A beautiful, Chinese-inspired electric kettle from a Japanese brand offers lovely precision, but a slow boil.

An elegant, traditional-looking electric kettle with precise temperature control and a well-designed spout. Sits handsomely on your counter. Plays you nifty little tunes.

I often like new-fangled things that look or act like old-fangled things. An infrared heater that looks like an old box amp of unknown origin? Silly retro-tech? Count me in.

But the new MoonKettle from Japanese brand Balmuda is something else altogether. The stainless steel MoonKettle is an elegant intersection of extremes: a hair-precise and quite modern digital electric kettle whose moony, loop-handled form looks nonetheless decidedly ancient.

Its makers have alternately said they were inspired by Yaoguan kettles forged among the five famous kilns of China, by old Japanese teacraft, or perhaps by the spirit of reverence itself. The MoonKettle is a little bit 19th-century cast iron, a little bit Yixing brass—and maybe a little bit third-wave coffee geek. The kettle offers ...