In what has to be the most-funded campaign in crowdfunding history, Pebble Time closed on Friday with US$20m raised, well in excess of the US$500,000 goal it set just over a month ago.
The Kickstarter campaign became the fastest project to raise US$1m in just 49 minutes and a week later it became the most-funded campaign in Kickstarter’s history after attracting more than US$13.3m in pledges.
The campaign finished on Friday with US$20,336,930 raised from some 78,463 people.
Each watch was sold for US$159 to the earliest backers and US$179 for everyone else.
The Pebble Time is the next generation Pebble smartwatch. It has a colour e-paper display with up to seven days battery life, sports a built-in water resistant microphone, and runs a new time-centric operating system designed to provide users with timely information throughout the day.
“Our Kickstarter campaign is over!” Pebble said. “It’s been an amazing month. We’re looking forward to getting Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel onto your wrist.”
Now Pebble has the target of shipping 48,690 Pebble Time smartwatches by May as well as 29,997 Pebble Time Steel devices.
The campaign took place amid all the hoopla over the launch of the Apple Watch, which no doubt helped boost demand.
Timing, they say, is everything.
