NFC TIMES Exclusive Insight – Swatch, one of the world’s largest watchmakers, has expanded its contactless-payments service to its home base of Switzerland, launching the restyled SwatchPAY! service with seven card issuers Thursday. A spokeswoman told NFC Times the company plans to expand the service to other European countries this year.
Switzerland is the second market for the service, after Swatch launched what was then called “Swatch Pay” in China in mid-2017 with 11 banks. There is no indication yet whether Swatch plans to take its payments wearables service global, but if it did, it would offer an affordable set of payments timepieces as compared with the major Pays wearables services.
Apple Pay uses the high-end Apple Watch. Fitbit Pay and Garmin Pay work on a range of their own smartwatches. And Google Pay runs on Google Wear devices from various manufacturers, including U.S.-based analog watchmaker Fossil, which enables payments on models from its line of smartwatches and hybrids. The smartwatches used for these Pays services often cost US$300 or more, while Swatch produces analog watches that retail as low as sub-$100.
