Skip to footer

With Steel, Pebble offers a luxury take on the smart watch

The Pebble Steel is a sleeker, shinier smart watch. 

|
Pebble
The Pebble Steel smart watch.
  • By Matthew Shaer Correspondent

Earlier this year, California start-up Pebble Technology took the wraps off the Steel, a trussed-up version of its base-level timepiece. Whereas the original $150 Pebble is distinctly gadgety looking, the $249 Steel is all sleek metal and hard lines – a smart watch for people who don't particularly want to look like they're wearing a smart watch.

This week, Pebble will begin shipping the first Steel watches; consumers can order the device on its landing page. Meanwhile, reviews of the Steel have started to trickle out. How does it fare? Pretty well, actually. 

"The Steel, which comes clad in CNC-machined stainless steel (type 316, if you must know), is stately, refined and classy," writes Brad Molen of Engadget. "That's in stark contrast to the original, which we'd describe as 'colorful.' Sporty. Fun. [The Steel's] build materials and industrial design are better than any other smart watch we've seen, and Gorilla Glass 2 helps make the watch feel durable." 

And over at TechCrunch, Darrell Etherington praises the updated app store, which marks what he describes as "a huge improvement in the software ecosystem." 

"Browsing and discoverability in the software store reminds me of what it was like to find apps for iOS and Android in the early days of both of those software marketplaces: there’s a lot of scrolling, and some limitations in terms of organization of content, but overall it’s still much better than the process has been," Mr. Etherington writes.  

Pebble, of course, doesn't have the smart watch market to itself – Samsung and Sony have both introduced smart watches, as have smaller companies, such as Cookoo.

According to Shawn DuBravac, the Chief Economist at Consumer Electronics Association, smart watch sales could top 1.5 million globally by the end of 2014, with one million of those devices going to American consumers. 

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to With Steel, Pebble offers a luxury take on the smart watch
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2014/0128/With-Steel-Pebble-offers-a-luxury-take-on-the-smart-watch
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe