Pebble E-ink Smartwatch Breaks $10 million on Kickstarter

Seems like new funding records are being set every day on Kickstarter. This time it is the Pebble, an e-ink smartwatch that has proven to be incredibly popular on the crowdsourced funding platform.

Just a little earlier today they broke the $10 million mark. The next-most funded project? Double Fine’s adventure game at $3.34 million. And the project still has 9 days to go. Talk about success.

The Pebble connects to your smartphone over bluetooth. It does, of course, function as a watch. You can choose different watch faces, for example a classic 12 hour face, a modern reimagination, or a plethora of number-based versions. But the Pebble does much, much more.

You can use it to control your music, for example, switching between songs. You can receive text messages on it, use it to vibrate reminders for you, play games on it, see who’s calling, etc. And it comes with an API so others can develop apps for it, too. Something that Runkeeper has already done, despite the Pebble not shipping for months.

The team was originally aiming for $100,000 in funding, which at the time was considered a touch ambitious. They are now over 100x their funding goal, and still going strong. So far they have managed to sell 85,000 before the Pebble even goes on sale. Which is not bad for any product, much less one in a market that nearly didn’t exist before the device.

Right now you can preorder a Pebble for $115, but when the device goes on sale officially it will cost at least $150. So if you’re the least bit interested, you should probably preorder one today. I’m planning to.

Kickstarter Photo by : Pebble