Remember that report from a couple of days ago that claimed that Apple is "experimenting" with a smartwatch device? Well now another rumor about it has sprung up, and the new sources say that the watch could be father along than previously thought.

According to two sources speaking to Bloomberg, Apple's got a team of around 100 designers cranking away at a "wristwatch-like device" that the tipsters claim could handle some of the tasks that users currently carry out on iPhones and iPads.The group working on this watch has reportedly grown in the past year, adding managers and engineers that have worked on the iPhone and iPad in the past, including senior director of engineering James Foster. The sources of this report feel that the size of the team working on this watch indicates that the device has passed the "experimentation phase" of its development cycle.

The rumor that surfaced this past weekend claimed that Apple was testing a smartwatch that is made of curved glass and runs iOS. While today's report doesn't offer up any information relating to those two details, the claim that this watch could perform certain iPhone and iPad-like functions could support the rumored iOS base. Of course, it's worth noting that all of this Apple smartwatch stuff is still very much a rumor at this point, and a finished watch from the Cupertino firm could end up being different from the product that's being described in these rumors, if one is released at all. With the recent public interest in smartwatches like the Pebble and these growing rumblings of an Apple watch, though, it's certainly possible that the Cupertino firm has some watch-style product kicking around in its labs. Do you think Apple will actually release its own smartwatch product?

Via The Verge, Bloomberg