​Mondaine to offer contactless payments on watch line-up

Another day, another Swiss watch with an NFC chip
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Swiss watch giant Mondaine is set to smarten up its range of classic timepieces with new smart payment technology.

The company is working with Oberthur Technologies to embed an NFC chip into the strap of its watches, positioned either to the 12 o'clock position on the strap, or on the underside of the wrist.

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The Mondaine PayChip's position on the strap is smarter than the wrist-breaking action required to place the Apple Watch's screen onto a point of sale when using Apple Pay.

The initial rollout will be on the Mondaine Helvetica No.1 Smart, which has MotionX fitness tracking technology built inside, but by placing the tech into the strap, Mondaine will also be offering payments as an option on dumb watches in the future.

There is a downside, however. Mondaine has partnered with Swiss bank Cembra, which means you'll need to apply for one of their credit cards to take advantage. Cembra does use MasterCard's technology, so hopefully the ecosystem will open up in time, but at present it doesn't seem like PayChip is set to make much of an impact.

Mondaine's announcement comes off the back of a similar agreement with MasterCard and WIseKey, which is embedding its technology into Bulgari and Hublot watches.

And the Swiss have to do something. Smartwatch sales have already overtaken watches with the 'Swiss made' badge of horological honour.

Mondaine's tech is set to be shown off at Baselworld 2016, where Wareable will be in attendance, reporting live from the show floor.

​Mondaine to offer contactless payments on watch line-up

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James Stables

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James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.

He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.

James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.


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