While you're busy imagining a world where you can sync your Apple Watch to your 3G-enabled dress, scientists are busy coming up with more prosaic innovations in the world of wearable tech. Namely, how the hell you're going to wash a garment that contains a circuit board.

Engineers from the Institute of Textiles and Clothing in Hong Kong have invented the solution: a textile with knit-in electrical wiring that can be worn, washed, folded and even shot through with bullets. The fabric circuit board (FCB) is made of pre-stretched elastic yarn and polyurethane-coated copper fibres.

The researchers literally put the material through the washer. After testing it for regular wear and tear, they washed and dried 30 samples in a conventional washing machine 30 times. The electrical capabilities of the textile only dropped in six samples, though WIRED reports they were able to reduce that by using a protective mesh wash bag or putting the samples through a more delicate spin cycle. The fabric can even be sewn into bulletproof Kevlar vests and sustain repeated bullet shots without losing any functionality.

Its inventors believe that the fabric circuit will have handy applications in law enforcement or the military – imagine a set of bio-monitoring army fatigues that can withstand a conflict zone. We're more excited about wearable tech finally becoming washable – let's face it, nobody wants to wear a dirty pair of jeans, even if they do have a mini-computer in them.

Now all we need is somebody at Apple to invent a smartphone that survives the spin cycle.

You can watch the fabric circuit in action below, courtesy of New Scientist: