The Apple Watchs announcement last month was music to the ears of many people whove been waiting for the wearables market to take off. But where does this leave the smaller companies which have already launched smartwatches? According to Pebble chief evangelist Myriam Joire, speaking at the GlazedCon wearable event in London today, theyre in a stronger position than ever before. “The Apple Watch is a huge opportunity for us,” she said. “Apple coming into this space completely validates the work weve been doing over the past few years.” With the flurry of mainstream advertising that will no doubt accompany the Watchs launch, Joire claimed its like “having the worlds biggest marketing machine working for us”.

Joire said she envisions Pebble as the “entry-level, mid-range option” – an approach which helped kickstart Androids growth in the early days of the iPhone. Earlier this month, Pebble cut the pricetag of its most basic smartwatch to $99, compared to the starter price of $399 for an Apple Watch. Pebble has already seen the effects of this first-hand. “Weve sold so many more devices since Apples announcement,” said Joire, adding that the company saw a similar boost to sales after the announcements of Googles Android Wear and, to lesser extent, Samsungs own smartwatch offerings. Rather than other startups, its these big players which Joire identified as Pebbles competition, stating: “Its just Google, Apple and Pebble playing this game now.”