This suspected Apple Watch prototype is disguised as a tiny iPod

Is this an actual prototype Apple Watch in one of those covert “security cases” that companies sometimes use when they’re testing gadgets in broad daylight? We can’t say.

Either way, this tiny iPod is perversely adorable — and quite the in-joke if it’s real.

You see, the sixth-generation iPod nano inspired quite a few people to try using the tiny square as a watch, including The Verge’s own editor-in-chief Nilay Patel. (Note: this was a decade ago.) When the Apple Watch actually came out, some designers flipped the idea on its head with iPod-shaped shells for the Apple Watch, some of which you could actually buy.

And this April, we learned that the very first Apple Watch prototype actually was an iPod nano strapped to a wristband. Apple had been along for the ride all this time.

So if these photos are legit and current, the joke’s still alive and well inside Apple HQ — and we’re looking at an homage, of sorts, to the original.