As reported by The Huffington Post, a watch that syncs with iPhone and Android devices took the crowd-sourced fundraising web site Kickstarter by storm earlier this month, meeting its project goal of $100,000 in two hours.
Pledges continued to pour in well after the goal was met, surpassing $1 million in 28 hours.
Kickstarter told Bloomberg News on Tuesday that the watch is now the "highest grossing project" in the site's two-year history. At time of writing, the project had garnered more than $4.5 million in pledges, with 30 days of fundraising remaining.
The project offers different incentives based on a contributor's level of involvement, including discounts on pre-ordered watches. The most popular pledge at time of writing was at the level of $115 or more, which had attracted 19,720 backers.
The watch's lead developer, Eric Migicovsky, told Bloomberg News that he is better at pitching directly to consumers than to venture capitalists. He also lauded Kickstarter's funding model.
“It’s very clear that the Kickstarter guys have that viral path down pat,” Migicovsky told Bloomberg. “When a cool project shoots up, it shoots high.”
Migicovsky and the team at his Palo Alto-based start-up had found previous success with the inPulse, a smartwatch that connected to Android and BlackBerry devices. According to Migicovsky, the Pebble is "the only watch that works perfectly with iPhone and Android smart phones." Its features sync customizable apps to the watch's e-paper display.
While the usefulness of a smartwatch has been met with skepticism from some media outlets -- a video by the Wall Street Journal's Digit blog appeared to pan a Sony-manufactured smartwatch that works only with Android -- the numbers do not lie.
The watch has far exceeded the site's previous record holder, a video game project called "Double Fine Adventure." In February, Joystiq reported that project had raised $678,000 in 8 hours and 11 minutes. The project received more than $3.3 million in pledges by its March 13 deadline.
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