From Fitness Tracker to Fully Certified Payment Device
Infineon’s SECORA Connect X and SECORA Wallet are integrated chip and software solutions that turn contactless payment wearables into secure, Visa and Mastercard‑certified devices that can tap to pay at point‑of‑sale terminals without needing a phone, cloud connection, or third‑party digital wallet. As contactless payment grows alongside an expected 4 billion NFC‑enabled devices and up to 700 million wearables by 2030, this approach aims to remove the smartphone as a dependency in everyday transactions. Instead of routing payments through mobile wallets, payment credentials are stored directly on the wearable’s Secure Element, creating a self‑contained payment device on the wrist or finger. For original equipment manufacturers, this means a path to shipping wearable payment devices that behave like payment cards, but sit inside smart rings, sports watches, or fitness bands that consumers already wear.
Inside Infineon SECORA Connect X: Secure Element, Tiny Footprint
SECORA Connect X is built around a Secure Element that emulates an NFC payment card, enabling contactless payment with Mastercard, Visa, and other NFC applications directly from the wearable. Payment credentials live on the chip instead of in the cloud, reducing exposure of sensitive data and keeping transactions close to the device. As the smallest NFC payment card emulation device on the market, it is designed for low power consumption, extending battery life and reducing the number of external components that designers must add. This slim hardware profile makes it suitable for compact devices such as smart rings, sports watches, and fitness trackers, regardless of size, shape, or casing material. Support for Java Card and GlobalPlatform standards, pre‑certified applets, and 1 MB of memory gives developers room to build custom NFC and Bluetooth applications on top of the payment function.
SECORA Wallet and Tokenization: Card in Chip, Not in Cloud
The SECORA Wallet and SECORA Token Requestor complete the system by adding card digitization and tokenization to any Secure Element‑based wearable. Acting as a Token Requestor, Infineon can connect directly with schemes such as Mastercard MDES and Visa VTS to request and manage payment tokens, removing Primary Account Numbers from the payment chain and replacing them with tokenized credentials stored on the chip. This means the tap to pay wearables behave like EMVCo‑compatible cards while shielding the underlying card numbers. The tokenized wearable is accepted globally at all contactless‑enabled POS terminals and does not depend on a phone or third‑party digital wallet services during checkout. An integrated white‑label SDK allows brands to build their own wallet apps for iOS and Android, keeping user experience, design, and customer relationship under their own name.
One‑Stop Shop for OEMs and the Shift Beyond Phone Wallets
Infineon positions SECORA Connect X and SECORA Wallet as a one‑stop‑shop for adding contactless payment to smart wearables, from design through certification. "SECORA one-stop-shop turns wearables into payment devices certified by Visa and Mastercard with worldwide acceptance at all contactless POS terminals, without the need for a phone or digital wallet," says Tolgahan Yildiz, Head of the Trusted Mobile Connectivity and Transactions Product Line at Infineon. For OEMs, this removes the need to build their own tokenization back end or negotiate separate scheme integrations and certifications. They can focus on hardware design, battery life, and user experience while relying on Infineon’s Secure Element, SDK, and compliance work with industry bodies like EMVCo, GlobalPlatform, and the NFC Forum. The result is a move toward independent wearable payment ecosystems that no longer sit under the shadow of phone‑based wallet platforms.
Beyond Wearables: Toward a Broader Contactless Device Ecosystem
While SECORA Connect X targets active smart wearables, Infineon also offers SECORA Connect E for connected IoT devices such as AR/VR headsets, laptops, tablets, gaming consoles, and PC accessories. Together, these platforms point to a contactless payment landscape where many everyday objects can become secure payment touchpoints, not only phones and smart watches. For brands, this opens a path to create their own contactless payment wearables and IoT products with Visa Mastercard certified functionality, without surrendering control to external wallet providers. For users, paying with a ring, band, or headset that works wherever contactless POS terminals are available becomes part of normal behaviour. As NFC‑enabled devices increase toward the billions, embedding payment capability directly into objects people already use hints at a future where tap‑to‑pay is available in almost any connected device.
