Just around the time the Pebble smartwatch started shipping in January 2013, CEO Eric Migicovsky and the rest of his team began thinking about their next big project. The Pebble was a good first device, but its casual sporty design left more than a few shoppers seeking a more versatile look.

    "Some wanted it to be in a slightly different aesthetic package -- a little more akin to a classical watch," explains Migicovsky on the couch of a conference room in Pebble's Palo Alto, Calif. headquarters. When we met, he was prepping to fly out to Las Vegas for CES this past weekend, where he'll meet with new partners like Pandora (P), ESPN, and Mercedes-Benz, all of which are developing Pebble apps that will launch at the end of January.

    That's when Migicovsky pries opens a small, padded black suitcase and takes out Pebble Steel. Available for sale this week on the company's site and shipping later this month for $249, think of it as a more refined, more versatile edition of the original watch.

    The technology inside remains largely the same – the same waterproof 1.26-inch power-sipping screen e-ink display, the same five- to seven-day battery life -- but everything on the outside is starkly different. The gorilla glass and stainless steel watch face is trimmer and smaller, with two distinct flavors -- "brushed stainless" and "black matte" -- each of which come with two bands: steel linked and black leather. The upgrade to better materials lends Steel a solid heft that just wasn't present in its chunkier, plastic predecessor.

    Pebble智能手表于2013年1月开始发货，与此同时，这家公司的首席执行官埃里克•米基卡夫斯基及其团队已经开始思索下一个大项目。一代Pebble是一款不错的设备，但它的设计充满了休闲运动感，而许多买家希望看到更百搭的设计。

    “有些买家希望看到另一种风格的Pebble产品，更类似经典腕表的造型，”在位于加州帕洛阿尔托的Pebble总部，米基卡夫斯基坐在会议室的沙发上这样告诉我们。我们与米基卡夫斯基碰面时，他正准备飞往拉斯维加斯参加上周末举行的国际消费电子展。米基卡夫斯基将在拉斯维加斯与潘多拉（Pandora）、ESPN以及梅赛德斯-奔驰（Mercedes-Benz）等新的合作伙伴会面。这些公司开发的Pebble应用将于一月底面世。

    米基卡夫斯基边说边打开一个有衬垫的黑色小手提箱，从里面取出Pebble Steel。这个产品将于本周在Pebble的官网上销售，并于本月晚些时候发货，售价249美元。较之一代Pebble，Pebble Steel更精致，也更百搭。

    就技术层面而言，Pebble Steel与一代Pebble可谓大同小异，同样采用1.26英寸防水节电电子墨水屏幕，电池续航时间也同样是五到七天。然而，两代产品的外观截然不同。Pebble Steel的大猩猩轻薄防刮玻璃和不锈钢表盘更小巧美观，而且有拉丝不锈钢和亚光黑两种颜色可选。每种颜色的手表都附带有钢链和黑色皮质表带两种选择。Steel采用更高档的材质制造，因而比塑料制造的大块头一代Pebble更有质感。

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    Also in development: an app store that will launch alongside Steel later this month. Over 3 million apps and watch faces have been downloaded, but until now, users have had to download those via third-party sites like MyPebbleFaces.com. The Pebble appstore will finally offer an official, central location for users to do that, with app categories like Games, Notifications, Tools & Utilities, and so on.

    Over 300,000 Pebble smartwatches have been sold in the last 12 months, and with Steel, Migicovsky and crew bet its classier looks will convince some forward-thinking shoppers to buy in and goose sales further. Although 2012 was lackluster for wearable computing, with some devices like Google Glass (GOOG) and Samsung's Gear watch proving limited and rough, it's estimated wearables could be a booming market worth as much as $6 billion by 2016. And given its solid early sales, Pebble stands as good a chance as any company to be a dominant player.

