KNOWLEDGE CENTRE: Convenience, consumer choice, and the ability to use contactless payments for public transportation hold the key to driving the mass market adoption of wearable payments in urban environments, Timex, Mastercard and Tappy explain in a panel discussion which is now available to watch free of charge in the NFCW Knowledge Centre[1].
The discussion is part of the Wearable Payment Summit 2020[2] and focuses on the role of wearable payments in urban mobility and smart cities. NFCW’s editor, Sarah Clark, is joined for the session by:
- Wayne Leung, CEO of wearable payments innovator Tappy Technologies, in Toronto
- Stephen Scholz, senior director of product and marketing for digital watches and technology at Timex Group, in Connecticut
- Ivana Petkovic, director of wearable payments and IoT for Mastercard Europe, in Belgium
Timex Group has partnered with Tappy for the launch of Timex Pay later this year, Scholz explains during the discussion. Timex Pay will use Tappy’s wearable token service provider platform[3] to let customers add their choice of payment card to a battery-free payment module that is neatly embedded into the strap of the company’s traditional, analog timepieces.
“The focus for the launch for us is our Timex brand, because of the brand awareness as well as the breadth of the portfolio and all of the different consumer groups that this brand can reach,” Scholz explains.
Timex Group is also planning to offer a range of watch straps that customers can use with their existing watches, he adds, and there are also plans to introduce payments capabilities across its range of watch brands.
Aspirational
“It’s on the roadmap for Timex across the group,” Scholz says. “We can slice it and dice it for
