$19,000 iPhone 16 is meteor-encrusted and houses a working mechanical watch

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Got $19,000 to spend on your iPhone 16 Pro Max upgrade? You won't find THIS in your local Apple Store

Animation showing close-ups of the Caviar iPhone 16 Parade of the Planets Golden
(Image credit: Caviar)

Looking for the best iPhone – or rather the most 'extra' iPhone – money can buy? Luxury tech outfit Caviar has got you covered. Its custom iPhones range from gaudy examples dripping in diamonds – literally – to more tasteful, minimalist offerings. But if I were to remortgage my life and spend $19,000 on a custom iPhone, I'd be looking to pick up the most ostentatious custom build available. 

This is why Caviar's meteor-encrusted iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max (iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max also available) caught my eye. Dubbed 'Parade of the Planets Golden', this exuberant slice of tech is encrusted with six stones, formed from meteorites – one from Mars itself. 

The body is made from space-grade titanium and features double-gold plating, while you'll also find 18-carat gold inserts and an engraved quote from Albert Einstein. 

The center represents Earth and features a working mechanical watch  (Image credit: Caviar)

But the extraness doesn't stop there. The custom iPhone also features a diagonal three-level hourglass and a working mechanical watch. I'm a bit of a watch nerd myself, so this is where Caviar really caught my attention. That's right, the centerpiece of this whole design is a working, hand-wound mechanical watch, featuring a 19-jewel CVR ELT3350A Tourbillon movement.

Caviar's celestial custom builds start at $16,910 for a 128-GB iPhone 15 Pro and tops the billing at $19,130 for a 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Max. But if that sounds like chump change, Caviar's 1TB iPhone 16 Pro Max Diamond Snowflake White Gold 18K will set you back a whopping $718,860!

Past exuberant Caviar builds include iPhones with pieces of clothing belonging to Mike Tyson and Marilyn Monroe  (Image credit: Caviar)

This isn’t the first time Caviar's cooked up a celestial storm. Back in 2019 it released a $33,000 iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max, which contained a piece of Vostok 1. That's right, an actual fragment from the spaceship that carried the first human into space, Yuri Gugarin.

More 'affordable' past projects of note include a $6,000 iPhone 11 Pro with a shred of one of Steve Jobs' turtlenecks baked into the Apple logo. Custom iPhone 11 Pros with swatches of Mike Tyson's boxing shorts and Marilyn Monroe's dress. Heck, it even released a $7,000 iPhone 11 Pro with a sample of the Titanic in it. 

So, the next time you're due an iPhone upgrade and you've got $19,000 or so to spare, don't just settle for one of the best iPhone 16 Pro Max cases… 

If you don't have big bucks burning a hole in your pocket, check out the best camera phones and the best budget camera phones.

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Mike Harris
Mike Harris
How To Editor

Mike is Digital Camera World's How To Editor. He has over a decade of experience, writing for some of the biggest specialist publications including Digital Camera, Digital Photographer and PhotoPlus: The Canon Magazine. Prior to DCW, Mike was Deputy Editor of N-Photo: The Nikon Magazine and Production Editor at Wex Photo Video, where he sharpened his skills in both the stills and videography spheres. While he's an avid motorsport photographer, his skills extend to every genre of photography – making him one of Digital Camera World's top tutors for techniques on cameras, lenses, tripods, filters and other imaging equipment – as well as sharing his expertise on shooting everything from portraits and landscapes to abstracts and architecture to wildlife and, yes, fast things going around race tracks...