MasterCard Rolls Out Prepaid Contactless Wristwatch in U.K.

MasterCard announced this week it is teaming up with watchmaker LAKS and electronic money issuer Vincento Payment Solutions to offer U.K. consumers a wristwatch they can tap against a contactless reader to make payments.

Dubbed Watch2pay, the product is funded via a prepaid account and enabled with MasterCard's PayPass technology to allow consumers to make purchases of up to 15 Pounds at more than 70,000 retailers in the UK without needing to enter a PIN.

According to MasterCard, contactless wristwatches are already in use in Turkey, Poland and a number of markets in Asia. This is the first time in the U.K. that a wristwatch has been enabled with payment technology.

The watch comes with comes with a reloadable MasterCard prepaid card which is not linked to a bank account or any line of credit. The card is valid up to two years and accepted at over 32 million retail locations worldwide.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio