The Pebble smartwatch has got its first payment app, using a software development toolkit from mobile payments network LevelUp.
Launched on Kickstarter in 2012 as the most successful crowdfunding campaign to date, the Pebble smartwatch has so far attracted developers of games and fitness programmes. In February, the firm opened an online apps store, an open platform for sharing apps made for wearable technology.
The new payment app, created by boutique Web design agency BeautifulLab, leverages LevelUp's Developer Platform to make it possible to pay at the check-out with a flick of the wrist.
Tung Pham, co-founder of BeatifulLab, says: "By enabling people to pay with their watch, we've reduced unnecessary steps in the transaction process and created perhaps the easiest way for people to pay for things. I look forward to one day telling my kids about how people used to pay for things with plastic cards."
With over 1.5 million LevelUp account holders and over 8,000 businesses, LevelUp claims to be the largest mobile payment network in the US.
To celebrate the launch of the new smartwatch app, the firm is giving away a Pebble watch + $250 of credit to the customer making the seven millionth LevelUp payment, slated to happen sometime in March.
Pebble is set to face fearsome competition from Google, which announced today that it plans to bring Android to smartwatches as part of its newest wearable computing platform called Android Wear.