We really, really hope that this doesn’t give Apple any ideas. iPhones are expensive enough as it is. Apple’s chief design officer, Sir Jony Ive, has come up with something a little… different — a diamond ring made completely from diamond. None of that pesky gold or platinum involved at all.

The only actual diamond ring we’ve seen is the creation of Sir Ive and industrial designer Marc Newson, made to support the (RED) charity. You might remember that Apple launched a red (RED) iPhone for the past couple of years, in support of the same charity. This item though, is rather special — a made-to-order diamond ring that will be auctioned by Sothebys. The proceeds go to the (RED) charity and the ring is expected to fetch between $150,000 and $250,000 (R2mil to R4mil).

Rings like this don’t grow on trees, though. They’re created by a company called Diamond Foundry, which specialises in making diamonds rather than digging them up the old-fashioned way. Much easier. It also makes fitting easier, in that it’ll be cut to size for the winning bidder. As for what the ring entails, this is part of the description from the Sothebys entry for the unusual jewellery:

Creating a ring-shaped diamond is no small feat; the diamond block will be faceted with several thousand facets, some of which are as small as several hundred micrometers. The interior ring will be cylindrically cut out for the desired smoothness using a micrometer thick water jet inside which a laser beam is cast. The finished ring will have between 2000-3000 facets which has never been seen before on a single piece.

If you have between R2 million and R3.6 million to spare, you can take a crack at bidding on a literal diamond ring. The auction takes place in Miami on 5 December, so make sure your private jet is fuelled and ready. Also, can we borrow enough money to buy a small island, please?

Source: Sothebys