Pebble Steel

To me, these look even uglier than the first-gen Pebble. The first-gen Pebble has a casual plastic look — it’s far from elegant, but it at least feels true to itself, in a low-res digital watch sort of way. These new Steel models are aping the design cues from high-end wristwatches but fall horribly short. They reside in an uncanny valley. And the huge “Pebble” logo below the display? Gross.

If Pebble, or any “smartwatch” maker, wants to succeed in the real world, they need to make watches that look good compared to any watch, not just “looks good compared to other even uglier smartwatches”.

See also: iMore’s interview with Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky.

★ Monday, 6 January 2014