Barclaycard bPay loop teams up with Mondaine

Swiss watch brand Mondaine has been named as an official partner of Barclaycard’s contactless payment solution bPay loop, a small case that contains a contactless chip allowing customers to transform their watch strap into a fast and secure payment tool.

The bPay loop is designed specifically for watch straps, offering secure contactless payment alongside a dedicated app, and Mondaine will be offering this technology across its entire watch collection, starting with its hero pieces Evo Big Date and Simply Elegant for men and women.

To use, bPay loop customers just need to add funds to a digital wallet that is linked to the device and then they can use it to pay for transactions up to 30 pounds, wherever contactless payments can be made, which is currently at more than 400,000 locations across the UK.

“Mondaine dedicates itself to keeping things simple, genuine and in time with the modern world. By partnering with Barclaycard to offer bPay Loop, Mondaine continues to unite timeless Swiss design with form, function, and invention,” said Colin Lee, director of sales, timepieces at Burton McCall. “We already play an active role in promoting and creating smart, yet traditional looking wearables and with this new partnership Mondaine is now leading the charge for simple well-designed wearable payment devices both in the UK and international markets.”

Tami Hargreaves, commercial director, digital consumer payments at Barclaycard, added: “bPay is the UK’s leading range of wearable payment products and was designed to meet customer demand for a new way of paying.

“Following the success of the initial range, and in response to consumer demand, loop has been designed to allow payments functionality to be added to items that people already wear on their wrist.”

According to the Barclaycard Contactless Index, overall contactless spending in the UK has more than doubled over the past year, rising by 123 percent. With the wearables market worth 314 million pounds for UK retailers in 2014 according to research by Samsung Electronics, the second highest in Europe after Germany.

Images: courtesy of Mondaine