SwatchPay Comes to Switzerland, Enabled by Mastercard

Following a 2017 China launch, Swatch brings its NFC payments watch, stylised as SwatchPay to Swiss shores. In a collaboration with Mastercard, the “credit card watch” comes with an NFC radio chip hidden underneath the watch dial. Customers would be able to place their watches next to a contactless payment terminal during payments.

This move by Swatch seems to tally with their cooperation agreement with Wirecard earlier this month, culminating in a contactless payment app in Switzerland for use with watches.

The company expressed the intention of expanding throughout Europe.

The boon by Wirecard solution is a mobile payment solution that works independently of banks and network operators, and with this partnership, users would be able to add their digital boon cards to SwatchPay.

According to Swatch, the payment terminal apparently supplies the energy needed for this process, meaning that the SwatchPay doesn’t technically require batteries for payments—which the company hopes will put it a leg ahead of smartphone equivalents where payments are dependent on battery.

Swatch claims that the watch should be usable at more than 75% of all electronic point of sale systems in Switzerland, with most major domestic banks in Switzerland a part of the SwatchPay system as well (Swisscard, UBS, Viseca, Cembra Money Bank, Cornèrcard, and Swiss Bankers, etc.).

Featured image via Screenshot of Giesecke l Devrient video on YouTube