Pebble smartwatches are pretty nifty in their own way. Indeed, the firm's wearable devices remain popular until today, despite being outperformed by more recent models from prominent tech firms around the world. Now, however, one of the firm's most popular watches, the Pebble Time, has received a pretty cool upgrade.

The upgrade comes in the form of a special add-on from Powerstrap, a firm which designs upgrades for smartwatches. Called the Pal, Powerstrap's add-on gives the Pebble Time GPS capabilities and an additional 250mAh battery, which roughly translates to about seven days more of battery life.

Considering the design of the Pal, it seems like Powerstrap is attempting to attract Pebble users who love the outdoors. In fact, the Pal's capabilities, such as speed, distance and elevation tracking, are all done through the smartwatch itself. Thus, users of the Pebble Time and the Pal would not even need to bring their smartphones in order to take advantage of the wearable device's capabilities.

While Powerstrap's Pal is quite innovative on its own, it is, unfortunately, pretty bulky. Nevertheless, despite the added size, Powerstrap maintains that the add-on does not really add that much weight. In some aspects, this is quite true, since together, the Pal and the Pebble Time weigh only 65 grams, while the Apple Watch Sport weighs about 70 grams in total.

The Pal is now available for pre-order through Powerstrap's Kickstarter page for a reasonable $79. The special add-on is available in a number of colors, such as black, yellow, green and blue. The first deliveries of the device are scheduled this coming October.

Pebble was one of the forerunners of the smartwatch age, with its breakout device, the very first Pebble Watch, becoming a sleeper hit among fans due to its innovative e-ink display and its cross-platform compatibility. Despite the firm's subsequent flagships competing in the intense smartwatch market against competitors that are far better funded, Pebble's devices have remained quite resilient thus far. Of course, with the Pal in tow, Pebble just got a lot more competitive. 

Tags: pebble Pebble Time Pebble News Powerstrap Pal