue. However, Pebble Time Steel starts shipping in July, instead of May for the first crop of standard Pebble Time devices, and June for the current backer group.

A bold move and lets hope it works for Pebble. And that gold finish Pebble Time Steel looks fairly similar to the Apple Watch in rose gold!

Source – techradar.com