In an era or smartwatches and fitness bands, it is hard to imagine that a lo-fi product can still attract attention. Dork Too is an exception. Made by the Californian company Nixon, we have been wearing this watch for the last two weeks, piquing the interest of friends, colleagues and, on two occasions, passers-by. After all, it has a very original look. The square perforated metal case and the small liquid crystal display which shows the time seem made deliberately to attract attention.

This lo-fi design draws from two differing but complimentary sources of inspiration. One the one hand it is inspired by old-style answering machines, those with the mini-cassettes which recorded our messages when we were away from home and there was no such thing as a smartphone. The first Dork, which came out ten years ago, had the same influences, but this new version has a cleaner and more sculpted shape, the 34-millimetre speaker is larger, and it stands out further from the wrist. The numbers have become smaller, almost ancillary compared to the speaker. On the other hand, above all in the gold version (there are also black, steel grey and rose gold models available), Dork Too harks back to the angular lines of the 1980s, when the hip-hop movement was emerging from the Bronx to conquer the world, and Boomboxes were the “poor man’s CNN”.

As well as the aesthetics, it also hides an interesting function. That part of the case not only looks like a speaker, it is one. With a press of the button located next to the display, the watch speaks the time and date with that hoarse and metallic voice typical of answering machines. Dork Too shows it is a product of its times. It is charged via micro USB, a port which the old machines never even dreamed of. Lastly, it is very affordable, already available on the company’s website at a price of 160 euros.