NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – The first contactless payments wearables resulting from UK-based Barclays partnerships with seven mostly analog watchmakers are beginning to roll out, with more planned–all using the bank’s bPay contactless chips and payments service.
While payments wearables have taken off more slowly than the payments industry had anticipated, Barclays and its Barclaycard unit are moving forward, trying to capture market share with bPay by associating the payments wearables technology with such well-known watch brands as Timex, Mondaine, Guess and Kronaby.
The watchmakers, most of them selling analog devices, embed bPay chips into fashion watchbands and fitness trackers. And NFC Times has learned that an eighth partner, fitness tracker Nuband, has also signed on with bPay since Barclaycard’s March announcement of partnerships with the seven watchmakers, which also include Suunto and Adexe, along with watch-strap supplier LBS. Nuband has embedded bPay chips into its Nuband X-Pay fitness trackers.
