Goodbye, dirt-cheap manicures: San Francisco nail-painting robot company Clockwork (opens in new tab) is shutting down its machines amid a merger with another firm in the space.
Tuesday is the last day to get one of Clockwork’s $10, 10-minute “minicures,” the company said in an email to customers.
“While this may be goodbye for now, it’s also a new beginning,” the email said, adding that the firm will “join forces” with another robot nail company, 10Beauty (opens in new tab), and “the technology behind Clockwork will live on.”
Clockwork began testing its nail-painting robot in 2021 in the Marina and has since launched 22 machines across the country, including two in San Francisco. As recently as last summer, the company had expansion ambitions: CEO Renuka Apte told The Standard in late July that it had nearly 70 machines in contract to be deployed.
10Beauty’s website says its machine, which doesn’t appear to be available publicly yet, will take care of “cuticle management,” as well as nail shaping, filing, and polishing. Clockwork’s machines could only apply polish, though Apte said other services were in the works.
Clockwork is far from the first consumer robotics firm to fizzle out in the Bay Area. Robot-powered coffee shop Cafe X closed three locations in 2020, (opens in new tab) and food companies Eatsa and Zume (opens in new tab)flopped too.
Clockwork did not respond to a request for comment.