If you’re looking to impulse-buy a smartwatch, Best Buy is currently selling the plastic Pebble watch for $100.
That’s a $50 discount off the regular price. The deal—first spotted by CNET—is listed as a sale price on Best Buy only; Pebble’s own website is still selling its plastic smartwatch for $150.
Why it matters: While this appears to be a limited-time offer, it could be a sign that Pebble is looking to push prices lower as it faces new competition. Several watches running Android Wear are now available for $200 and up, and the Apple Watch is coming early next year for $350 and up. Pebble already positions itself as a simpler alternative to those devices, and it could become a much cheaper option as well.
Old smartwatch, new tricks
The original Pebble went on sale the public in mid-2013, after a wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. It uses a black-and-white e-paper display that stays readable in bright sunlight, and sips battery life compared to other full-color smartwatches. Aside from telling time through customizable watchfaces, the device can show notifications from a paired iPhone or Android phone, control the phone’s music playback and run a handful of simple third-party apps.
Over the last year, Pebble has improved through a couple of major firmware updates. The most recent update, which arrived earlier this month, unlocks compass functionality for apps and vastly improves the way notifications are handled from iPhones.
While the plastic Pebble is somewhat bulky, and its capabilities are limited compared to other watches, at $100 it could make a nice entry point for curious early adopters. It’s a reasonable price to pay to figure out whether wrist-bound notifications are something you’d actually want.