Pebble to start shipping ‘smartwatch’ after raising $15 million

US-based start-up Pebble has confirmed it will begin shipping its ‘smartwatch’ on January 23, eight months after it smashed its $100,000 Kickstarter goal and raised more than $15 million.

Led by Eric Migicovksy, Pebble has developed the Pebble E-Paper Watch, allowing users to download watch faces, use sports and fitness apps, and receive notifications from their phone.

Last year, Pebble set itself a goal of $100,000 on US-based crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.

In what remains the most funded Kickstarter project ever, Pebble collected more than $10 million from more than 68,000 backers.

Ryan Wardell, formerly of Sydney-based crowdfunding site Project PowerUp, said at the time Pebble “pretty much nailed everything” with regard to its Kickstarter campaign.

“The video itself is more of a product demonstration – it’s not just someone talking to the camera. They’re just showing off the watch and what it can do,” Wardell said.

Now Pebble has confirmed it will begin shipping on January 23 after working “very hard” for the past year to deliver “something that we’re truly proud of”.

In a blog post addressed to its “pebblers”, the company outlined a number of new features including a magnetometer, offering compass-like functionality, and ambient light sensors, which will enable the watch to understand how much light is available in its current environment.

“Also, as many of you have speculated, we can confirm that Pebble uses a magnetic charging cable,” it said.

“This was done to help achieve a 5 ATM water resistance rating, perfect for running in the rain, skiing, swimming and washing dishes.

“And one last fun and useful tool – the accelerometer we’ve built into the watch allows you simply to tap or flick your wrist to turn on the backlight.

“We’re planning to continue our aggressive update cycle and ship new software updates every two to three weeks.”