Monday 1 June 2015

Pebbling in colour

The Pebble Time is finally out! This fantastically simple, yet massively functional, little smartwatch is now shipping to the Kickstarter backers who pledged their renewed support to the company that produced the original Pebble.



I've been lucky enough to be beta testing a developer preview model of the Pebble Time, and have had it on my wrist for the last few weeks. I used this time to put together some animated watchfaces which make the most of the colour screen, and learn some C programming along the way!





An elegant animated watchface, with each digit built from curving paths. Animated minute transitions, and tap-triggered animation to improve readability under low light. Animations, line widths and colours can be customised.

Inspired by the watchface shown on the red Pebble Time Steel advertising images:







A fun, animated, easy to read watchface. Every minute the bubbles in the background pop, and a set of new ones appear (by default) in a new colour. Alternatively you can customsise the colour of the bubbles. Tapping or shaking the watch also triggers the animation.

Inspired by the watchface shown on the red Pebble Time advertising images:






A colourful interpretation of the classic arc watchface design, with a Pebble Time-style loading animation and dynamic colour schemes. Colour schemes and whether or not to show the second hand can be customised.





A colourful interpretation of the classic pixel array digital watchface design, with loading animations, animated minute transitions and dynamic colour schemes. Colour schemes, pixel styles and animations can be customised.



Software used:
CloudPebble: Watchface programming. CloudPebble is an online IDE for Pebble watchfaces and apps.
Notepad++: Server side HTML/Javascript for the watchface settings.