Smartwatch maker Pebble returned to Kickstarter for its new Pebble Time colour e-paper smartwatch and ended up passing its US$500,000 goal in 17 minutes and now currently has raised US$7.7m in support after 12 hours.
The Kickstarter campaign began at 3pm Irish and UK time yesterday and surpassed its initial US$500,000 funding goal in just 17 minutes.
Thirty minutes later Pebble became the fastest Kickstarter campaign to hit US$1m and within 58 minutes the amount of funding raised surpassed US$2m.
At the time of writing the campaign was steadily approaching US$7.8m.
Pebble offered the watch for US$159 for the first 5,000 early bird backers. The final price when the watch launches in May will be US$199.
New smartwatch can go 7 days on a single charge
The Pebble Time can go for seven days on a single charge and is water proof. It features a new colour e-paper display and a microphone for voice commands.
The smart watch is fully compatible with 6,500 existing Pebble apps and watch faces and Pebble has sweetened the deal by promising special engraving for its latest Kickstarter backers.
The Pebble Time starts shipping in May and is available in three colours. The watch is 20pc thinner than previous smartwatches and comes with a built-in accelerometer and can track the weather.
The Kickstarter campaign is something of a homecoming for Pebble for this is where it all began fo the company three years ago when the nascent smartwatch maker found the emerging crowdfunding platform an invaluable resource.
