Pebble updates its Kickstarter with the Time Steel smartwatch

Today, Pebble announced its new Time Steel smartwatch, a fancier looking version of its recently Kickstarted Pebble Time watch. As the name implies, this one is made out of stainless steel.

The Pebble Time Steel will be available in black, gold and, of course, stainless steel options. This choice of material ends up making the watch a little heavier and 1mm thicker than the plastic variant. But to sweeten the deal, each watch will ship with a complementary leather strap too.

However, the changes aren’t purely cosmetic. The Time Steel also boasts double the battery capacity of the standard version. Pebble states that this should allow the smartwatch to last for up to 10 days on a single charge, compared with seven days for the regular model.

Along with the watch announcement, Pebble also served up a few more details on its unique charging connector on the new watches. The data and power connectors can be used with new “smartstraps”, to provide additional battery life, measure your heart rate or display light notifications, among other ideas. Oddly, Pebble won’t be releasing any smartstaps of its own. Instead, the company is releasing plans for third parties to use to develop their own straps.

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Stainless steel comes at a cost, of course. The Time Steel is available through Kickstarter with a price tag of $250 for early backers, while the final retail price will be $299. The standard Pebble Time can be grabbed for $179 from Kickstarter, with the retail price to be set at $199. The steel smartwatch is scheduled to ship out in July.