The Pebble smartwatch for iPhone and Android is a prime example of the bizarre times in which we live. In an era of people increasingly telling time by looking at the corner of their computer's screen or their smartphone lock screens, Pebble wants to make the wristwatch everyone's preferred timepiece.

A humble Kickstarter project embraced by nearly 70,000 backers, Pebble is the most buzzed-about smartwatch yet. Have those early believers been vindicated by the release of a phenomenal product or are they just another cautionary tale of what happens when reality doesn't meet the hype?

Corning's Gorilla Glass does a fine job of keeping smartphones relatively safe against typical bumps and scrapes, but given how common it is to hear about cracked displays, there's obviously plenty of room for improvement. Hoping to provide such an advancement, two enterprising...