Swatch Group, the world's bestselling watchmaker, is to introduce models that can make contactless payments and display data sent by smartphones.
The Swiss company's chief executive said the first of the tech-enhanced timepieces would go on sale in May.
But he said he had no plans to sell the kinds of fully featured smartwatches being offered by Apple, Motorola, Pebble and others.
Swatch accounts for 18% of all watch sales, according to industry data.
The company, which makes devices under the Omega, Breguet, Calvin Klein, Rado and other brands, as well as its own, has consistently increased its market share over the past five years.
It recently reported 8.7bn Swiss francs ($9.2bn; £6.2bn) of sales for its last financial year, a 3% improvement on the previous period.
However, some observers believe it and other mainstream watchmakers face disruption from tech industry giants who have begun selling wearable products.
- NFC (near-field communication) - a chip that can be used to trigger contactless payments and open hotel doors and other compatible locks. The first NFC-capable watches are set to be released in two months.
- Bluetooth - this chip will allow watches to send and receive data to smartphones. This could be used to show news updates, text messages and other notifications. Mr Hayek said the first Bluetooth-enabled models were due in "the summer"
Swatch's chief executive Nick Hayek said his company was planning to introduce two types of wireless communication tech to its wristwear:
Swatch said it had teamed up with China UnionPay, a Chinese credit card association, to provide touchless payments in that country. Reuters news agency reported that a similar deal with Visa is believed to be in the works for other parts of the world.
However, Mr Hayek indicated that Swatch would leave it up to others to unlock the full potential of its moves.
"Whatever usage you want, you ask some creative people to create some apps and then our chip has different layers that you can program yourself - we give it to you," he told a press conference in the Swiss town of Corgemont.
"You buy your Swatch, the one you like, and then you configure it."
He added that he believed that his company's expertise in manufacturing "ultra-low power" watches gave it an advantage over tech firms, whose products typically need to be recharged daily
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