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Pebble CEO, Migicovsky, says about the Core, "Look, when you go for a run you can take this instead of taking your phone."

I think the Core is really interesting but his hopeful "instead of" vision might be naive, based on the Core's capabilities.

Leaving a smartphone at home when it only weighs as much as a gulp of water (e.g. a 4 oz iPhone) seems like a step 20 years backwards in convenience and peace of mind when you can't call or message from a Core.

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Unless you're a marathoner or involved in serious training, a run is usually going to last 45m-60m tops. Many people, myself included, consider that time to be sacred and personal, in which getting calls or messages is the last thing one would want to be involved with.

I have never in my life taken my phone with me on a jog, and I would never want to. I put my Fitbit Charge HR in exercise mode, and if I want music (which I usually don't), I'll take an iPod shuffle. Connectivity to the wider world web is not on my agenda, and something like the Core is likely the extent of technology that I'd want on my person.

It's the coolest product I've seen lately in the fitness sphere.

...on a side note, one of the reasons I enjoy jogging without music is that it gives me a chance to let my thoughts flow, and I find myself coming up with all sorts of neat ideas while my heart rate is high and I'm out and about with zero distractions. I've long wanted a voice memo recorder while out on a run, and the fact that the Core includes that makes it even more enticing!

Frankly, to me a smartphone with any kind of fitness activity feels like a step 20 years backwards to the times of Discmans with "electric skip protection".. they are devices I end up having to babysit. No rain, no sweat, too massive to carry comfortably without the wonky looking massive arm straps or bike holders, unstable apps, a user interface requiring complex interaction patters not at all suited to fitness activities, and most of all, horrible battery life.

Meanwhile, my Garmin 810 sits on the bike and can go 12+ hours with GPS and display on. It has hardware buttons for the important stuff and a touchscreen that still works in the rain with a zero chance of ending up in some freaking "Google now" screen accidentally.

The only reason I have my phone on me while I'm exercising is for fitness tracking. It's a pain in the ass to have it while running unless it's strapped to your body because it bounces around if it's not strapped down. The core can just clip on exactly how I currently clip a bt headset when I run. And I'm not going to take phone calls or send messages while I'm running.

One thing I didn't understand though, do you need the watch for the Core to work?

Nope, it can be controlled by the watch, but you should also be able to use voice control, headset buttons, and the two on-device buttons.