Open Source Wearable PineTime Goes Pro with Fully-Sealed, Water- and Dust-Resistant Model's Launch
Two years after it was unveiled, the PineTime smartwatch is ready to buy — and has landed very close to its target $25 price point.
Pine has officially launched its PineTime open source smartwatch, selling the latest revision of the device for just $26.99 — but don't expect it to be quite as hackable as the developer's version.
Announced two years ago, the PineTime was to be Pine's first wearable after considerable success with as-open-as-possible hackable laptops, smartphones, and more. Although the company began selling the device some time ago, it did so as a developer's kit edition — aimed at early adopters and tinkerers and, crucially, coming in an unsealed housing for ease of access to its internals.
The freshly-launched retail model, by contrast, comes with mature software and in a fully-enclosed zinc alloy and plastic housing rated at IP67 for dust and water ingress protection.
As with the earlier release, the PineTime is built around a 1.3in 240x240 IPS capacitive touch display connected to a Nordic Semiconductor nRF52832 system-on-chip running at 64MHz and with Bluetooth 5 and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radios. Out-of-the-box, the watch includes step counting and heart-rate detection, vibration and visual notifications, and a lift-to-wake quick-glance system.
With the display only activating when the watch figures out you're looking at it, Pine claims an all-week battery life from the internal 180mAh battery — chargeable using a two-pin USB dock, included in the box. Overall, the watch weighs just 38g.
The latest version of its firmware, v1.2.0, has been released alongside the new hardware, and brings a range of improvements including improved stopwatch, new metronome feature, and a range of bug fixes and optimizations — including newly-freed space in both RAM and ROM for those looking to build atop its open source base. As with the DevKit version, the watch is also compatible with a range of real-time operating systems from third parties.
"We envision the PineTime as a companion for not only your PinePhone," the company claims of its creation, "but also for your favorite devices — any phone, tablet, or even PC."
The PineTime is now available on the Pine store for $26.99; for those looking to hack on the hardware, as well as the firmware and software, a twin pack of sealed and open variants can be purchased for $49.98.
Freelance journalist, technical author, hacker, tinkerer, erstwhile sysadmin. For hire: freelance@halfacree.co.uk.