Samsung’s mobile portfolio is already crowded with wrist-worn wearables, including the Galaxy Gear, Gear 2, Gear 2 Neo, Gear Fit. Yet now there’s a rumor afloat that it’s adding another smartwatch to its arsenal: the Gear Solo.

A report from the Korea Herald says that Samsung is developing a smartwatch with its own integrated Universal Subscriber Identity Module, or IM. This would allow users to make receive phone calls without having to pair the watch with a smartphone. In essence, the Gear Solo would fully realize the Dick Tracy scenario that Samsung portrays in its TV commercial.

Apparently, Samsung has already filed a patent with the Korean Intellectual operty Office for the Gear Solo name. Of course, Gear Solo may not become the official name of the device in question—assuming the device is ever released. Nonetheless, Samsung’s purported plan to move forward with a stalone phone-watch is particularly interesting considering that most of the world’s smartwatches require phone tethering for features like weather updates message notifications. 

The Gear Solo rumor provokes a couple of questions. For starters: How would carriers hle a separate line for the smartwatch? After all, no smartwatch could obviate the need for a full-fledged smartphone, so consumers would want to have two devices on one single bill somehow. No one is going to pay for two separate wireless plans in this day age.

Or is the rumor just a calculated ploy to get ’s Android ar out of the spotlight as Samsung’s Gear 2 Gear 2 Neo prepare to go on sale? Either way, there’s a lot of competition coming to the wearables space, it’s likely some company will figure out how to have a stalone smartwatch sooner or later.

Burg ne are going down this route, but they have nowhere near the carrier experience or br cachet of Samsung.