Pebble Time Steel and Modular Smartstraps Announced

While it’s well on its way to reclaiming the most-funded Kickstarter title, the Pebble Time campaign just got some exciting new updates: Pebble Time Steel and Smartstraps. The new Steel edition of the Pebble Time gives the smartwatch some serious Apple Watch-style looks, while Smart Straps embraces modularity in a way that could help revolutionize the mobile industry.

With a pre-order price of $250, the Pebble Time Steel is, well, exactly like the Pebble Time, only with a slightly thicker, metal-bodied design. The other big difference here is that instead of a seven-day battery life, the Pebble Time Steel will supposedly provide ten days of battery life. Once the Steel is released this summer, the retail price will jump up to $299, once again making Pebble’s Kickstarter campaign the place to go for the coolest new stuff from the company at a lower price.

However, it’s Smartstraps that are really interesting about the new update. That Pebble would a Steel edition of the Time was almost a foregone conclusion – but modular smartwatch straps are a seriously cool and surprising innovation that I couldn’t be more excited about. Pebble will help hardware makers create modular straps that have various bits of tech already baked in, including “GPS, heart rate monitor, NFC, battery extension, you name it!”

Pebble has already posted more detailed information on the creation of Smartstraps – and that includes instructions for both hardware makers and people who simply have 3D printers and want to experiment. The idea of bringing modularity to a big name tech product like the Pebble is pretty huge, and one that Google’s been exploring for some time with its Project Ara modular smartphone.

Pebble might beat Google to the punch when it comes to creating a workable modular model, and that’s ultimately good for consumers and developers alike. I backed the Pebble Time on a whim when its Kickstarter first launched last week. Now I’m seriously glad that I did.

[Pebble Time Steel and Smartstraps]