Watch phone-maker Jicen Hitech has signed a memorandum of understanding with Huaian City in China‘s Jiangsu province to provide 50,000 units of the smart wearable device, the Korean company officials said Monday.

Under the agreement reached on July 14, the Korean company will establish a joint venture firm with China’s Unicom and the city. The city will provide the construction site and bear the set-up costs for the new firm while Jicen will supply the technology.

The company said it had successfully developed smartwatch-phone “Watch Roid” that has overcome limitations posed by devices currently sold in the smartphone market.

Jicen is currently recruiting employees to run regional retail stores in Korea, as Watch Roid is scheduled for launch in Korea this month.

Jicen expressed confidence in sales in Korea and China, saying the new device passed quality tests by the Korea Communication Commission’s Radio Research Laboratory in May.

The global wearable device market is expanding at a fast pace. Global IT consulting firm Gartner predicts that some 66 million smart watch phones will be sold by 2017, twice last year’s sales.

Jicen officials said Watch Roid incorporates all three smartphone functions: phone calls, use of the Internet and color apps. These functions have been absent in smartwatch-phones released so far in the market, they added.

By Kim Bo-gyung (lisakim425@heraldcorp.com)