LG will launch its first smartwatch in 2014, the head of its mobile unit has said.
The move taps into the nascent market for wearable devices seen as the mobile industry's new source of growth.
The announcement from the South Korean smartphone maker came after industry leader Samsung on Sunday launched the second generation of its own internet-enabled smartwatch, the Gear 2.
"We are working on the development of wearable device... more specifically in the form of a watch," Park Jong-Seok, the CEO of LG Electronics' mobile unit, told reporters.
"(It) will come out this year," he said, adding the watch would be remotely linked to smartphones.
"We're working hard to put on the table something that other companies have not offered yet," Park said.
LG - the world's fourth-largest smartphone maker - has not yet entered the market for wearable devices currently dominated by firms like Samsung, Sony and Pebble.
Rising Chinese smartphone maker Huawei has also unveiled a connected watch called TalkBand to rival Gear 2. A typical smartwatch allows users to make calls, receive texts and emails, take photos and access apps.
So far, few companies have managed to generate large consumer excitement or sales in the market. Apple is believed to be set to launch its own smartwatch soon, while Google is moving towards a wider consumer launch of its internet-enabled eyewear Glass later this year.
Though smartphone sales surged 42.4 per cent to 968 million units last year, according to Gartner, the growth came from developing markets such as Latin America, India and China, while mature markets such as western Europe and the United States hit the brakes.
Meanwhile, global smartwatch sales are expected to grow this year by more than 500 per cent from 1.9 million units in 2013 and to expand further in coming years, according to the market researcher Strategy Analytics.
