Swatch Reveals Its Mobile Payments-Enabled Smartwatch

Swatch has revealed its most technological watch yet as it looks to get on board with the wearable mobile payments device market.

The iconic Swiss watchmaker will be teaming up with a number of Chinese banks to let users make purchases at point-of-sale machines in stores using a smartwatch equipped with an NFC chip embedded beneath the dial, Bloomberg reported.

The Swatch Bellamy will launch in China in January 2016 for 580 yuan (£59), with releases in Europe and the US coming soon afterward.

Coming Soon

Swatch has been keen to enter the smartwatch market for some time, particularly having seen the success of the Apple Watch, with its charismatic CEO Nick Hayek leading the charge.

Having called the Apple Watch “a toy”, last month Hayek confirmed a new range of devices, starting with the Swatch Zero Touch Two, which will launch in time for the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro next summer.

Speaking at the unveiling of the Swatch Bellamy today, Hayek said that while Swatch always planned to launch the device in its home territory of Switzerland first, “my God, it takes months and months and years” to do something new with Swiss banks.

Swatch announced back in May that it was working with battery manufacturer Renata to produce a battery that would last up to six months in its forthcoming wearable devices, as part of its bid to stand out from the competition.

The company revealed its first wearable device, the Zero Touch One back in March, a sports-focused device which included features such as calorie counting.

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