Real, 2-Way Dick Tracy Radio Watch Exists and It’s Gorgeous

The timepiece will go on sale this December, after receiving support from backers on IndieGoGo. The plan was to make a limited edition of the Dick Tracy watch, but given the interest, chances are more than the 1,000 units initially planned will be made.

The watch in the comic strip series worked as a timepiece and a 2-way radio. The real one (which is a licensed item, by the way) does the same, while adding an extra, third feature: it looks incredibly cool.

So, with it, you get a piece that tells the time, that can place calls when paired with your smartphone, and that looks gorgeous. Visually, it’s the exact piece as in the comics, so you get a vintage-style watch with leather strap, a stainless steel body and sapphire crystal face, and a mesh grill that covers the speaker.

The watch is made by Longio and it includes a button that activates your phone’s voice assistant, which, in turn, allows you to conduct calls from it. It will be just like you’re Dick Tracy – minus the crime-solving and all that.

“Since we were kids, we’ve wanted the real Dick Tracy watch, but no one ever made it,” Nick Mathis tells Digital Trends. “Even during the excitement of the smartwatch boom, each new wearable was exciting and awesome, [but] also a bit of a letdown.”

“So in 2015, I got to making my own Dick Tracy watch in my workshop — at the time, an apartment closet — using Fusion 360, a desktop CNC machine, and 3D printing through Shapeways. After posting pictures online, emails began to steadily flood my inbox asking to buy it. A person even offer $5,000 if I’d make him one!” Mathis adds.