Pebble announces new Pebble Time Steel smartwatch

BARCELONA, Spain — Pebble just launched its new Pebble Time smartwatch on Kickstarter, and already it’s announced another version of the watch, the Pebble Time Steel.

Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky made the announcement here at Mobile World Congress on Tuesday.

The new watch has the same technology features as the Time, but it’s wrapped in a beautiful piece of steel that gives the device a much more elegant look. The Steel comes in silver, black, and gold-colored metal.

Everyone thought that Pebble might just lay down and die with the launch of the Apple Watch. But Pebble seems to be more on its game than ever. The move back to Kickstarter with its latest offerings seems to have become a referendum. The Pebble Time has already set sales records on the crowd-funding site.

Nobody knows exactly how the public will respond to the new Apple Watch, but Pebble has already established a loyal user base.

The Steel will sell for $299 at retail and for $250 on Kickstarter. Preorders begin now, and the Steel will ship this summer.

Migicovsky also announced that his company is building open-source technology ports on the back of its watches where third-party watchband and other hardware developers can integrate their products with the watch and access the apps running within.