The World's Most Expensive Pen, yours for $265,000

Some people just can’t keep their wealth to themselves. They just always have the show off what they’ve got, either by riding around in the hottest luxury cars, or buying massive homes. Now, these sorts of people have found a brand new way to gaudily show off their massive wealth as patrons of Swiss Supply, purveyors of diamond-encrusted, gold-plated, and generally jewel-studded gadgets that are showing up on luxury technology blogs.

Want a tricked-out original Nintendo Game Boy? Swiss Supply makes them. Want a computer mouse made of white gold? Yep, you can find that. From laptops to phones to televisions, everyday objects are being turned into flashy monstrosities.

The Diamond Crypto Smartphone, in all it's pretentious glory

Take, for example, the “Diamond Crypto Smartphone.” The whole thing is adorned with 50 diamonds, 10 of which are described as “rare blue ones.” In addition, parts are also made in rose gold. The price tag? Only $1.3 million, no big deal. Now, the phone does have many useful features as well, like the memory to hold 4000 contacts and the ability to run on a Windows CE operating system, but still I can’t imagine dropping millions on a cell phone. I mean, imagine losing that thing. Let’s face it, no one is that good of a good Samaritan. You misplace that thing, it’s gone. Really, by buying this thing you’re just spending money to show off your wealth.

My opinion of these gadgets, are that they are more or less just a waste of technology. I mean, there are some expensive gadgets out there that are expensive, but some of them are really innovative and cool. I love those types of gadgets. My favorite example is the magnetic floating bed; it’s incredibly cool, comfortable, and costs a whopping $1.53 million.

But with these gadgets, there’s nothing cool about them. A lot of times, they’re just regular or souped up household gadgets that just happen to be encrusted with millions of dollars worth of jewels. In my opinion, if the industry stopped concentrating on making these flashy monstrosities, we’d be seeing more cool and useful gadgets out on the market. In the end, the thing I wonder the most is what the fact that people actually buy these things says about our modern culture. I think these so-called “gadgets” are a constant reminder of how snotty and pretentious we can all be on occasion.