Selling smartwatches is hard, and it's especially hard for a small company like Pebble. You don't have the marketing muscle of Samsung, you don't have the brand cachet of Apple, and apparently you don't even have the support of your retail partners. The ultra-secure Pebble Time, above, was one of three units that were available early at the Best Buy store in Palisades Center in West Nyack, NY. All three had the absurdly large security tag obscuring the watch and precluding any "love at first sight" sparks from sparking between consumers and the latest Pebble model.

This was probably a silly and isolated oversight. It was probably just a hiccup. But it was definitely not the way to sell a new and exciting category of gadget. And in case you're wondering, the watch in the store was the white variant, which looks like this when people are allowed to see it:

Verge Video: Pebble Time review