By: Hillel Fuld (@hilzfuld)

As you may have noticed, I have been neglecting this blog lately and for that, I apologize. It has been quite crazy lately, but if you are reading these words, you are a loyal follower and I promise to keep writing here often, starting now. Ok, now that we got that outta the way…

So you may recall that I wrote a short review of Google Glass after trying it out for a bit. I did not, however, end up spending the $1500 plus taxes to redeem the Offer Google sent me to actually purchase Glass. I could not justify it to myself.

In that sense, my purchase of the Pebble smart watch was my real initial entry into the hot and exciting world of wearable computing, It is hot because, well, name one big tech company that is not thinking of developing a watch, glasses, a bracelet, or something else that you wear and that provides computing capabilities. Everyone wants a piece of the action and rightfully so.

Before I get into the Pebble and why I truly love this product, let’s just put this out there. You think you will never wear a computer on your wrist or face? Did you also think you would never join Twitter or share your location publicly? Did you also say you have no need for a mobile phone because you don’t want to be reached 24/7?

Come on, be honest. You know you said that, we all did. Times, they are a-changin. Get used to it. You WILL, at some point, wear a computer on your body. You may not wear full-fledged glasses and you may not embrace wearable computing tomorrow, but in one way or another, you will embrace this trend. If you think I am wrong, please talk to me in 2015. I am @Hilzfuld on Twitter. I would love to hear from you.

OK, now on to the Pebble. I had been thinking about purchasing one for a while, but never made the move until two things happened. One, Pebble, the company, issues an update for the smart watch enabling iPhone users to get all notifications on their Pebble. Text messages, emails, tweets, Facebook messages, anything you configure to be notified of on your phone, will appear on your watch.

The second thing was that a friend of mine, Myriam Joire started working at Pebble as Product Evangelist, which in and of itself made me want to buy one. When she told me she can offer me a discount on the Pebble, it was a done deal.

Then came the purchase. What color was it going to be? Decisions decisions. I went for a more subtle color of grey despite the fact that the red was screaming my name. I figured a smart watch itself and the look of the Pebble are out there enough, I don’t need to make it an obnoxious color on top of that. And so gray it was.

I shipped the watch internationally and it came insanely fast. My first impression that has stuck with me till now, a few weeks after starting to use the Pebble as my main watch is, “This feels and acts almost as if Apple had made it.”

Need I say more? Tough. I will.

The setup of the Pebble could not have been easier and I was off. All my notifications for which I would previously take my phone out of my pocket, now appeared on my wrist. But wait, I am getting ahead of myself. I freakin love the way this thing looks and so do all my followers. Well, ok, not all, I got some trolls calling it ugly but the pictures I shared of the Pebble and its different watch faces, got insane engagement. People seem to like the look, but more importantly, I do. I love it.

Now here is the thing. My first thought was “Ok, this is awesome. No more looking at my phone during meetings to see what email just came in. And since 90% of my emails are not important enough to interrupt what I am doing, I will look at my watch, see the email, and continue with the meeting without taking out my phone or being rude to the person I am meeting.” Yea, so no. It turns out looking at your watch in a meeting is significantly more obnoxious than looking at your phone. This is a fact. I confirmed it. Several times.

As far as meetings are concerned, the only value the Pebble provides is a seriously awesome conversation-starter. Every time, it’s the same thing!

Person I am meeting: “Is that… Yes, it is, you are such a geek. I would never wear that!”

Me: “Yes, you will and it is awesome. Look, my Instagram photo of us sitting here just got liked and here it is, on my watch!”

Them: “OK, that is seriously awesome. So you think wearable computing will be a real thing, long term?”

Aaaand there goes 30 minutes of conversation…

So yes, The Pebble is fun for meetings, but for everything else, it is a total game-changer. When I am eating breakfast, laying in bed Flipboarding, carrying groceries, shopping, and ya know, doing the normal things people do, the phone never leaves my pocket. Now obviously, if there is an important email that needs addressing now, I will take the phone out and reply but let’s be honest, how many of those do we really get each day?

Most emails, tweets, or other notifications are not that important and can be addressed later, especially if you are a blogger who receives 200 press releases a day. Except, before the Pebble, I would take out my phone for every such notification, as if clearly that buzzing was the president sending me a Facebook friend request.

So now, not only do I have an awesome ice-breaker in awkward situations, I take my phone out of my pocket maybe 10% of the times I would have before.

But wait, it gets better. The actual watch faces on the Pebble alone make this product compelling to me. I mean they are perfectly viewable in the sun and you can have the watch look geeky with a futuristic look or classy with a traditional look. That right there, is unique and pretty awesome.

Not enough? Fine, I will go on. Pebble released yet another update just yesterday. Guess what they added… A Do Not Disturb mode. Brilliant and so very necessary. You can now also configure that you want to receive only phone calls (not to answer them, but to see who is calling and choose to accept or reject from your Pebble) or all notifications. Again, a much needed feature.

I will just say one more thing about why I love the Pebble so much. Like many successful products in today’s day and age, it is not about the current capabilities but about the platform and potential of the product once 3rd party developers leverage it. The same is true for the Pebble.

For example, once I tweeted that I got the Pebble, a 3rd party app developer who released an app called Pebble Snap reached out to me and sent me a promo code. The app is super simple. It enables you to control the camera on your iPhone using the Pebble. That’s it. In an era in which “Selfie” is the word of the year, the monumental importance of this app should not be belittled.

I view the Pebble much like the Chromecast. It is a cool product, no doubt, but once the platform opens up and developers jump on board, the sky is the limit.

Is the Pebble perfect? No, the battery lasts me anywhere between 4-6 days, which, in my opinion, is not enough. The charger is proprietary so if you lose it, well, that would stink for you. Why not micros USB? Your guess is as good as mine.

(UPDATE: Myriam from Pebble explained to me why not Micros USB. “Because it’s actually truly waterproof to 50m (5 atm.) and micro-USB ports are neither waterproof nor efficient in terms of packaging (they take up a lot of space inside a device). Ever wondered why all the so-called “waterproof” phones have a flap to cover the micro-USB port? Now you know :)”)

There is already an entire ecosystem being formed around the Pebble including accessories such as skins, apps, and more. That, knowing this began as a Kickstarter project and not a product from Apple or Google, makes me love the Pebble even more. It is sort of a proof that despite the dominance of the big players in tech, a well executed product can still prevail. I love my Pebble.