Patent filings in the U.S. and South Korea have revealed Samsung's plan to make a smart watch with flexible screens, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The trademark filing with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), dated July 29, said the new device is called "Galaxy Gear."

Samsung said the trademark is for "wearable digital electronic devices in the form of a wristwatch, wrist band or bangle capable of providing access to the Internet and for sending and receiving phone calls, electronic mails and messages."

The flexible screens feature came from a filing in the Korean Intellectual Property Office in late May.

"This design is of a body made of flexible displays and elastic materials that can be used while wrapped around a wrist or flattened out," the patent filing said.

A lot of chatter has surrounded smart watches of late after Apple filed a patent in Tokyo for the term "iWatch" and since Sony unveiled its own model in June for the Android operating system.

Sony's latest smart watch is actually its second, simply dubbed "Smartwatch 2," but Apple and Samsung, the two smartphone giants and bitter rivals, have yet to officially jump into the wearable computing device arena.

The main obstacles facing Samsung in the development of the "Galaxy Gear" will be the flexible screen and the battery. These challenges will likely keep the phone off the market through the end of the year.

Park Sang-jin, chief executive of Samsung SDI Co., which supplies batteries for Samsung's Galaxy smartphones, said a battery able to bend and flatten itself out will not be available for another few years. He did say a battery with a slight curve to it could be available around the second quarter.

Samsung has separately hinted at the release of its next phablet (phone + tablet) in the Galaxy Note line. The event is called "Samsung Unpacked 2013 Episode 2" and arrived with the message: "Note The Date 04.09.2013 Berlin."