Swiss watchmaker Swatch announced Monday it has signed an agreement with Visa to bring a mobile payment watch to Visa cardholders in the United States, Switzerland and Brazil next year.
Dubbed the Swatch Bellamy, the new device will allow users to tap and “pay by the wrist” anywhere globally contactless NFC Visa payments are accepted, Swatch said.
According to Swatch, the new device is named after 19th century American author Edward Bellamy, who pioneered the idea of credit and debit cards in his 1888 novel Looking Backward: 2000-1887.
Though not a smartwatch, the device enables payment through a built-in NFC chip hidden under the mechanical dial, the company said. The payment technology does not require any energy from the watch, and thus has no impact on the piece’s usual battery life, Swatch said.
The watch is scheduled for an early 2016 release in the United States, Switzerland and Brazil. The device was first presented this October in China, the company said.
Pricing for the device has not yet been announced.
The Swiss watchmaker’s move into the mobile payment industry follows Apple’s entry into both the timepiece sector and mobile payment space with Apple Pay on the Apple Watch.
Since its launch this spring, the Apple Watch has blown away its smartwatch competition with more than 7 million devices shipped in its first two quarters of availability, according to Canalys.
Another Swiss watchmaker, Tag Heuer, made a move to combat the Apple Watch’s dominance with the November introduction of the $1,5000 Tag Heuer Connected smartwatch. The device, which was made in collaboration with Intel and Google, was billed by Tag Heuer CEO Jean-Claude Biver as the “marriage of Watch Valley and Silicon Valley.”
