Unless you've been living under a rock for the last few months, you'll likely know all about the Apple Watch Ultra. Apple's take on a hardy, robust smartwatch has been a massive success, winning fans across various disciplines.
It even won a vote of confidence from pop icon, John Mayer. Mayer is a notorious watch collector – he's more likely to be found with an expensive Rolex on his wrist than an Apple Watch. But a series of stories posted on his Instagram praising the Ultra confirmed it had found its way into his collection.
There is one stumbling block though: the price. You'll need to shell out £849 / $799 / AU$1,299 to get your hands on one. So what would happen if you could pick one up for much, much less?
That appears to be have been the question posed by Indian company, Pebble (no relation to the smartwatch manufacturer of the same name, which ceased trading in 2016). Their recently released Pebble Cosmos Engage draws heavily on the Apple Watch Ultra. Actually, that's an understatement: it's a total rip-off. The case has been designed to look almost identical, with the signature orange accents of the Apple flagship. Even the ocean wristband has been re-created here.
The key difference, though, is the price – it's just ₹4,999, which translates to around £49 / $61 / AU$88. So, how much of the real thing do you get for that little cash?
As you'd probably guess, not much. You get a 1.95-inch display, but it's an LCD panel rather than the OLED on the real deal. It's also limited to just 600 nits of peak brightness, as opposed to the whopping 2,000 on the Ultra. It's IP67 water resistant, meaning it can be submerged in one metre of water for up to 30 minutes. That's miniscule in comparison to the Ultra, which has a full 100m of water resistance that allows it to be used for recreational diving.
There's a relatively measly 280mAh battery on-board, which should be good for 3-4 days of use without the Always-On Display. Remarkably, this smokes the Ultra, which manages 36 hours in regular use and up to 60 with the battery saver mode enabled. It really hammers home the issues many have with the Apple Watch battery life when put into this context. The Pebble Cosmos Engage can be used with both iPhones and Android phones, too.
Of course, there's a bigger elephant in the room than the features. The Pebble appears to be a fairly open and shut case of intellectual property infringement, making it liable to be removed from sale without warning. For now, then, you're probably better off saving up for the real thing.
