This case turns your Apple Watch into a tiny iPod

If you’ve been feeling nostalgic for your old iPod lately, well, I have great news. TinyPod is a case you put on your Apple Watch — sans strap — so you can hold it and use it like your favorite vintage MP3 player. A $79 version includes a scroll wheel, which physically turns the watch’s digital crown. For $29, you can get a case without the scroll wheel and with a cutout so you can access the digital crown directly.

But TinyPod could be more than just a way to turn your watch into a cute media player — it’s designed to make your watch a more capable companion to your phone. Recently, we’ve seen all kinds of gadgets and minimalist phones that promise to help you disconnect while still keeping you connected to the essentials. But largely, they’re too underpowered, fiddly, or just not smart enough to be useful, and the smartphone as we know it remains undefeated.

That’s why the TinyPod’s “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” stance is so appealing. It’s not a replacement for your phone, it’s designed to be “your phone away from phone,” as the company calls it. And although you can put any old Apple Watch in the case, the concept makes the most sense with a cellular model. Leave your phone behind while you maintain access to the essentials like messaging, calls, mobile payments, and music playback — the minimalist phone dream.

If this all rings a bell, you might be thinking of the concept for an iPod Nano-inspired watch case designed by Joyce Kang that surfaced a few years ago. Despite claims that it was “coming soon,” it doesn’t appear that the case ever made it to market. Kang’s case was more of an exercise in nostalgia, too, since the scroll wheel was nonfunctional.