The Internet has moved from research labs to your desktop and into your pocket.  Now it’s coming to your wrist.  Apple isn’t commenting, but patent officials in Japan have confirmed that Apple has applied for a trademark for “iWatch”.

Rumors have swirled for months that the Cupertino tech giant was working on such a device, but the patent filing in Japan is the surest sign to date.  Bloomberg news quoted unnamed sources saying that Apple has a hundre engineers working on a wrist device that would connect with an iPad or iPhone and take over some of the functions.

“Apple doesn't like to take a leadership position, but when they see a product that's caught the consumer's attention, they really take notice,” said analyst Tim Bajarin with Creative Strategies, referring to the Pebble Smartwatch, which is already on the market and has a small but devoted following.  The Pebble works with iOS and Android to provide the user with wrist-mounted texts, calendar alerts, as well as Facebook messages and tweets.  But at the rate technology advances, it would be only a matter of time before some company offers a device bringing audio and video communications to the place where your Timex used to be.

Archrival Samsung is also racing to release a smartwatch.