Coming from Pebble 1st gen (owned 2 of them), Pebble Steel (steel and black, 2 of them), LG G watch, and LG G watch R... and now Pebble Time.
If notification, outdoor visibility and battery life is all what you need out of your smartwatch, I would say pebble still hold pretty strong in this department.
How well is AW improving I don't think I need to elaborate further here, u all AW sifus ma.

Just to point out some highlight on the new Pebble Time.
- Very refreshing new user interface, very smooth animation from click to click, page to page, even on charging. Very very different from the old pebble. the 64 colors e-ink look far smoother if compare to the black/white old pebble. normally, eink display refresh rate is much much lower (like the one in the old pebble), but this one somehow seem response faster and smoother. Resolution to my knowledge is same as the old pebble, but somehow it looks much better indoor or outdoor. maybe due to the curve gorilla glass surface.
- No more feeling plasticky with Pebble Time. the bezel is metal, and the overall build of the watch is far far better than the old pebble. it's slim and sleek factor, wear very comfortable on wrist. the factory fitted rubber strap is soft and sit just nice wearing it.
- integrated microphone, where you can reply msg via the mic or take voice recording. but this feature only support android smartphone now, iOS i'm not sure when it will be implemented. (as i'm with iOS)
- Battery life can last 4-5 days based on my usage (quite heavy). mostly running misfit app. on evening time (daily) and push notification + vibrate mode for about 80-110 messages (whatsapp, emails, calendar events, sms and other notifications daily), used for whole day before sleep a quick check showing 80% battery left.
- Chinese font support issue: if you are pairing with android smartphone, you can install chines font pack, if you are pairing with iOS, then you are out of luck. but it does support emoticons (limited collections as some of the emoticon were showing in square box)
All in all, not a bad attempt for Pebble (cost just USD159), but they need to improve their application ecosystem as their app. framework is still pretty much sit below a layer iOS or AndroidOS. I think android or iOS can easily kill its ecosystem anytime if they wanted to.
Giving current my next option to try on AW devices... I will try on Sony SW3 next, heard it lasts quite a bit compare to current AW line.