Swatch brings contactless watch payments to China

Swatch is bringing the second generation of its contactless payments-enabled watches to China through a deal with the country’s UnionPay card scheme and 11 banks. The Swiss watchmaker is rolling out four new models at stores in 28 Chinese cities, each of which feature China UnionPay’s cloud-based payments technology.

„This second generation introduces brand new technology, featuring China UnionPay’s cloud-based payment solution that replaces both physical debit and credit cards. After purchase of SWATCH PAY, only an in-store app download and scan is required to instantly activate the watch. The tokenization process takes just a few minutes.”, according to the press release.

After buying a Swatch Pay watch, customers download an instore app and carry out a scan to activate it. Users can then add card details from participating banks and make contactless purchases at shops that have POS terminals with China UnionPay QuickPass.

“Swatch has been a pioneer in contactless technology since 1993 with introduction of Swatch Access. Now it’s logical to be a pioneer with regard to bank cards as well. We are very happy about launching SWATCH PAY”, said Nick Hayek, CEO of the Swatch Group.

From July 27, 2017 onward, SWATCH PAY will be available at designated Swatch stores in 28 Chinese cities. Enthusiasts can use their watches to pay for purchases in shops and stores around the country using merchants’ contactless POS terminals with a China UnionPay QuickPass icon. To celebrate the upcoming launch of the new SWATCH PAY in China, a series of welcome rewards will be granted to the user.

The inspiration for this innovative Swatch is American writer Edward Bellamy, who envisioned a utopian world in which cash had been replaced by credit cards back in 1888. Originally launched as SWATCH BELLAMY payment system in 2015, it uses no energy from the watch and requires no additional network support – just a simple wave of the hand is all it takes.