As more people around the world turn to contactless because it's easy, fast and hygienic, the Swiss watch company Winwatch has integrated security chips from Infineon Technologies into its patented sapphire crystal STISS. The chip enables fast and secured payment transactions by radio frequency within milliseconds.
"A fast and robust connection from the watch to the reader at the checkout is crucial for customer acceptance," said Alex Kalbermatten, CEO of Winwatch. "By integrating the contactless chip we were able to develop a sapphire crystal that turns every watch - from mechanical heirlooms to metal sports watches - into a contactless payment device. And all of this without a battery."
The most widely used contactless payment method is still the credit or debit card. According to ABI, already two thirds of all cards used today are contactless. Their share is expected to grow to more than 80 percent by 2025. The market researchers estimate another 1.9 billion contactless cards to be shipped in 2020 worldwide. The demand for wearables with a payment function is also growing. According to a study more than 75 percent of all Mastercard transactions in Europe are now contactless. Payment transactions with smartphones and wearables have doubled within a year from seven to 14 percent.
Contactless payment solutions require a triad of semiconductor technology, encryption and analogue radio technology.
A mini-computer measuring just a few square millimetres initiates and controls all communication between the customer and the financial institute via a small antenna. Within around 200 milliseconds, the chip is able to prove the authenticity of the device with an individual signature and creates a cryptogram of card data, payment amount and place of payment.
Communication between the card or wearable and the reader is based on NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. At a distance of two to ten centimetres the chip uses only the energy field of the reader to calculate, encrypt and transmit the data.
