Pebble Time Reaches $20 Million On Kickstarter

Pebble Time has reached $20 million in funding with a few hours to go, managing to double the original Pebble Kickstarter launched in 2012.

It is the largest crowdfunded project ever on Kickstarter, surpassing Coolest Cooler by $6.7 million. Pebble is one of the largest companies to still use Kickstarter for projects—to the anger of some purist crowdfunders who believe only start-ups should utilise the platform.

Pebble manages to grab 77,000 backers over the month, just shy of 10,000 more than the original Kickstarter. This means backers this time paid on average almost double the amount the 2012 backers paid.

The Pebble Time features a variety of new features, including a color e-ink display that will offer some variety on the Pebble app store. On the design, Pebble Time has a aluminium build with gorilla glass, or stainless steel if the backer chose the Pebble Time Steel.

On the software side Pebble Time features a new ‘Timeline’ to categorise notifications into past, present and future. This timeline offers an easier way to look at notifications on a small timepiece, that does not feature a touch-screen.

A microphone will allow users to respond to notifications, but Pebble will not fit an LTE chip inside to allow calls. The LG Watch Urbane is the first smartwatch to offer that functionality, but is currently only available in South Korea.

The Pebble Time will be on sale for $199 or $299 for the Pebble Time Steel. The company is already warning backers of delays to the final product coming in a few months, meaning customers outside of Kickstarter might be waiting until the end of 2015 before picking the smartwatch up.