New Pebble Time now comes in Steel. Let’s you add more functions with smart straps

Pebble recently has updated its smart watch offering with the new Pebble Time, offering a fresh new design with colour display while maintaining an excellent 7 days battery life. With new premium smart watches being announced this week at MWC 2015, Pebble has thrown in a new surprise with a new steel variant.

The Pebble Time Steel isn’t just the same device with a metal body. It gets a larger battery which can last up to 10 days, 3 days more than the standard Pebble. The frame is made from a well crafted CNC-finished 316L stainless steel and the front lens is toughen with Gorilla Glass. Compared to the original Pebble Time, the steel version is a mere 1mm thicker. Like the original Pebble Steel, you’ll get both stainless steel and leather straps out of the box.

The Pebble Steel is offered with 3 colour choices – Gunmetal Black, Silver Stainless and a new Gold colour as pictured above. The Pebble Time Steel will retail for US$299 but it can be yours for US$250 if you pledge for it on Kickstarter. If you’re among the first 50,000 people who have pledged for the original Pebble Time, you’re still able to upgrade to the steel version. For those who can’t decide which one to get, there’s a special duo combo option at US$400, where you can have both original and steel versions.

In addition, Pebble has also announced its new smart straps which adds more functionality to the Pebble Time. Underneath the watch, the charging connector pins also double up as an extension port, where you can add modular straps to add more functions such as GPS, NFC, heart rate sensor, extended battery and more. Swapping these straps is easy as there’s a built-in release hinge, so that you can replace them without additional tools. That’s all they have revealed for now and there’s no further details of pricing and availability of its smart straps.

If you’re interested, you can pledge for it over here but take note that it will only start shipping in July. Check out some hands-on photos from the Verge below.

[ SOURCE 2 ]