As anticipation of Apple's smartwatch launch reaches fever pitch, we've rounded up eight of the best, worst and funniest examples of what the iWatch probably won't look like.

Rumours that the tech giant will launch some kind of "iWatch" today have been fanned by the news that dozens of fashion editors and bloggers have been invited to its launch event, where it is also expected to unveil the iPhone 6.

This is being taken as a sign that the watch will be more than just a phone that straps to your wrist – a notion given further credence by the news that Marc Newson, an industrial designer with a big portfolio of watch and fashion products behind him, is joining Jony Ive's design team at Apple.

Other recent Apple hires include Angela Ahrendts, former CEO of Burberry and Paul Deneve, former CEO and president of Yves-Saint Laurent, suggesting there will be a strong fashion element to the product.

However this hasn't stopped professional and amateur designers around the world speculating on what the iWatch might look like. Here are some of our favourites:

Yrving Doveralba, founder of San Francisco-based interactive design firm Vene Studio, envisaged a see-through device with a wide screen and band that blend into each other. A lot of the designs feature curved screens of some sort.

A whole team led by Italian designer Federico Ciccarese came up with this concept, which looks like a stretched iPhone.

"We are collecting a lot of feedbacks and most of them said that it is cool, it has a look never seen before and is very fashion on top of all the tech features that will be available," said Ciccarese on his website.

Another concept moves away from the iPhone-on-a-strap idea, envisioning a classic pocket watch with the functionality of the iPod music player. It was designed by an anonymous artist known as Bern67 on arts forum Worth1000.com.

Zach King, a YouTuber specialising in tutorials for film editing, created a movie showing an iWatch concept that could project holograms.

King described the design as "a sneak peak into the future".

Bell and Ran Avni from Belm Designs revealed their concept on portfolio platform Behance after creating it for a competition.

They went for a traditional round face with a stretchable rubber-nylon mix strap that is perforated for "breathability" and a "Mag-Twist Lock" clasp.

The uni-body watch would be pressed from a single titanium disk and "CNC milled to perfection".

Jon Fawcett, founder of smartphone accessories business Fuse Chicken, has designed not one, but two iWatch concepts – one with a square face and an aesthetic based on the iPhone 5 including chamfered edges, a rigid two-piece strap and a black or white colour choice.

The second has a more traditional round face and rubber strap.

Martin Hajek, a 3D visualisation specialist, collaborated with Adam Banks of MacUser magazine to come up with this concept that features a chunky leather strap and rectangular face with a curved surface to follow the form of the wrist. "I added some colour, simplified the design and basically turned it into an iPhone 5C for around your wrist," said Hajek.

And finally, American graphic designer Dave Heinzel took it all back to basics with this: