Pebble’s newest smartwatch breaks internet sales records, raises more than $1 million in less than an hour

SILICON Valley company Pebbleset a $US500,000 fundraising target on Kickstarter for its new watch. Less than an hour later, it had raised twice that much.

Colour me happy ... Pebble's third smartwatch, the Pebble Time, features a colour e-paper screen.

THE year of the smartwatch has officially arrived.

While iPhone users keenly await the arrival of Apple’s first smartwatch, due in April, the original smartwatch maker smashed Kickstarter sales records overnight, earning more than $US1 million in less than hour.

WATCH RIVAL: Apple tipped to sell 20 million watches this year

BIG TIME: Samsung’s most feature-packed smartwatch

Silicon Valley-based company Pebble had set a funding target of $US500,000 for its 31-day campaign but keen smartwatch investors reached that target in just 32 minutes.

Colour me happy ... Pebble's third smartwatch, the Pebble Time, features a colour e-paper screen.

An hour after its launch, Pebble’s new watch had more than doubled its target, and by the six-hour mark, internet users had spent more than $US5.5 million ordering the yet-to-be-released smartwatch.

Pebble’s third timepiece, called Pebble Time, will feature a colour e-paper screen for the first time, a microphone for voice commands and messages, and a new look.

Game-changer ... Pebble's third smartwatch, the Pebble Time, comes in three different colours on crowd-funding site Kickstarter.

The smartwatch will also feature new software dubbed the “timeline interface” that will deliver access to calendar items, reminders, sports scores, weather forecasts, and other apps.

Like its predecessors, it promises to work for up to seven days on one battery charge.

Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky said the company chose to launch its third smartwatch on the crowd-funding site as it was “where it all began” with the first Pebble watch in 2012.

“We’re back on Kickstarter to give you — the community who cares the most — an opportunity to support our vision for wearables and get exclusive access to our newest product,” he wrote.

I get the sense that today was also a good day for our recruiters at @Pebble. But busy :) [e-mail]

— Eric Migicovsky (@ericmigi) February 25, 2015

In an update on Kickstarter’s official blog, Michael C Stewart wrote the site could not wait to see what Pebble’s launch would do throughout the campaign, given its strong start.

“A lot can happen in six hours. You can fly from New York City to San Francisco. You can watch The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. Or, if you’re the Pebble team, you can announce your new smartwatch and raise $5 million.”

But Pebble will face significant competition in the smartwatch space this year.

While it broke Kickstarter records, Pebble sold about 40,000 smartwatches in half a day.

Research firm CCS Insight predicts Apple will sell 20 million of its smartwatches this year.