Caviar has already reimagined Apple’s first foldable iPhone, transforming the clean $1,999 iPhone Duo into a $15,990 tribute to Steve Jobs. Limited to just nine pieces, the “Jobs” edition replaces Apple’s understated finish with polished titanium, intricate guilloché engraving and what Caviar claims is a genuine fragment of Jobs’ famous black turtleneck.
The design is built around contrast. A glossy black central panel, made from PVD-coated titanium, evokes the turtleneck and serves as a dark backdrop for a three-dimensional Apple logo. The fabric fragment sits inside the logo itself, turning familiar branding into a miniature display case. Below it, Caviar adds the words “50 Anniversary Edition” and an engraved reproduction of Jobs’ signature. It is less a smartphone back panel and more a wearable corporate monument.
Above this black slab sits a polished titanium camera bar covered in concentric guilloché patterns. Its jewelry-like texture frames the two lenses and accompanying sensors, while the bright metal continues around the body. The treatment makes the Duo appear heavier and more architectural than Apple’s original design. It also competes visually with the hinge, creating several stacked borders that emphasize the phone’s mechanical construction rather than trying to disguise it.
Caviar leaves the internal hardware untouched. Buyers still receive the 5.4-inch exterior Super Retina XDR display and the 7.6-inch folding screen found on the standard iPhone Duo. The real upgrade is theatrical: the phone arrives inside a lockable case with 24-karat gold plating, accompanied by a leather-and-wood presentation box, a gold-plated Caviar coin and a personalized certificate of authenticity.
At almost eight times the standard Duo’s price, this edition makes little sense as conventional consumer electronics. Its appeal lies in treating Apple history as luxury memorabilia. The result is visually excessive and far removed from Jobs’ minimalist philosophy, but that contradiction is also what makes it interesting: a restrained black turtleneck has inspired one of the most extravagant iPhones imaginable.
via Yanko Design