Move over Apple, Pebble is working on another new watch and has enlisted the help of others through the crowdfunding site, Kickstarter, to raise money for its development and is breaking records as it goes.
Pebble broke the first Kickstarter record on its first day, becoming the fastest project ever to raise $1 million, collecting the donations in just 49 minutes. Next, it shattered another record and became the most-funded campaign with more than $13.3 million in pledges, beating the previous record holder, Coolest Cooler.
In total, Pebble has now raised over $20 million in pledges from almost 80,000 people. However, the crowdfunding site Kickstarter is set to collect more than $1 million in fees from the pledges with Stripe, the payment processor which replaced Amazon at the beginning of the year, collecting approximately $600,000 in fees.
Pebble's initial goal was to raise just $500,000 and it turned out to be an easy goal to reach. Initial backers will receive the watch for $159 with the watch selling for $179 to everyone else. Once the watch goes on sale, the price will go up to $199 for the Pebble Time with the premium Pebble Time Steel model selling for $299.
This breaks down into 58,966 Pebble Time models and 36,940 Premium Pebble Time Steel models.
"We cannot thank the Pebble community enough for their monumental support," Pebble CEO, Eric Migicovsky. "We continue to listen to and be inspired by the backers who believed in us and supported our vision from day one."
The Pebble Time, as the new watch is known, is Pebble's second generation smartwatch and this is also Pebble's second Kickstarter program. Three years ago, Pebble raised more than $10 million from 69,000 people on the crowdfunding site for its first project, the original Pebble Watch.
Their second generation Pebble Time watch is 20% thinner, and features a new color e-paper screen setting it apart from the black and white screen on the first generation watch. In addition, the Pebble Time has a battery life of one week setting it apart from other watches including the arguable category leader, the Apple Watch.
"Pebble's double success really shows the power of Kickstarter as a way to build community around creative work," Kickstarter's lead for tech and design projects, John Dimatos says. "The Pebble team wanted to come back to the people who supported them at the start, and that community really responded."
It seems the community responded in ways beyond anyone's wildest imaginations and have put the company on pace to release their next generation smartwatch with relative ease.
