Austrian-made LAKS watches: An idea whose time has come?

By Chris Corum, Executive Editor

An Austrian watchmaker may not be the guy one would expect to find impacting the identity and payment card markets, but Lucas Alexander Karl Scheybal is not your typical watchmaker. At his company, LAKS, he designs precision timepieces that do more than just keep time. Recently added to his line of mp3 and flash drive watches are models that enable contactless payments, employee access and ID, and even a version that accepts a SIM card and connects via USB to a computer.