If there exists a platonic ideal for the perfect hourglass, it might look like the new timepiece from Apple designer Marc Newson for HODINKEE.Though it blurs the border between art and design, the hourglass's most arresting feature, for most, is its whopping price tag: $12,000. Available in a limited edition of 100, the hand-sculpted borosilicate glass body doesn't measure 10-minute spans with anything so plebeian as sand. Instead, it uses 1,249,996 copper-coated stainless steel ball bearings called "nanoballs." The orifice between top and bottom must be sculpted by hand, because measuring instruments interfere with the process. Everything is seamless so the glass will never get scratched. "On one hand, you're witnessing time. But on the other hand, it's completely sort of timeless, and it actually if anything focuses your attention on the opposite of time, if that makes any sense," Newson says in the video below.
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The Sydney-born, London-based, 53-year-old designer includes a leather coaster and white gloves with his design's packaging. Like artwork in a gallery, the hourglass is not supposed to be touched. For context, Apple's discontinued gold smart watches ran for $10,000.
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