Chinese internet giant Tencent have released a smartwatch that bears a striking resemblance to the Apple Watch.
The Da Q Xiao Meng Watch features a rectangular screen with curved corners and a wide watch band just like Apple’s signature smartwatch.
It is jointly developed by Tencent Games and a Beijing-based technology company called Da Q.
The watch is now available for reservation on daq.cn for RMB999, or HK$1,209, with at least three colours to choose from.
It boasts a sapphire screen “as bright and beautiful as moonlight on a lake.”
Its main target audience is women.
Users will be able to make phone calls and send text messages on the Da Q Xiao Meng Watch. It can also be used to monitor workouts and diets. Other features of the watch include a two-million-pixel camera, bluetooth, WIFI and GPS.
The watch was designed especially to accommodate a Candy Crush-like game developed by Tencent, according to mainland technology media ifanr.com.
The website quoted Da Q co-founder Zheng Lin as saying the company copied Apple Watch’s appearance because it looks better.
“We did a test – a rectangular shape looks better than a round shape. [We] found that if it doesn’t look like Apple Watch, it looks ugly… Apple defined the aesthetic trend, everyone else follows. The trend is set by market leaders,” Zheng said.
The website says over 235,000 people have made a reservation to buy the watch. Sales will open at 10am on August 25.
HKFP has reached out to both Tencent and Apple for comment.
Update: A previous version of this article wrongly included images of another smartwatch, the Q Watch Run.
