Pebble Time smartwatch raised $20.3m in Kickstarter crowdfunding

Smartwatch manufacturer Pebble has finished its second run on crowdfunding website Kickstarter, raising $20.3m in pre-orders for its new Pebble Time watch.

That makes it the most funded project ever on Kickstarter, beating the previous record – $13.3m for the Coolest beer cooler – and nearly doubling the $10.3m that the company raised in 2012 for its original Pebble smartwatch.

78,741 people backed the Pebble Time, with the first run of devices due to ship in May, with more following over subsequent months.

The new smartwatch has a colour e-paper display, a new “timeline” interface and the promise of up to seven days battery life, in contrast to the 1-2 days offered by most of its rivals.

During the campaign, Pebble made some additional feature announcements, including “smartstraps” – watch straps containing sensors and electronics to work with apps running on the Pebble Time – and a $1m fund to encourage developers to support them.

Pebble also unveiled a second smartwatch, the Pebble Time Steel; released a developer preview of the software development kit (SDK) for the new devices; and confirmed that both will be water resistant.

Pebble’s original device was one of the first mainstream smartwatches when it launched in 2012, reaching 1m shipments by February 2015. However, the Pebble Time and Pebble Time Steel will face much more competition when they launch.

Google’s Android Wear software is now running on a growing range of smartwatches, including Sony’s Smartwatch 3, LG’s G Watch R, Motorola’s Moto 360, Samsung’s Gear 2 and Asus’ ZenWatch.

Apple is preparing to release its Apple Watch in April, while Microsoft’s smartwatch-cum-fitness tracker, the Microsoft Band, went on sale in the UK in April.

Pebble’s chief executive Eric Migicovsky was bullish about the competition during a recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) interview on Reddit. “I personally love the fact that PT fits into my life and doesn’t force me to conform around Apple or Google’s systems,” he said.

“It works with both platforms, lasts for up to a week, is durable/waterproof. Timeline is our latest breakthrough... I believe that this interface, which is custom designed for the wrist, will win out.”