Swiss luxury watch maker Mondaine is to introduce contactless payments capabilities into its latest Helvetica smart watch. The company is partnering with Oberthur Technologies and Cembra Money Bank to equip the smart watch with a ‘PayChip’ secured within the watch strap that can be used to make payments with a flick of the wrist.
A number of Mondaine watches will be imbued with a Mondaine PayChip™, designed to offer convenient and efficient transactions at contactless payment points. 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. As a result, Mondaine has stayed true to its iconic Swiss roots by blending craftsmanship, functionality and simplicity with technology designed to declutter and destress.”, according to the press release.
Mondaine is also offering this technology with several other Mondaine models. These versions are sold at the same price as those without this facility.
Mondaine has partnered with Oberthur Technologies, a leading global provider of embedded security software products, services and solutions, who produce billions of smart cards worldwide. Oberthur Technologies and Mondaine are of the strong belief that more and more retailers globally will have contactless payment devices installed.
For the Swiss Market, Mondaine has partnered up with Cembra Money Bank AG, who will issue the MasterCard Credit Card to consumers. The PayChip™ uses the same technology as the majority of credit cards, allowing customers to simply hover over contactless payment devices in thousands of point of sales worldwide. With the Mondaine watch and PayChip™, you can have “money” on you whenever you wear your watch. 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.
Mondaine is the latest Swiss watchmaker to tap into the wearable payments trend, following in the footsteps of Tag Heuer and Swatch.
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