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April 16, 2013

A Not So Average 'Joe' Commissions $15M Diamond iPhone

By Nicole Spector, Contributing Writer

Diamonds are a girl's best friend, right?

Slap an iPhone (News - Alert) in the mix, and they're also a guy's.



At least that's what a businessman from Hong Kong – who simply goes by “Joe” – suggests. The man just commissioned the British designer Stuart Hughes (News - Alert) to create a diamond-encrusted iPhone 5.

How much did this glittering one-of-a-kind smartphone retail for? $15 million. For that price, it had better be this guy's best friend!

Joe had a very specific, even sentimental vision for his glitzy endeavor. He wanted to use a huge 26-carat Black diamond – a family heirloom – as the home button for his dream smartphone.

But Joe didn't stop there. He also requested that Hughes plant 600 white diamonds around the outer edge of the smartphone, along what appears to be solid gold.

This isn't the first we've heard of people taking to their gadgets to showcase extravagant gems. The British luxury mobile phone manufacture, Vertu, released “Vertu Signature Black & White Diamonds” back in 2007. The phone featured 644 brilliantly cut white diamonds and 428 brilliant cut black diamonds, encrusted into its case and keys. It retailed for over $80,000.  

There's also Goldvish, a Swiss manufacturer of premium luxury mobile phones, which introduced its “million-dollar cellphone” in 2006. The phone featured a quad-band handset, 120 carats worth of VVS-1-grade diamonds, as well as (then not so standard) Bluetooth, camera, MP3 playback, FM radio, a 2GB memory card and an EDGE connection. 

It's a strange, almost chilling phenomenon – that historical items of great sentimental value (and not to mention uncanny monetary worth) becomes a part of one's technological assets. But there’s something undoubtedly honest about it. What do we really get more use out of? What do we touch, see and rely on most? Grammy's bejweled monocle, or our iPhone? 

Still, one may wonder: What is Joe going to do when the iPhone 6 comes out, and so on?

Hopefully, Stuart Hughes will have some good ideas – and some excellent skills transferring those babies.




Edited by Braden Becker
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