Twenty Million Dollars for a Watch

The online crowdfunding campaign for smartwatch Pebble Time is the most successful Kickstarter project to-date with more than $20 million collected. The price for a single watch was, of course, much lower at $179-$199, but 78,000 backers made the campaign the biggest ever to occur on the platform. The 2015 campaign wasn’t the only massive success for Pebble on Kickstarter, but just one of three successful forays. The Pebble 2 followed suit in 2016 and collected a still impressive $12.8 million. An earlier campaign for the so-called “e-paper” smartwatch by Pebble collected $10.3 million in 2012 - the third appearance in the top 10 of the highest-funded Kickstarter projects for the company, which has since been acquired by Fitbit.

The watches have enjoyed great popularity because they were developed on an open platform and therefore offered plenty of space for personalization. However, Fitbit decided to discontinue the Pebble brand in late 2016.

Other successful Kickstarter products include the Coolest Cooler, a combination of music box and cooler, which raised approximately $13.3 million. Roleplaying board games are another segment right at home on the platform. These elaborate games featuring fantasy characters and customizable, narrative elements have raised millions on Kickstarter and a campaign raising money for an animated series based on one is also among the highest-funded projects on the site.