New Pebble watch uses e-paper...in colour!

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

That was then. The full ceramic radio controlled solar modals are now around £1100.

Too much for me, despite the elegance of their design.

True, the new Junghans Force models clock in at €1200,= . Ouch. That's almost three times what I paid for mine, back in '99. They do look good, though...

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by harriska2

My "dumb phone" only costs $3.33 a month with texting. No way am I spending $50 a month to have internet on the go just to have a cool watch.

There's no need to spend that kind of money. I spend £10 per month and that gives me unlimited data which is the key requirement for me.

The Pebble does function with the phone, as a watch with various watchfaces. It also functions as a bike computer with the phone even if the phone is not connected to the network (i.e. GPS).

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by ballfresno

There's no need to spend that kind of money. I spend £10 per month and that gives me unlimited data which is the key requirement for me.

That's a very good price. Who's that with, if you don't mind me asking?

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's a very good price. Who's that with, if you don't mind me asking?

Sure. I was with t-mobile, now EE, and soon to be BT (same company, just different ownership...). I have no idea if they still provide this tariff but Three have a £13 sim only plan with unlimited data and other bits.

The trick, as always, is to buy your phone separately!

[Crowl]

Originally Posted by ballfresno

Sure. I was with t-mobile, now EE, and soon to be BT (same company, just different ownership...). I have no idea if they still provide this tariff but Three have a £13 sim only plan with unlimited data and other bits.

Cheapest pricing on three seems to be £15 a month for unlimited data now actually.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

My watch of choice is a Casio G-Shock. Costco has them on sale for $30 every now and then.

My watch of choice is a Generation 1 Pebble. Though I suspect that will change soon.

Originally Posted by pdurrant

My watch of choice at the moment is the Casio Waveceptor

Under £30 for a watch that's never more than a second off the actual time, as it resets from a standard radio signal every night.

It would be nice if it have a better display ands was thinner. There's a least 1mm (perhaps two) that could easily be shaved off by losing the gap between the cover and the LCD.

But the Pebble doesn't interest me. It's bad enough having to constantly charge my phone. I don't want to have to remember to charge my watch every week (or probably more often).

Most of the time I get exactly a week. It helps that I use a very basic watch face without a seconds hand or any fancy animation (the display, though not bistable, does have pixel memory). On occasion I've coaxed even more life out of it by toggling off the bluetooth as I go to bed.

True it's still minuscule for a watch, but it works for me because, as strange as it sounds, I personally have no interest in wearing a "watch". I stopped wearing them shortly after I got my first cell phone. There just wasn't enough of a benefit in my mind.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

True it's still minuscule for a watch, but it works for me because, as strange as it sounds, I personally have no interest in wearing a "watch". I stopped wearing them shortly after I got my first cell phone. There just wasn't enough of a benefit in my mind.

I don't know how old you are, but I think this is largely a generational thing. I notice that an awful lot of young people today don't wear watches: like you, they rely on their phones.

I feel "lost" without a watch. On the rare occasions I forget to put my watch on in the morning I'm constantly glancing at my wrist and being annoyed to find my watch not there.

[Phogg]

I have to read this thread with a fair amount of amusement.
I grew up with mechanical watches that had to wound every couple of days.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Phogg

I have to read this thread with a fair amount of amusement.
I grew up with mechanical watches that had to wound every couple of days.

Yes, but would you want to go back to one now? Having had for many years a watch whose battery needs replacing only once every few years, I wouldn't.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I don't know how old you are, but I think this is largely a generational thing. I notice that an awful lot of young people today don't wear watches: like you, they rely on their phones.

I rely on my phone most of the time. The only time I wear a watch is when I head into the great outdoors where phone service is touch and go.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Antartica

About the display:

On reddit they concluded that it was this memory-in pixel color display from Japan Display

It's a pity that they are only available in very small sizes; a big one would be perfect for reading comics (sigh).

The resolution doesn't match.

But those screens do use tech very similar to the Sharp screens which we know for a fact are used in the grayscale Pebbles, so it's possible.

And those screens could be available at larger sizes, it's just that no device maker wants to buy them.

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by Phogg

I have to read this thread with a fair amount of amusement.
I grew up with mechanical watches that had to wound every couple of days.

As did I but now I have a watch that needs recharging every couple of days

[Antartica]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

The resolution doesn't match.

But those screens do use tech very similar to the Sharp screens which we know for a fact are used in the grayscale Pebbles, so it's possible.

I agree there are lot of problems with that theory, but they are the displays with specifications that more closely match the announced specs of the pebble time (epaper display, 64 colors).

AFAICT, the problems are
(1) the resolution: "By the way, the resolution has not changed (144x168)"; the displays of JDI have more resolution (205x140 or 180x180). This means that they would have to order them custom-made, or would not expose/use all the pixels.

(2) the dpi: 182 in the JDI displays versus 175ppi in the original pebble. They don't match, though they are quite similar.

OTOH, it seems that garmin has some watches using those displays: garmin fenix3 (the round display) and garmin epix (the rectangular display). The only interesting tidbit is that the garmin epix (pdf) is using a 205x148 display, that is different that the one that JDI announced, so maybe they are able to manufacture at multiple resolutions.

Originally Posted by Nate the great

And those screens could be available at larger sizes, it's just that no device maker wants to buy them.

I know, there are a lot of reasons that technology used on small displays may not be that great on big displays: pricey, hard to manufacture without bad pixels, maybe on bigger sizes the power consumption is not that great.. but at least on paper they seem a better match than regular lcd displays for reading, so one can wish.

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by Antartica

I agree there are lot of problems with that theory, but they are the displays with specifications that more closely match the announced specs of the pebble time (epaper display, 64 colors).

AFAICT, the problems are
(1) the resolution: "By the way, the resolution has not changed (144x168)"; the displays of JDI have more resolution (205x140 or 180x180). This means that they would have to order them custom-made, or would not expose/use all the pixels.

(2) the dpi: 182 in the JDI displays versus 175ppi in the original pebble. They don't match, though they are quite similar.

OTOH, it seems that garmin has some watches using those displays: garmin fenix3 (the round display) and garmin epix (the rectangular display). The only interesting tidbit is that the garmin epix (pdf) is using a 205x148 display, that is different that the one that JDI announced, so maybe they are able to manufacture at multiple resolutions.

Garmin is using JDI screens, yes. I didn't know they were using a custom size, though, just the one mentioned in the press release. That increases the chance that the new pTime is using a JDI screen. Agreed.

Sidenote: Am I the only one who wishes Pebble would just come out and tell us?

[Andy_T]

Amazing!

Looks as ugly and chunky as my old Garmin Forerunner 310XT, without having the benefit of GPS tracking.

But then, I'm that guy who stopped wearing wristwatches (even my nice 50's IWC and 60's Omegas) since I anyway had to carry a mobile phone with me, some decades ago.