NBD, but there is a robotic manicurist in the LinkedIn office building

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Between wasting time, money, and awkward small talk, nail extensions are not on my list of favorite things to do. I never mastered the art of manicure with my own hands.

But is it possible to get a decent manicure and negate the reasons why I haven’t done it in over five years?

To try and answer this question, I headed to the LinkedIn office building in SoMa, where I heard rumors of a robot doing manicures in the lobby.

The rumors are true.

The high-rise building at 222 Second Street is home to the social media company LinkedIn, but its ground floor also serves as a POPOS, or private and serviced space free for the public to use. This POPOS boasts plenty of seating and tables, art by Frank Stella, free Wi-Fi, and now, apparently, this robotic manicurist.

The Clockwork MiniCure station is hard to miss. While the self-promoted “manicurist” looks more like a printer or a coffee machine at first glance, the flashy signs surrounding him with jokes like “10 nails, 10 minutes, 10 bucks” almost beg you to challenge his offer of convenience.

So I did.

How it works

The booking process does not involve any human contact. You simply scan the QR code, select your preferred time slot on the website, and wait. When the time is right, you sit in a chair facing the car and confirm on its touch screen that you are ready to start. Luckily, I was able to arrange an appointment within 15 minutes of arriving, given that there was not a single person nearby who was even slightly interested.

I started to wonder if I got the scoop for some hidden gem, or if there was a very legitimate reason I was able to get the seat with such ease.

Once in the chair, you’ll see an eye-level touch screen that guides you through the entire process, from choosing one of 30 robot color options to telling you to stop fidgeting.

Your nails are fixed into the palm rest one at a time, and after a brief second as the machine scans the size and shape of the nail, the polish spreads out – first tracing the outline of your nail and filling it in from there.

How it was

Just like a human trying to endure a phone call with a robotic operator, a non-human manicurist created annoying factors that simply could not be reflected in a real person.

Its main drawback, which can be called both a plus and a minus, is how sensitive it is to movements, even the smallest ones. On the one hand, I understand programming in this extra precaution – and I admit that I’m not very good at sitting still. However, the fact that I adjusted the wedges with my free hand probably would not have bothered the human master as much as a machine.

As a result, my manicure took at least 10 minutes; I often used his offer of unlimited repetition. I finished closer to the 20-minute mark, which is how much time you have allotted for the meeting.

While it was faster than what I could do myself, it was about the quality of a homemade manicure, plus an extra $10 fee and the extreme awkwardness of being pampered in public.

LinkedIn and Clockwork were contacted for comment about the manicurist robot, but neither responded in time to post.

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