iWatch Frenzy Hits as Apple Falls Below Gundlach Target

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- The speculation surrounding the Apple (AAPL) iWatch is increasing by the day. Now we have a report that it could come as soon as this year.

Citing people familiar with Apple's plans, Bloomberg reported the Apple-branded watch could arrive in 2013. According to the report, Apple has filed at least 79 patent applications which have the word wrist in it, including one for two-way communication of location data between a portable media device and an accessory. This patent allows media to be transferred between devices using GPS data with a separate accessory.

The iWatch could run on Apple's iOS mobile operating system. It could be a scaled down version of the operating system, according to the report, and limit the amount of information sent to the watch.

Apple couldn't be immediately reached for comment for this story.

There have been recent attempts at smart watches, most notably Nike's (NKE) SportWatch. Bloomberg noted that Apple's lead designer Jony Ive has been interested in watches for some time, and even ordered boxes of Nike's sports watch in the last decade, according to Scott Wilson, who used to be Nike's creative director, and is now a watch designer.