Apple’s wireless AirPods earphones have been one of the company’s most surprising hits over the past few years, helping its wearables category growbeyond the Apple Watch. But one Los Angeles-based designer thinks the white plastic earbuds could stand to be fancier, so he’s blinging them out with a few upgrades: 1,000 tiny diamonds, white gold coating, and a custom marble stand for display and charging. The cost: a cool $20,000.
Ian DeLucca’s Object No. 1 AirPods are part of his “New Materialism” series, focused on spotlighting the intersection of art and commerce. Twenty-five pairs of the earphones are being made with diamonds that are said to be VVS1-quality, and naturally mined rather than manufactured. Each white gold pair gets inscribed with its creation date and an edition number.
Read more about the diamond-encrusted AirPods on the Venture Beat website HERE
