Behold Jony Ive's wild all-diamond ring of many sparkles
Apple's departing designer teamed with Marc Newson to make the world's craziest diamond ring, and you can finally see it.
In the history of things that are magically sparkly, the all-diamond (RED) Ring will stand proudly alongside unicorns and Elton John's platform shoes.
Apple 's departing Chief Design Officer Jony Ive and industrial designer Marc Newson (who has also been on team Apple) joined with gemstone manufacturer Diamond Foundry to create the ring for a (RED) charity auction through Sotheby's in 2018. The auction raised funds for HIV/AIDS programs in Africa and in Chicago, and the ring alone pulled in $256,250 from an anonymous buyer.
It's been almost a year since the auction and Diamond Foundry released images of the finished ring, which had to be grown in a lab, painstakingly cut and then polished. The raw stone started out as a 45-carat behemoth.
"Thanks to their team of master cutters, the rough diamond was cylindrically cut into an all-diamond ring, using a micrometer-sized water jet, inside which a laser beam is cast," Diamond Foundry said in a release.
The finished ring has somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 facets. The photos do a good job highlighting these facets, but the ring is a true glitter-fest when light bounces off the cuts.
"A project of this size and quality would not have been possible using a mined diamond," said Diamond Foundry CEO Martin Roscheisen.
The (RED) Ring doesn't need gold, silver or platinum to stand out.
Ive is departing from Apple this year to form an independent design firm with Apple as a primary client. (He's still listed as chief design officer on the Apple site.) The ring adds a nice bit of luster to his resume.
Now Pink Floyd should get back together. We need a new song called Shine On You Crazy All-Diamond Ring.
