Swatch announced back in February that it planned on releasing its first smartwatch within the next three months. The Swatch Touch Zero One touch watch has occasionally been misidentified as that smartwatch but it is not. Swatch CEO Nick Hayek this week told The Wall Street Journal where things now stand with the Swatch smartwatch.
Hayek explained that the company’s first smarwatch will launch in two countries later this summer. One of those will be Swizterland, the company’s home country, while the other will be “one big country.” Hayek provided no other information but speculation suggests that the second country would be either China, Swatch’s largest market, or the U.S. A payment deal with China UnionPay, a Chinese bank card, suggests that the former option is the likelier of the two.
Hayek did not provide any new information about the Swatch Smartwatch. Based on earlier reports, it will be compatible with both Android and Windows Phone devices but not iOS ones. Unlike most smartwatches we have seen to date, it will incorporate an automatic or self-winding mechanism to offer longer battery life and eliminates the need for daily or near-daily charging. It will also support mobile payments via NFC.
Specific details about the Swatch smartwatch have been few since then. It remains to be seen if the smartwatch that Swatch unveils later this summer will in fact include these features or if any of these have changed.
Source : The Wall Street Journal