Patriotic Grills are Diamond Encrusted

While there are many different things that are encrusted with diamonds (the bra, flash drive, body tattoo, skull and many more) Ryan Lochte diamond covered grills are the most talked about now.

The Olympic gold-winner Ryan Lochte was so happy to win his medal on the 2012 London Olympics that he hasn't found other way to express his patriotism as to show off his red, white and blue diamond encrusted grills on the podium. Shining the colors of the American flag, the grills serve a kind of a symbol the swimmer wears while getting his awards.

In his interview Ryan Lochte said: "For those who don't know what a grill is, it's basically a retainer filled with diamonds. I wear it when I go on the podium. It's just a unique way of showing personality out to everyone".

If you think that this is the champion's first eccentric prank with a mouthpiece, you are wrong. Last year he stunned the fans by his diamond item during the 2011 World Championship in Shanghai, in 2009 he rushed onto the podium in Rome at the 2009 Wold Championship and the year before his teeth shined at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. These are only most known meets where Ryan Lochte startle the public.

Well, as you see the diamonds can be a nice way to express oneself either on the podium or in a way of anniversary present.

Luxury Balls of the Past

Now one can travel into the past by coming across the book revealing the chicest details of balls of the 20th century. Nick Fuolkers, the author of the book, teamed up with Nicolas Bos, Van Cleef & Arpels' creative director, to showcase his book alongside so to say 'visual aids' – tremendous, breathtaking collections of jewelry like those worn on the balls many years ago.

To see this beauty one should have visited Paris during couture fashion week, where Van Cleef & Arpels had a chance to boast awesome pieces of jewelry claimed to represent the realia of aristocracy life. All pieces were showcased on five tables to represent each ball separately: starting with Winter Palace Ball, going through the Ball of the Century, the Black and White Ball, the Oriental Ball and ending up with the Proust Ball. All the pieces are not for sale... yet, and it should be said they're priceless.


The first table is dedicated to the ball of 1903 taking place in Saint-Petersburg. All the pieces are amazing but one of eye-catching is the Loup Diamants décor earrings that definitely reveal the spirit of balls being made in a shape of masks with a number of cultured pearls hangings.


Coming up to the second table (Venetian ball was held in 1951) you will see Eventail décor clip. Encrusted with diamonds and pink sapphires, this is a tiny piece of creativity. Made as fan it can also open and close, just like real fan.


Judging from the name, the Black and White Ball had preferably contrast jewelry pieces: diamonds and onyx. This was the idea of Truman Capote to host such a tremendous ball to mark the climax of the writer's career and his success. Though the idea of black & white sounds too simple, but each of 500 guests tried to represent it in a most luxurious way, take a look at Diamond and Onyx Dancer décor clip.


The Oriental Ball was held three years later in Paris and was much more colorful than the previous one. All pieces are pleasurable and refined, so that it's hard to pick the best one. For instance, there is the Makara ring that embraces so many colors and gems: amethysts, yellow sapphire, turquoise, sapphires, peridots and of course diamonds.


The last ball described in the book was dedicated to Marcel Proust's 100th birthday. The demand for ball was to be dressed as one of Proust's characters and wore a suitable jewelry. The Miss Audrey ring is gorgeous, with white and pink diamonds and big natural pearl. Simply put, it was the most luxurious, dazzling and affluent exhibition ever, if not to take into account all those balls of course.

Photographs courtesy Van Cleef & Arpels

Diamond-Encrusted iPad

It has been a tradition already to encrust any new device with diamonds. Logically now there is an iPad that features not only 300 carats of diamonds but a pretty high price tag running up to $1.2 million.

The idea of encrusting an iPad belongs to the British jewelry brand Camael Diamonds, that can now boast to create the most expensive tablet computer in the world. While iPad's usual retails price is $700, it was raised on accounts of one kilogram of 18-karat gold and white and black diamonds mounted onto the top of the iPad. Black were used for the home button and the logo sign and white filled the rest of the space on the top. What is more, if for some reason you don't like this very design, the company offers a range of other one-million styles to pick. But be aware, they are available only for iPad, not for iPad 2.

Before it was Stuart Hughes who offered a limited addition of iPads covered by solid gold and diamond encrusted apple logo. The price was much lower - $192.000, but it still was affordable only for wealthy customers.

If you had enough money, would you like to have such a lavish iPad?

Most Expensive Wrist Watch in the World

There is a paradox that occurs today: people have a lot of wireless devices like cell phone or iPads or anything else that show the time, but still people keep wearing wrist watches. So, there is a question “What for do they wear watches?” Most commonly they do it in order to accentuate their status or for the sake of personal style. Businessmen and celebrities are among 'watch-wearers', who normally dictate most recent fashion trends in watches. Indeed, a watch remains the accessory that is beyond the time, and the watch we are going to speak about either.

‘201-carat Chopard’ are considered to be the most expensive watch in the world. The price tag is breathtaking - $25 million! It it because the Chopard watch are not intended to perform their primary task, but they are worn to fascinate and allure by the number of colorful diamonds mounted in it. Yes, as the name of the watch suggests, the total amount of carat weight of diamonds equals 201 carats, where 163 carats belong to yellow and white diamonds. Overall there are 874 diamonds of different size and color. All gems are set around in floral motifs, where the yellow stones function as stamens. The largest diamonds set in a watch are three heart-shaped stones of yellow, white and pink colors. The most exciting thing about these three is that can open up resembling the flower petals! The masters mounted a spring-loaded mechanism inside, and when pressed it allows the watch 'blossom'.

Diamond-Enspired Black Luxury Lamp

Black color is not accidentally included in the classic palette of colors: little black dress, diamonds and luxury cars are all buy-or-die things. Black color inspired Coco Chanel to create elegant and exquisite costumes, it brought fame to Malevich and became a symbol of respectability, restraint and mystical charm all around the world.

Designers love black color and diamonds. The combination of both can develop into something unexpectedly beautiful. Black speaks about bold and independent character of its owner while diamonds indicate refined taste and chick. For example, if you want to impress somebody and add faint note of mysticism and magic in the atmosphere of interior, it is recommended to have black furnishings and something with diamond luster effect.

It seems Philipp Bruni knew the secret of success. This designer used the combination of contrasts and indued a standard lamp shedding white light into black covering. Bruni's masterpiece which he created for Austrian company Molto Luce is called "Diamonds". The designer could reach in all senses the brilliant effect. The lampshade, which resembles the structure of a gemstone, is pierced by washes of light, resulting in unique radiance and volume. The base, in a shape of long triple leg, gets "Diamonds" into futuristic shape. Brilliant black standard lamp arises the feeling of timid reverence and delight, making everyone forget about the existence of other colors and gems.