The countdown has ended, and Pebble has lifted the curtains of its latest smartwatch - its first major update since the original arrived back in 2013. Say hello to the Pebble Time.

Launching on Kickstarter today, the Time’s big sell is its (non-touchscreen) colour e-paper display, which offers a colour readout without sacrificing the Pebble’s excellent battery life.

We’re told that the Time will still squeeze out up to seven days on a single charge despite the colourful new screen. That's miles ahead of the at-best two-day battery life offered by Android Wear and the expected one-day battery life of the Apple Watch. It remains to be seen how e-paper will perform next to the LCD and OLED displays of those devices, but the battery life is certainly an enticing statistic.

The Time is 20% thinner than the original Pebble and features a stainless steel bezel, with a Gorilla Glass-slathered screen for scratch resistance. The watch straps themselves have a built-in quick-release mechanism for hassle-free changes, though we’re not entirely sure if metal bands are an option at the time of writing. We’ll update this story with more information as soon as we get it.

There’s also a new microphone, which takes a leaf out of the Android Wear playbook by letting users reply to messages with voice dictation, as well as record quick on-the-go voice memos.