Swatch making smart watch to take on Apple

Swiss company will release new ‘Swatch Touch’ in time to take on the Apple Watch

Swatch dusting off its smart watches: a woman cleans a display of watches at a Swatch store (Reuters)

Swatch is making a smart watch that it hopes will be able to take on Apple’s eagerly anticipated wearable.

The company is set to release a major update to its Swatch Touch line that will see it try to challenge the Apple Watch. It will be out before April, the company has said, when the Apple Watch is expected to be released.

Swatch already makes watches under the Touch banner. They include an LCD touch screen, though have functions the same as most normal watches, and sell for about £100.

But the new watches will be much smarter, according to the company. They will be able to communicate using a built-in internet connection, be able to be used for payments at supermarkets, and run free applications that work with Windows and Android.

It will do all that without needing to be regularly charged, the company said. Most smart watch battery lives only run for about a day — and Apple has reportedly had to work hard to make its watch last long enough on one charge.