Pebble Smartwatch to be Available at Best Buy Sunday

As of Sunday, July 7, your options for obtaining a Pebble smart watch will have increased by one. Starting then you can walk into your local Best Buy Co, Inc. BBY retail store, pick up a Jet black model of the popular Bluetooth device for $149, and walk out with it on your wrist immediately according to 9To5Mac.

The partnership with Best Buy gives Kickstarter-backed Pebble a leg up on any future competition from Apple AAPL’s rumored smart watch, as well as Sony SNE’s current offering.

Regarding Pebble’s first retail launch of its popular device, after raising more than $10.2 million from 68,000 backers, CEO, Eric Migicovsky said, “It’s been so rewarding to see and share the great things our early backers and development partners have done with Pebble already.”

According to 9To5Mac, Pebble confirmed that, in addition to Sunday’s launch in Best Buy bricks and mortar stores, both the Jet black and Cherry red versions of the smartwatch are already for sale on Best Buy’s website with the Jet black models shipping Wednesday and the Cherry red version set to go out sometime in August.

Pebble has assured its Kickstarter backers that the deal with Best Buy will not prevent the company from honoring its commitment to them. In addition, Pebble apparently hopes retail availability will provide some relief to the company’s pre-order backlog.

In an email message to preorder customers Pebble said, “If you decide to pick up a Jet Black Pebble at Best Buy, no action is needed to cancel your unpaid pre-order from getpebble.com.”

According to VentureBeat, the Pebble is significant as a trailblazer for other “wearables,” including, not only Apple’s rumored smartwatch, but also Google GOOG’s Glass project and others.

Clearly, if Pebble can demonstrate success, Apple, Google, and other major tech companies will be more inclined to invest in the “wearables” segment.

As proof of growing interest by the “big guns,” speculation is increasing that Apple’s hire of former sales and marketing manager at Apple Europe and Yves Saint Laurent CEO, Paul Deneve, to work on “special projects” is really all about “wearables.”

The Business of Fashion said as much when it pointed out a report from Credit Suisse that concluded the “wearables” market would reach $30 billion to $50 billion over the next three to five years. The website added, “Who better to advise Apple on the design and marketing of wearable technology than a former Apple employee with 12 years of experience running luxury fashion brands?”

At the time of this writing, Jim Probasco had no position in any mentioned securities.