Smartwatches mean payment is now all in the wrist

WAVING a smartwatch over a shop’s payments terminal can be a challenge, especially when the technology’s new, and you’re in Spain.

You'll soon make payments through Optus by waving a smart watch

WAVING a smartwatch over a shop’s payments terminal can be a challenge, especially when the technology’s new, and you’re in Spain with limited Spanish.

At last week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Optus lent journalists smartwatches loaded with $100 on a Visa payWave account and told then to go out and buy.

I wish to state that The Australian was frugal with Optus’s cash, buying a barra de pan lunch and later a cerveza to test the system. At first blush the shop attendants looked ponderously at me as if I was a hacker or skimmer about to rip them off when I held the watch above their payments terminal.

When the terminal returned the right payments code, there was relief all around. Apart from seeing the system working, Optus’s exercise showed the ubiquity of its technology: presumably I could go anywhere in Barcelona and buy with this smartwatch without any terminal modifications required.

The smartwatch was a relatively basic unit made by Hong Kong-headquartered Connectedevice and had an implanted payWave card with a Near Field Communication antenna. It therefore uses the same technology as a payWave card except that it sits around your wrist.

It’s a watch version of the existing “Cash by Optus” scheme, where users wave their NFC-enabled Android smartphone instead. The scheme is limited to purchases of up to $100.

You don’t need a smartphone connection to make payments, but pairing to a phone using Bluetooth lets you check your balance and top up your account.

The watch is waterproof — suggesting immediately that this payment system is particularly suited to purchases at poolside bars in summer resorts. Budgie smugglers, thongs, a beach towel and an Optus watch is all you’d need for a rollicking time.

The issue is whether you’d wear Optus’s pretty basic watch in favour of an Apple Watch using Apple Pay, a Samsung watch using MasterCard, or Google’s upcoming Android Pay flagged at Barcelona — or pay with a Microsoft band. PayPal is lurking too. We only have so much arm real estate for watches.

Optus fortunately is thinking beyond watch payments to using smart watchbands and straight payments arm bands — maybe a device that complements your existing watch.

Soon our car dashboards will make smart payments, too.

At the Barcelona conference, Visa and Accenture showcased an interactive system where a user places a Pizza Hut order hands free and the connected dashboard follows up by making the ­payment.

This all might seem futuristic, but in reality NFC technology making this possible has been around for more than 10 years.