Pebble Officially Enters India With Smartwatches That Start at Rs. 5,999

Pebble Technology Corp, makers of Pebble, the first smartwatch that got any kind of serious attention with its Kickstarter project back in 2012, has announced its entry into the Indian market. The original Pebble, now called Pebble Classic, will be available at Rs. 5,999. Other models including the newer Pebble Time, Pebble Time Round, and Pebble Time Steel will also be available at Rs. 9,999, Rs. 13,599, and Rs. 15,999 respectively.

Though Pebble smartwatches have been available to Indian customers via pebble.com, there was the hassle of having to pay in US dollars and then dealing with custom duties. With the Pebble range now available via Amazon India, customers will have easier access to the Pebble range.

"We are extremely excited to introduce Pebble in India. Indian users have always been open to adopt new technologies especially in mobile," said Eric Migicovsky, Founder & CEO, Pebble. "Hence, we see a promising future for Pebble in India. Our unique products offer amazing experience at an affordable price point to the users. In conjunction with our India launch, we are also looking at establishing a connected community of users and developers in India."

In a conversation with Gadgets 360 last week Eric said the company is already sponsoring a series of hackathons hosted by AngelHack in Mumbai (May 7-8), Hyderabad (May 28-29), Delhi (June 11-12), and Vizag (June 18-19). With these hackathons, Pebble aims to reach over 1000 developers across India, and "ensure there is relevant and locally created content for new users."

Pebble smartwatches come with an e-ink display and are compatible with both Android smartphones and the iPhone. While the Classic comes with a black-and-white display, the Time range of devices sport a colour display with LED backlight. The Time range of devices offer pretty much the same functionality, but with some differences including claimed battery life - from two days on the Pebble Time Round to up to 10 days on the Pebble Time Steel. You can check out all four models on Amazon India.

Earlier this week, Pebble pushed out an update to Pebble Health, which provides users enhanced information via graphs on the companion smartphone app, better auto-detection of runs and long walks, and new activity insights in the Time-series of watches, as well as Smart Alarms.

The Pebble smartwatches come with a dedicated app store, which has over 13,000 apps and watch faces, Migicovsky told Gadgets 360. The Pebble CEO said there are already over 20,000 Pebble users in India, and with an official online presence in India, the company hopes to capture a bigger share of the Indian market.