On one side, we have the Apple Watch, where the April launch is causing the rumor mill to quickly ramp up with talk about the amount of gold in the Gold Edition, strap options, pricing, and the retail store setup in Paris.

On the other, we have the Pebble Time that recently launched their Kickstarter project and has already reached $6M in backing.

With these two amazing choices for smartwatches, I thought it was a good time for a quick comparison between the top two smartwatches of 2015.

Price

The Apple Watch starts at $350 for the Sport model. The Pebble Steel starts at $179 on Kickstarter, with the regular retail price starting at $199.

Apps

Apple has 9 million registered iOS developers and over 1 million iOS apps. This will certainly make the Apple Watch launch filled with interesting apps, with some estimating 100,000 apps on launch (this estimate seems a bit high).

Pebble has 26,000 developers. The Pebble Time will be fully compatible with all 6,500+ existing Pebble apps and watchfaces, and expect many more apps to be released by the time the Pebble Time launches. Nice work, Pebble devs!

Display

The Apple Watch has a retina-level display that can refresh at 60 frames per second.

Pebble Time will use the world’s first color e-ink display used in a smartwatch.

Battery Life

Rumors estimate the Apple Watch will run for roughly a day of mixed use. Expect to charge it every night.

The Pebble Watch will run for about 7 days with mixed use. Pebble states that the power consumption of the color e-ink display is essentially the same as that of their previous smartwatch.

There’s a clear tradeoff for buyers - do you want a sharp touchscreen display with a shorter battery life, or a display that gives you just enough of what you need with a much longer battery life.

Interface

Apple Watch created a beautiful interface for interacting with the time, apps, glances, and notifications.

Pebble Time will use their brand new custom OS with a timeline type interface.

Launch Date

The Apple Watch launches in April, according to Tim Cook.

The Pebble Time will be delivered in May according to their Kickstarter project.

Conclusion

So, which smartwatch is the right one for you and why? I’d love to hear your thoughts on Twitter. I’m building games for the Apple Watch under my newly formed Robot 5 Studios, so you know my answer :). But that awesome Pebble Time is making me think about becoming a Pebble dev…