The only Apple Watch accessory at CES is an unfinished prototype

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Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
Photo: Jim Merithew/Cult of Mac
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LAS VEGAS — In a sea of iPhone cases and other Apple-related gizmos, one would expect to find at least a few Apple Watch accessories at CES.

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Sure, the Watch itself won’t come out for probably a few more months, but we already know what it looks like and a lot about how its apps will work. Where are the companies looking to hitch their wagons to Apple’s next big thing?

Out of the 3,679 exhibitors spread across the 2.06 million square feet of show floor at International CES this year, there is only one Apple Watch accessory, and it’s an unfinished prototype.

The guys at Standzout are showing a prototype of their upcoming Bandstand dock for the Apple Watch. It’s still very much a work in progress, mainly because they have no idea how the Watch’s inductive charger actually works. (Apple employees roaming the show floor will only go so far as to call their proprietary charger a “puck.”)

When finished, the Bandstand will let you set the Watch on Apple’s inductive puck and snake the cable under its metallic frame. Beneath the stand is a couple of additional USB ports for charging an iPhone and iPad as well.

The Bandstand was dreamt up the very night of Apple’s Watch unveiling in September, Standzout told Cult of Mac. Apple has said that the Watch will need to be charged every day, so Standzout wanted to make a charging solution that was easy to use and aesthetically pleasing.

The look of the dock are still a little rough, and Standzout won’t be able to finalize the design until it knows more hardware specifications. Nothing has been released beyond the promotional materials on Apple’s website.

Other accessory makers Cult of Mac spoke with are hesitant to even experiment with ideas for the Apple Watch, mainly because so little is known about how it will actually work. Will there be a slew of Watch-related accessories at CES next year? Probably. But for now, Standzout is a lone wolf taking a stab in the dark.

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