Payments technology company Mastercard and Tappy Technologies, a world-leading wearable token service provider, today announced a strategic partnership that will see the two companies collaborating to enable contactless payments through fashion wearables by embedding their respective technologies into a range of accessories, starting with analogue watches by Timex Group.

Tappy’s patented contactless payment chips can be embedded into virtually any fashion accessory, transforming them into payment-enabled wearables. By partnering with Mastercard, Tappy can integrate its technology platform with Mastercard Digital Enablement Service (MDES) to tokenize payment credentials when consumers use their mechanical or digital watch or wearable to make a purchase at any merchant that accepts Mastercard contactless payments.

"Fashion-conscious consumers are now looking to their favorite brands to add payment capabilities to their watches, jewelry and other accessories. Our partnership with Mastercard means that fashion brands can now easily respond to consumer needs and take full advantage of this fast-growing trend,” said Wayne Leung, CEO of Tappy Technologies Ltd.

The first fashion-forward brand to embed these payment technologies into their wearables is Timex Group. Starting with timepieces, Timex Group will debut its payment-enabled range in the first half of 2020, across a variety of collections and straps, which will be sold separately and made available for purchase on Timex.com.

“For 165 years, we have created quality timepieces that our consumers love, delivering on fashion, variety and accessibility,” said Shawn Lawson Cummings, SVP Advanced Technology, Timex Group. “Now, thanks to our partnership with Tappy, we can offer convenient payment-enabled timepieces that will transform our relationship with our consumers, offering them even greater functionality that keeps up with how they interact with the world around them."

Mastercard has been actively fostering ties with technology providers such as Tappy through Mastercard Accelerate – a global platform that gives fintechs and emerging technology brands access to everything they need to grow quickly. Offering a simple, single entry-point to a wide portfolio of specialized programs, Mastercard Accelerate offers start-ups and emerging brands support and assistance for every stage of their growth and transformation, including market entry and global expansion.

The Accelerate program that connected Mastercard with Tappy is Mastercard Engage – an initiative that identifies qualified technology partners and connects them with thousands of Mastercard customers to help scale their business, quickly and efficiently.

“The innovation Tappy offers, fueled by Mastercard’s payments and secure tokenization technology, is a great example of how the power of partnerships is expanding the fintech landscape. Mastercard’s exciting journey in the wearables space is a testament to our commitment to driving contactless payments. Through the Accelerate platform, Mastercard offers a range of solutions to help fintechs rise to the next level and scale their business more rapidly through access to powerful resources, tools and insights,” said Ben Gilbey, Senior Vice President, Digital Payments and Labs, Asia Pacific, Mastercard.