Hendrick’s, yes, the gin company, launches wacky smart speaker

I bet your smart speaker doesn’t have a martini glass holder. 

Hendrick’s, a company known primarily for producing gin, is seeking to remedy that with Horatio — a smart, voice-activated speaker with a design like no other speaker on the market.

Horatio is made out of brass, copper, and leather, and looks like something out of a steampunk novel. Each one is unique (created by two American artists, Hendrick’s says). It’s utterly weird and quite cool, though it certainly isn’t for everyone.

The company didn’t really share many details about the speaker’s technical side, except for the fact that it responds in a “delightful British accent.” But here’s the kicker: the speaker won’t actually respond to your queries in a meaningful way. “Horatio is a far-more sophisticated device that’s utterly independent of anything you may ask of it – indeed, you never know exactly what Horatio may say,” the company said in a press release. I guess you can forget about getting Horatio to play your favorite Spotify tune. 

Horatio costs $1,113 per unit, and only five have been created. You can try to purchase it here — it appeared to be available at writing time, but who knows who long those extremely tiny supplies will last. 

Horatio is an obvious marketing ploy for Hendrick’s, but it does gets points for being different and pretty nicely designed. The company claims other unusual gadgets will follow, so… keep an eye out, I guess?