LAS VEGAS-- It will likely be at least two months before the highly anticipated Apple Watch hits shelves, but at least one company has already made a knockoff.
In the back of one of the smaller halls at CES, a Chinese company was showing off fake Apple Watches. So, naturally, I bought one.
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The watch, created by Shenzhen-based Hyperdon is actually called "Smart Watch," and it almost looks like the real deal -- at least, upon first glance.
The watch's screen only displays when it's turned on, and many of its icons are blatant ripoffs of Apple designs. The pairing process took a few tries, but once connected to my iPhone 6, I was able to make phone calls and play music through the watch. It even vibrates when I get a call.
The Smart Watch also has a pedometer, stopwatch, alarm and something called "Anti lost." I wasn't sure how this feature worked, at first; it gives you the option to "enable" or "disable," but didn't appear to do anything. However, a fellow reporter pointed out that "Anti lost" likely alerts you when you get out of Bluetooth range.
There is also a messaging and notifier feature that helps you get notifications from WeChat and other apps, but it requires downloading a sketchy-looking APK that I don't think would work with an un-jailbroken iPhone.
The watch charges via a USB cable, and a Hyperdon representative claimed the battery life is "more than 180 hours," which I have not yet tested.
[img src="http://admin.mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/fake_chinese_apple_watch-8.jpg" caption="The booth selling the "Smart Watch."" credit="Mashable, Christina Ascani" alt="fake_chinese_apple_watch-8"]
Needless to say, the whole thing was more than a little suspicious. I had to pay cash, and when I returned from the ATM, the representative told me the watch's price was actually $30 -- not $27 as she said earlier. However, I managed to persuade her to sell it at the original "wholesale" price.
The representative, who did not remove her sunglasses the entire time we spoke, told me that Hyperdon sells its products at retail stores in the U.S and China, but did not elaborate on locations or types of stores.
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