However, the first night I charged the Pebble with the NomadKey I was sold on it. It’s perfectly designed to hold the Pebble with what seems like stronger magnets than the ones included on the factory charger. Also it’s precisely engineered to fit and snap into place on the Pebble holding it perfectly. I often find the factory charger hard to align with the contacts on the watch, and have found the watch uncharged the next day on several occasions. This did not happen with the NomadKey. The factory charger’s cable is very long which is a nice thing when you are using a wall charger to charge your watch, but like all charging cables, it leaves more clutter on your desk or nightstand. I find with the NomadKey, I just charge the watch right from a free USB port on my laptop, so there is no clutter, and no extra wires.

Carrying the Nomad on a keychain full time might not be for me, but I think there are plenty of people that it will be great in this capacity for. I just prefer personally to carry a light keyring with only a few keys on it. I did carry it this way over several days though, and found it no problem to charge the watch with my keys still on the keyring – something, I was just “certain” wouldn’t work. It is only slightly larger than a house key, about the size of a modern car’s key, and the flexible rubber that extends from the USB port to the charger was no problem for my pockets.

For me, staying connected while outdoors is important to me, so I took the time to test the NomadKey with one of my solar chargers. It worked flawlessly and will certainly be a companion for me on my next camping or boating trip this summer. One of the reasons I chose the Pebble as my smart watch of choice was for its water resistance, and I see the NomadKey fitting right in at the campsite or in the boat with me. Nomad designed this charging cable to withstand a lot of abuse. It’s made from high-grade polycarbonate from Bayer and rubber elastomer from Dupont so that it is flexible as well as durable. Plus, the metal used is scratch-resistant so you don’t have to worry about caps for it.

In short, I was very impressed with the build quality of the NomadKey and even though I was initially so skeptical of its utility, it proved itself to me as a perfect replacement for the factory charger or as an augment to the Pebble. In fact, I no longer use the factory charger to charge my watch. For a retail price of $19.99, it is well worth the cost.

For more information on the NomadKey for the original Pebble smart watch, visit http://www.hellonomad.com/products/nomadkey-for-pebble. One thing to note, this NomadKey will only work with the original Pebble and is not compatible with the Pebble Steel or the Pebble Time.

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Pickup the NomadKey for Pebble via Amazon below.