Rumor: The cellular LG G Watch might actually be a real thing, but only in Korea

Citing “industry sources,” a super sketchy report from Korean publication iNews24 was posted at the end of May claiming that the upcoming LG G Watch could be shipping with a built-in, unremovable SIM Card. Other publications ran with this rumor, saying that it was truly possible despite the obvious skepticism that an Android Wear watch would have cellular capabilities. But we’ve unearthed some more information, potentially bringing a bit of credence to this wild rumor.

After said report started spreading across the Internet, we searched for the truth and uncovered FCC documents providing some evidence that the device will not be shipping with any cellular capabilities — at least not in the US, and not yet. These FCC filings were for a device labeled as ZNF-W100 (which likely just stands for  “watch” 100, with ZNF being the manufacturer’s code: LG).

But what we didn’t consider is that there might be more than one model. The FCC filing in the US shows no evidence of the W100 model touting a cellular radio, but what if there’s another model?

Enter the LG G Watch W105.

We were first tipped of this device being in existence by the person behind the @upleaks Twitter account, which is also the person who leaked the full LG G Watch firmware, posted specs for the device, and even shared photos of its back panel (which proved our suspicion that the G Watch is indeed the “W100” device in the FCC’s database).

The anonymous tipster let us know that there is a cellular version of the G Watch coming to Korea and that he or she actually has a copy of the firmware (which we haven’t yet been able to get our hands on). The source confirmed that there is in fact a cellular model of the G Watch, “for Korea LG-W105S/K/L.”

So according to this Chinese source — who allegedly has the non-cellular G Watch in-hand before launch, has leaked what is almost surely the device’s full firmware to the internet, and claims to also have the firmware of the cellular version of the device — the LG G Watch will be available in a cellular model that will ship in Korea at some point.

A little more digging lead us to a super, super sketchy Korean website which posted on May 16th a listing the LG W105 as a “3G phone” and embedded an image of what looks to be a filing with the Korean equivalent of the FCC — the RRA (Radio Research Agency). With a bit more digging, we were able to confirm that this document, labeled as a “certification” by the Korean website, exists on the RRA’s official website.

Upon finding this Korean RRA certification document, we once again checked the FCC database. A search for the LG W105 on this side of the Pacific turned up exactly zero results.

Take it for what it is, but a Korean publication originally reported it, another sketchy Korean site seemingly pointed out the RRA filing, and an RRA filing does in fact exist for an LG W105 device — and all signs point to it being a cellular version of the G Watch.

Obviously absolutely none of this is truly reliable, but it’s evidence for evidence’s sake that the LG G Watch may — at least in Korea — be launching in a cellular model at some point. Beyond these rumors, though, we expect to see more information about the US model G Watch at Google’s I/O developer conference later this month, and a launch soon thereafter.