    To call the last four years a thrill would be an understatement, says Migicovsky, a University of Waterloo engineering graduate who first dreamed up Pebble while he was out cycling one day and developed it as a school project. Wouldn't it be great, he thought, if you could check texts, emails, call notifications, and other digital bits and bytes without whipping out that phone?

    Certainly larger companies like Sony (SNE) and Motorola had already tried such devices, but few were as promising as the iPhone- and Android-friendly Pebble, and none had the buzz the startup generated when it raked in nearly $10.3 million in funding on Kickstarter, or 100 times the original amount Migicovsky sought. (To date, the company has raised over $25 million from backers that include venture capitalist Timothy Draper, entrepreneur Paul Buchheit and Charles River Ventures.)

    For Migicovsky, those earlier days were both thrilling and frustrating. "When people think of us and they see our Kickstarter success, I think they overlook the fact that we're a four-year-old company -- not an overnight success," he says, recalling the few times in 2009 he was forced to dip into his personal bank account to pay early employees, several of whom were friends who left their jobs to work at the startup. Now the company, which does not disclose its financials, employs 45 -- up from 11 early last year -- and holds Friday meetings over which Migicovsky presides to discuss what everyone is working on. Says Migicovsky: "If I had to go back, I wouldn't change too much ... I wouldn't take back any of that time because it all contributed to Pebble."   

    将于本月晚些时候与Steel一道发布的还有它正在开发中的应用商店。Pebble应用程序和桌面的下载次数已超300万，但迄今为止，用户必须通过MyPebbleFaces.com等第三方网站来进行下载。而Pebble应用商店将为用户提供一个重要的官方下载平台，应用类别包括游戏、通知、工具和实用程序等。

    过去一年，Pebble智能手表的销量突破了30万。米基卡夫斯基和他的团队相信，造型经典的Steel将吸引那些富有远见的买家，进一步推升Pebble智能手表的销量。可穿戴设备在2012年的表现乏善可陈，Google Glass和三星（Samsung）Gear手表等设备不仅功能有限，而且有粗制滥造之嫌。然而，据预计，可穿戴设备到2016年有望热销，市场总值有望达到60亿美元。鉴于其早期销量甚佳，Pebble极有希望成为可穿戴设备市场的领导者。

    米基卡夫斯基称，过去四年令人激动不已。米基卡夫斯基是滑铁卢大学（University of Waterloo）工程专业的毕业生。有一天，他在骑自行车时有了开发智能手表的设想，并于在校期间围绕这个主题做了一个项目。他当时想，假如不用掏出手机，就能查收短信、电子邮件、来电提醒等等，岂不快哉？

    当然，索尼（Sony）和摩托罗拉（Motorola）等大企业已经尝试过开发这类设备，但成果都不如与iPhone和Android高度兼容的Pebble有前景，而且远没有作为新创企业的Pebble引人关注。Pebble当初在Kickstarter网站吸金近1030万美元，比米基卡夫斯基原本打算募集的金额高出近100倍，可谓赚足了眼球。（迄今为止，Pebble已从风险资本家蒂莫西•德雷珀、企业家保罗•布克海特以及Charles River风投公司等支持者手中募得2500多万美元。）

    对米基卡夫斯基而言，创业初期既令人兴奋，又令人沮丧。米基卡夫斯基说：“我认为，当人们看到我们在Kickstarter网站上募得巨额资金，他们常常忽视了这一事实，那就是我们是一家做了四年的公司，我们并不是一夜成名。”米基卡夫斯基回忆道，2009年，他几度被迫从自己的银行账户里拿钱支付早期员工的工资，这些员工中有些是辞职来投奔米基卡夫斯基的朋友。Pebble不公布财务状况，不过，如今这家公司的雇员数已从去年初的11人增加到了45人。Pebble每周五由米基卡夫斯基主持召开周会，会上讨论各位员工正在进行的工作。米基卡夫斯基说：“就算重来一次，我也不会做过多的改变……那些时光对我来说千金不换，因为是它们造就了今日的Pebble。”（财富中文网）