Rumors of an Apple smartwatch have been swirling in recent months, with recent reports suggesting that the device could arrive as soon as this year. Apple isn't the only major manufacturer who's been rumored to be crafting a new smartwatch, though, as it's also been said that Samsung is prepping some wristwear of its own. It's unlikely that we'll hear anything from Apple about it's rumored watch product until the device is being announced at an event, but that's not the case with Samsung, which confirmed today that it is indeed working on a watch.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Samsung EVP Lee Young Hee said that a watch is "definitely" one of the products that the company is hard at work on. "We’ve been preparing the watch product for so long. We are working very hard to get ready for it," Lee explained. The executive declined to discuss the watch's expected availability or features, but a Reuters source claims that the device will be able to perform many of the same features as a smartphone.

While smartwatches aren't exactly a new product category, the devices have exploded in popularity lately thanks to products like the Pebble and MetaWatch Strata. Those watches can connect to a user's smartphone using Bluetooth and display alerts for things like calls and messages and can also do things like control music playback. Considering that Apple and Samsung have access to more resources than other recent smartwatch makers, it'll be interesting to see exactly what kind of products the two companies can cook up and what features that they'll include. What kind of functionality would a smartwatch need to have for you to consider buying it?

Via Engadget, Bloomberg, Reuters