Sir Jony Ive, who has been head of design at Apple for 27 years, and award-winning industrial designer Newson created the ring as part of a charity auction held in December last year.
While CAD images of the piece had been circulating online for some time, photos of the finished product have not been released to the public until now.
The entire ring – including the band – is cut from one 45-carat synthetic diamond that was custom-grown by Diamond Foundry.
“A project of this size and quality would not have been possible using a mined diamond,” Martin Roscheisen, CEO Diamond Foundry, said. “The craftsmanship of the (RED) Ring represents a major milestone in the diamond industry.”
Ive and Newson’s design blueprint was sold by Sotheby’s for $US256,250 ($AU376,154) with proceeds going to benefit the AIDS charity (RED). The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation matched 90 per cent of the bid, bringing the donation to $US461,250 ($AU677,078).
Jennifer Lotito, COO (RED), added, “This is more than just a ring. It's a thing of absolute beauty… We're so grateful to Jony, Marc and Diamond Foundry for delivering exquisite design and craft to help end AIDS.”
The ‘(RED) Ring’ was made to fit the auction buyer using a world-first plasma process to grow a synthetic diamond of the required size and dimensions. Finally, the stone was laser cut to match the specifications of the blueprint, finishing with 2,000–3,000 facets. Diamond Foundry’s master cutter, based in Antwerp, Belgium, had to use custom tools to complete the project.
Two other whole-diamond rings have been created in recent years. Geneva-based Shawish Jewellery displayed a 150-carat ring, made from a natural diamond and valued at $US70 million, at Baselworld in 2012. However, it is not known if the ring was wearable. Meanwhile, Dutch Diamond Technologies debuted its Project D Ring – cut from a 155-carat CVD synthetic diamond – in February this year. However, it had just 133 facets.
IMAGE Gallery
More reading:
The Great Diamond Debate
Would you propose with a synthetic diamond?
Lightbox Jewellery opens to the public