Pebble announces the Pebble Time Steel – and you can get one even if you’ve already invested #MWC15

Last week, Pebble unveiled their new colour e-paper smartwatch, the Pebble Time, and the world went crazy. Today at Mobile World Congress, the roof was raised again for the announcement that the new watch will also come in a sophisticated steel version.

As with the previous Pebble Steel, the Pebble Time Steel is a more stylish, premium version of the main Pebble watch. It comes in silver, black, and gold finishes, is water-resistant, and includes the new timeline, voice reply and colour e-paper features of the main Pebble Time.

If you’ve already backed the Pebble Time on Kickstarter, you’re in luck: you can upgrade to the Pebble Time Steel without losing your place in the queue. There’s more information on how to do that here.

Pebble Time Steel price and availability

The regular version of the Pebble Time costs $179 (£116) if you get one of the limited early slots on Kickstarter – after that, it’ll be $199 (£129). The Pebble Time Steel is $250 (£162) for early birds, and $299 (£194) after that. The Pebble Time Steel also comes with two straps: one leather and one metal.

The Pebble Time Steel will start shipping in July 2015. You can back either the regular Pebble Time or Pebble Time Steel on Kickstarter up to the 27th of March 2015.

New open platform for Pebble smartstraps

Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky also announced that the company will be working with third-party designers, accessory creators and ‘hardware hackers’ to make new straps for the Pebble Time that offer more options for your smartwatch. Migicovsky comments:

“In order to add a heart rate monitor or GPS directly into a smartwatch, you have to make serious compromises on design and battery life. And it’s likely that if you buy a watch with a certain sensor today, it will be out of date within 12 months.

We are creating an open platform that will enable anyone to build smartstraps for Pebble watches. For example, imagine a smartstrap with a GPS chip or a heart rate monitor, that transforms Pebble Time into a high-performance fitness watch; or a strap with a pollution sensor inside, that keeps track of the environment around you; or a strap with an extra battery that extends the battery life of Pebble Time past 7 days. We can’t wait to see what people develop; the opportunities are endless.”

This means there’ll be a potentially enormous range of customisation options available for your Pebble Time – and the only people who won’t be happy to hear that are Pebble’s competitors.