All articles tagged with #sapphire crystal
Wren, a New York-based microbrand founded in 2024, has launched its first non-diver timepiece, the Vessel. Designed by Max Resnick, this integrated sports watch features a complex, double-faceted sapphire crystal and a 39mm 904L steel case. Priced between $2,900 and $3,400, it marks a significant departure from the brand’s previous affordable dive watches, with limited editions of 150 pieces each available for pre-order now.
Casio has released the 'Blue Rose Project,' a three-watch collection headlined by the MRG-D5000, the most expensive G-Shock ever made at $80,000. Limited to 20 pieces, this flagship features a case and bezel crafted entirely from blue sapphire crystal, a material previously deemed too brittle for the brand's shock-resistant standards. The release marks the culmination of an eight-year engineering effort to adapt the 'Multi-Guard Structure' for sapphire, utilizing a screwless, interlocking design inspired by traditional Japanese timber framing. Alongside the flagship, Casio introduced two more accessible models: the MRG-B5000SA-2 at $6,600 and the GMW-B5000SB-1A2 at $770, both featuring sapphire accents but retaining the brand's core durability features.
Casio has unveiled the MRG-D5000, the most expensive G-Shock ever produced, priced at $80,000. Limited to 20 pieces globally, the timepiece features a full blue sapphire outer case and bezel, a rarity for a brand known for rugged, affordable digital watches. The release, part of the 'Blue Rose Project,' represents the culmination of an eight-year engineering effort to make brittle sapphire crystal compatible with G-Shock’s strict shock-resistance standards. It joins two other sapphire-accented models in a new collection, with the flagship featuring 24-karat gold lettering and a screwless, interlocking case structure inspired by traditional Japanese timber framing.
Casio has officially launched the MRG-D5000, the first G-Shock with a case and bezel made entirely from blue sapphire crystal. Priced at 11 million yen (approximately $80,000), it is the most expensive G-Shock ever produced. Only 20 units will be manufactured worldwide, sold via lottery in Japan starting in December. The watch features a titanium case with DLC treatment, Tough Solar power, and Multiband 6 radio sync, but lacks Bluetooth connectivity.
Physicists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich have created the largest-ever Schrodinger's Cat by putting a sapphire crystal weighing 16 micrograms in a quantum-mechanical superposition of two vibrational states. The crystal was excited into vibrations such that its atoms oscillated back and forth simultaneously and in two opposite directions, putting the entire crystal in a state of quantum superposition. The findings have pushed the envelope on what can be considered quantum mechanical in an actual lab experiment, demonstrating that something as massive as 16 micrograms can exist in this state.