Although no one is really sure when the iWatch will be released by Apple, or if it will be called that, we can speculate that its coming out within the next 12 months.

One of Apple’s recently discovered patents is for a special pedometer built into a watch. With this pedometer, Apple could differentiate between different types of arm movements to effectively tell how many calories its user is losing throughout the day.

Credits: Cult of Mac

Credits: Cult of Mac

Unlike pedometers that are attached to the hip, the iWatch pedometer would be much more accurate.

This technology may be implemented in the iWatch 1st generation, but it’s more likely that we will see it in the 2nd generation. Apple loves to hold back features as a way to “drip” reasons to buy updated devices each year; instead of just blasting you with all the technology they’ve got.

For geeks interested in learning more about the Pedometer patent, it’s called the Wrist Pedometer Step Detection and it was filed in September 2012.