The iWatch is one of the most anticipated Apple products of the decade.

Considering that Apple has not released a new product line since the iPad in 2010, and has never made a wearable product (unless you count the iPod Shuffle which had a clip, the iWatch will be a gamechanger.

Few details have been released about it, and Apple hasn’t even confirmed its existence.

Other industry players like Samsung have released wearable gadgets, to little success, in the same way that before the iPad, there were Android tablets and, earlier yet, Palm Pilots, which never quite broke into the market.

But Apple’s been hiding plans for an iWatch right under our noses at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office since July 2011.

The patent refers to a “wrist-worn electronic device”. Check it out:

The name?

“iTime”.

The “iTime” can do the following:

  • Store and playback media (listed as its “first set of functions”)
  • Accept notifications from a mobile phone.
  • Accept or decline incoming calls from the mobile phone.

It also includes a “sensor to detect an arm or wrist gesture” along with haptic functionality, which means it can vibrate and alert you of an incoming call or iMessage.

Interestingly, 3 different designs are posed, so there could be multiple iWatch models.

Figure 5 is for an iTime with a removable center and Bluetooth capability.  This would likely be the one that connects with the iPhone.  Given the details earlier, this would be the iTime Pro.

Figure 6 is for an iTime with a removable center that is another device in itself.  The patent filing specifically states that it could fit an iPod Nano.  This would be more of a wristband with added features to the iPod Nano, so this would be like the standard iTime.

Figure 7 is for a fully-integrated iTime, where the device is permanently encapsulated within the band.  It also appears to be almost paper thin, so could this be an iTime Air?

In the way the iPad took tables from “bulky, clumsy touchscreens” to “elegant slates controlled with a flick of a finger”, the iTime seems poised to do the same.