Pebble’s classiest looking smartwatch to date has been available for pre-order for a few months. Starting November 8th you’ll be able to walk into a retail store and buy one. Pebble will start shipping Pebble Time Round watches to customers who placed pre-orders at about the same time.
The Pebble Time Round features a round, always-on color E Paper display, a water resistant design, and a round watch face. It sells for $250 and up.
Pebble says you’ll be able to see the watch in person at Target and Best Buy stores in the US. It will also be available from Amazon and Pebble.com.
The Pebble Time Round isn’t just the first Pebble smartwatch with a round display. It’s also the company’s thinnest and lightest wearable to date. That makes the watch both more attractive and more comfortable than earlier models… but the change does come at a cost: Pebble only promises 2 days of battery life. Earlier models were able to last up to a week.
The good news is that the new watch supports quick charging. You should be able to get about a day’s battery life from a 15 minute charge. It also supports Pebble’s new v, which opens the door to third-party accessories such as extra batteries or sensors.
Pebble’s new watch has a Gorilla Glass display, a stainless steel body, a microphone for voice commands, a vibration motor for alerts, and it can be paired with an Android phone or iPhone.
The biggest down side? With a $250 price tag, the Pebble Time Round is competing with other reasonably high-priced smart wearables that run Android Wear. The display has a lower display resolution (180 x 180 pixels), displays fewer colors (64), and generally doesn’t look as vibrant as those on most Android Wear devices. That said, you can easily view the Pebble Time Round display it outdoors, and the screen is always on.