Mastercard have partnered with watchmaker LAKS to produce a watch that you can use to make contactless payments.
Watch2Pay watches contain a SIM card-like “break-out card” which can be loaded with cash and used to pay wherever there is a contactless payment.
Contactless wristwatches are already in use in Turkey, Poland and a number of markets in Asia. Watch2pay aims to take advantage of the growing demand for contactless payments and prepaid cards in the UK, which offer consumers greater security than cash and allow them to segment and set budgets for different spending needs.
This is the first time in the UK that a wristwatch has been enabled with the payment technology to meet both these functional needs.
Consumers can purchase a LAKS wristwatch online at www.watch2pay.co.uk, with a range of colours to choose from. It comes with a reloadable MasterCard prepaid card which is not linked to a bank account or any line of credit and therefore can help users budget more effectively and avoid getting into debt. The card is valid up to two years and accepted at over 32 million retail locations worldwide.
Suresh Vaghjiani, Head of Product at Vincento, explains: “Watch2pay is all about speed and convenience and we’re genuinely excited to be working on this project. The new Watch2pay PayPass watch has an online account management facility, which can help consumers keep track of their everyday spending. These wristwatches also offer a number of great benefits to retailers such as fast transaction times which equate to shorter queues, ideal for environments where speed is essential.â€
Here’s a video explaining how the watches work:
Can we see these “money watches” taking off?
In a word, unlikely. Whilst the designs aren’t actually too bad (and they’re definitely aimed at a young audience), mobile phones are more suited to payments and are more likely to dominate contactless payments when they finally take off.
What do you think, can you see anyone using these? Let us know in the comments below.