According to Swatch CEO Nick Hayek the company's first smartwatch could arrive as early as August, with a range of exciting features that set it apart from the current crop wearables.
The most interesting feature of the Swatch is its impressive battery life, according to Reuters it "won't need to be charged". Hayek has yet to divulge how the company plan to achieve this, but he did tell Bloomberg they are working on innovative battery tech.
This battery life could rival the Withings Activité which boasts an impressive eight months. The Swatch is said to include NFC for payments, and Bluetooth for displaying mobile notifications (both of which the Withings is incapable of).
The intention for mobile payments is to include a low-energy proprietary system, which would work in specific shops (similar to a loyalty card).
It's also expected that the watch will include basic fitness tracking capabilities, such as step counting. The timepiece will work with Android and Windows smartphones -- with no love for Apple devices.
Hayek said at a press conference back in August, "We are not going to transform and put the mobile phone on the wrist. Let the others do it. Samsung did it, Sony did it. Everybody does it."
Hayek has said that the tech world is clambering to work with the established watch brand, which is currently the biggest in the world, "All the big technology firms want to work with us and I don't rule out that we are or could be collaborating in some areas. But we can also do many things on out own."
This is a big u-turn for Hayek and Swatch, who were originally skeptical about smartwatches (and even digital watches) -- saying two years ago the new devices wouldn't be a "revolution" for the industry. Ironically the company was founded in 1980 to combat the rise of Japanese digital watches.
This news comes on the back of recent news surrounding Tag Heuer's entry into the smartwatch market, another traditional watch brand entering the world of tech.
It's reported the Swatch will launch in Switzerland and one other "big country", which is likely to be either the US or China.
