UK designer creates diamond-studded iPhone for £5 million
18 Oct 2010
Stuart Hughes, the Liverpudlian maker of stunning and expensive gadgets, is at it again. His golden iPad was worth £130,000, and followed a gold Nintendo Wii which cost £300,000. And a year go he produced a gold and diamond-studded iPhone 3GS carrying a £2-million price tag.
Huges has excelled his earlier creations with the latest generation iPhone studded with £5 million worth of diamonds including two massive swappable stones which rest on the home button. While one is a 7.4 carat pink diamond the other is an 8 carat single cut flawless diamond.
Diamonds are also encrusted all the way around the edge of the iPhone. According to reports in the Daily Mail newspaper, Huges has now been commissioned to produce two of these for an ultra-wealthy Australian businessman. The £2 million 3GS was also commissioned for a rich Australian it is said.
The iPhone 4 Diamond Rose edition is hand made with the total material cost alone estimated at around £4 million and carries a £5-million price tag. The phone is coloured pink and comes with a matching chest to house it.
The phone can also be purchased online though who would order something that expensive and pay for it via credit card (and expect it to be delivered by insured couries) remains a moot question.
It may be pertinent to note that Hughes does repackage other luxury products including such items as televisions, iPad, laptops, MP3 players, watches, Hi-fi music systems and gaming consoles like the £300K Nintendo Wii Supreme.
The problem however is that the gadgets themselves become obsolete within months and that there is easy way of recycling the precious stones and metals.
Also given the fact that it takes at least six months to design and craft these oeuvres d'art makes it impossible to scale up on turnover.
