Swiss luxury watchmaker Mondaine is to add NFC payment capability to a variety of its watches, starting with its Mondaine Helvetica No1 smartwatch, that will let wearers make payments with a tap of their wrist at any contactless enabled terminal. The company has partnered with Oberthur Technologies and Cembra Money Bank to roll out the capability in Switzerland.

“A number of Mondaine watches will be imbued with a Mondaine PayChip designed to offer convenient and efficient transactions at contactless payment points,” the company says. “The Mondaine PayChip, which is the same size as a phone SIM-card, will be invisibly secured within a specially designed part of the Mondaine watch strap on the 12 o’clock side, or inside a strap loop which can be fitted to most watches.

“The handy positioning of the PayChip ensures that a simple flick of the wrist results in uncomplicated payments at NFC pay counters worldwide, freeing the wearer from unnecessary bulky bags or wallets.”

Starting point

“The celebrated Mondaine Helvetica No1 smart watch is a natural and confident starting point for the PayChip installation,” Mondaine adds. “However, Mondaine is also offering this technology with several other Mondaine models. These versions are sold at the same price as those without this facility.

“For the Swiss market, Mondaine has partnered up with Cembra Money Bank AG who will issue the MasterCard credit card to consumers. In other countries, Mondaine’s distributors will partner up with domestic credit card issuers who will then provide the same PayChip produced by Oberthur Technologies.”

A live demonstration of the Mondaine PayChip prototype is expected to be presented at Baselworld 2016, taking place in Switzerland from March 17-24.

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