The Pebble e-Paper Watch, a Kickstarter darling

The Pebble Watch is an instant hit. It’s a watch, injected with e-paper magic, filled with apps and is “infinitely customisable” as its developers call it. Users on startup funding site Kickstarter.com quickly backed the project, and blew past the US$100 000 goal by over US$1.6-million.

Better than a flying car

When we dreamed of gadget futures, the simple things came to mind: paper thin computers you can hold in your hand, flying cars and watches that talk to you. The Pebble Watch is just that. A Bluetooth enabled device which when paired with an iPhone or Android smartphone, displays text messages, shows when a call is taking place and pumps out various other app notifications. Genius!

Apps bring it to life

The Pebble works with the users GPS, enabling the watch to easily track running time, distance, cycling stats and so on. You get a bunch of watch faces as well. Yours for US$115 when it rolls off the production line. It’s a lightweight though, as the paired smartphone simply bench-presses the instructions to the Pebble. Without a smartphone, the Pebble is akin to a pre-OS 2.0 BlackBerry PlayBook.

Let’s get down to brass tacks. No one’s laid hands on the Pebble but it’s been flooded with overwhelming support from the geekdom. Maybe it’s the tech? The watch is said to last 7 days before it needs a charge, but you can thank e-paper technology for that.

There’s 35 days left for the Pebble Watch. Get your money in before the plebs reap the good pledge rewards. Watch this space for more details.