One of the world largest watchmakers Swatch in cooperation with credit card operator China UnionPay and state-owned “Bank of Communications” have introduced a watch with in-built function of contactless payments, Payspacemagazine reports.
The Swiss watchmaker stated that it plans to compete with Apple on smartwatch market this year. As it was reported, one of the first countries of its launch will be China or USA.
The new proposal bears a name of Bellamy – after writer and utopianist Edward Bellamy, who described the utopian world where money funds were replaced with payment cards in 1888 in his novel “Looking Backward, 2000 – 1887”.
Bellami watch is presented in four design options, each of which is fitted with NFC-chip, concealed under the clockface, which allows to make contactless payments.
For the launch of new watch in China the Swatch partners became the payment system UnionPay and “Bank of Communications”, where it is possible to purchase “smart watch”. Switzerland and USA are most likely to become the next countries for its launch.
