Update – Huawei Australia has since clarified to Ausdroid that the original Huawei Watch does not have NFC inside despite their earlier claims.
With the launch of the Huawei Watch 2 at MWC 2017 a couple of months ago, it was revealed that the smartwatch came with NFC technology on it which in turn allowed users to take advantage of features like Android Pay. However it seems that if you’re still holding onto the first-gen Huawei Watch, Android Pay could be coming your way too.
According to the folks at Ausdroid, it seems that Huawei has confirmed to the publication that the device will be getting its Android Wear 2.0 update soon which not only will bring about new features we expect from the update, but it will also apparently enable the dormant NFC chip inside the watch that will enable Android Pay as well.
Huawei has told Ausdroid that Android Pay for the original Huawei Watch is currently undergoing testing by the Android team at Google. However Android Pay for the watch might not be launched together with the Android Wear 2.0 update, but it could arrive at a later date, with a Q3 2017 timeframe given as a possible release.
So until then we guess Huawei Watch owners will have to remain patient, but the good news is that maybe you won’t need to upgrade to a newer smartwatch just yet.