As technology has advanced over the years, our devices have become smaller and smaller, to the point where some of them are now invisible.
iPhones became thinner, music moved from shelves to a cloud, and cameras became a built-in digital app. Yet the interest in records, cassettes, film photography, and vinyl music players is on the rise, bringing back the pleasure of buttons, dials, and mechanisms.
The rise of luxury retro technology
The retro revival
The return of analogue is no longer quite the niche pursuit preserved for auction addicts and nostalgia chasers. In 2025, US vinyl sales passed $1bn for the first time this century, marking the format’s 19th consecutive year of growth. Even the CD is finding its way back into play: in the first half of 2026, CD revenue in the US jumped 58.6 percent year-on-year to over $171m, while vinyl revenue rose almost 18 percent to $543.8m. Other physical formats, including cassettes, grew by almost 45 percent.
But it’s not just our listening habits that are moving backwards. Film photography and instant cameras are enjoying renewed attention, while dedicated listening rooms are becoming the focal point of some of the world’s more considered spaces. Valentino opened a vinyl-focused listening room at its Madison Avenue flagship in 2025, while Louis Vuitton put a listening room at the centre of its Fall-Winter 2026 men’s show.
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The analogue escape
At a time when almost any song, film, or photograph can be summoned instantly, the appeal of analogue might seem curious. But the more technology has made access effortless, the more appealing the ceremony of getting there can become.
As Eloise Skinner, an author and psychotherapist, explains, there is a psychological logic to the shift. “A key factor could be the current pace of change, which can feel overwhelming for many people.” Turning towards analogue technology, she says, “can be a way to find stability and feel more grounded.”
As AI continues to change the nature of work and accelerate an already relentless cycle of technological advancement, an old-fashioned piece of equipment can offer a welcome sense of simplicity. Nostalgia plays a role, too. Surrounding ourselves with objects that represent an earlier time can make us feel “more anchored” and provide “a sense of structure”, Skinner says.Then there is the pleasure of simply stepping away from the screen. “Since we’re spending so much of our lives staring at a screen, it can feel refreshing to switch up our routines and products for something more tactile,” she explains. Using analogue technology “can also make us feel more present” because it necessarily slows us down. You cannot scroll past a record. You cannot swipe a photograph into existence. You have to do something.
A new life for old technology
Luxury, naturally, has no interest in simply bringing back yesterday’s gadgets. Instead, it is taking what made them satisfying in the first place – their physicality, mechanics, and distinctive design – and making those qualities desirable all over again.
Louis Vuitton’s record player, for example, retains the ritual of vinyl listening but turns the turntable into a sculptural object made from high-polished marble. Its pinball machine applies the same thinking to another bygone pastime, with the arcade classic turned into a piece of furniture you’re not ashamed to hide in a games room.
Elsewhere, brands are updating the technology itself. Leica combines the pleasure of an instant print with digital functionality, while Astell&Kern makes high-end personal music players that recall the dedicated listening devices of the pre-streaming era. The Girard-Perregaux Casquette 2.0 when originally launched in 1976 was designed as a vision of the future, now its angular LED display reads as unmistakably retro, but has been recast in titanium and gold for today.
The point is not to pretend it’s 1976 again. It is to take the best parts of that era – the physicality, mechanics, and ceremony – and give them another life. Skinner expects the divide to become more pronounced, with some people embracing every new technological development while others deliberately pursue “offline-focused habits and lifestyles”.
Luxury can accommodate both. The future may be digital, but there is still something satisfying about an object that clicks, whirs, glows, or spins – particularly when someone has made it beautifully enough to keep.
