If you were at CES 2008, you may have had the chance to win a Diamond Blackberry Curve Case. If you weren’t the lucky winner or if you weren’t even there, then you can still acquire one through Case-Mate’s website. Of course, if you go that route you’ll be paying top dollar for the world’s most expensive Blackberry case.

The forty-two vvs1 diamonds that went into the creation of this case weigh in at 3.5 carats and are set in 18-karat gold. The emblem on the back of the case is made of the same quality of gold. Even the carbon fiber leather, specially developed for the case, is gold. In fact, a total of fifteen grams of gold were used to make this expensive phone case. Of course, the case is as protective as it is luxurious—the plastic is impact resistant and the screen is entirely protected.

The number of Diamond Blackberry Curve Cases is so limited that it was originally reported that the one given away at CES was the only one. That may have been true at the time, but now the world’s most expensive Blackberry case can be purchased directly from Case-Mate for $20,000. We dare you to find a more expensive case than that.

Flip-flops, or thong sandals, were inspired by traditional Japanese sandals. They were introduced to the Western world via New Zealand in the late 1950s. While most flip-flops are of the cheap, plastic variety, dressier thong sandals are available. The most expensive flip-flops in the world, however, fit neither of those descriptions.

Crystalishious

An exclusive product of trendy clothier Electric Couture, the costly sandals are decorated in a rock n roll theme with guitars, winged hearts and the slogans “WILD THING” and “WALK THIS WAY & ROCK.” These flashy flip-flops, created by Crystalishious, are naturally covered in crystals. Of course, it’s the $1,800 price tag that makes them worthy of our attention.

H. Stern

Of course, those aren’t the only expensive flip-flops out there. H. Stern, a jeweler, unveiled a pair of flip-flops in 2004 that sold for $17,000. In fact, if they were sold today, they would most likely sell for even more than the Crystalishious flip-flops. These luxury sandals were made with over 1,500 gold feathers accented with diamonds. Unfortunately, only one pair was ever made. The rest of the line sold for a more pedestrian $2,000 to $3,000.

PechePlatinum

If you prefer a sportier sandal, though, PechePlatinum’s crocodile flip flops may suit you better. Using patent-pending technology and hand-matched crocodile straps, these shoes guarantee maximal comfort. Furthermore, if your conscience won’t allow you to wear a crocodile skin on your foot, PechePlatinum assures us that selling shoes made of crocodiles and donating 5% of the profits to primate-friendly eco-groups somehow helps both the crocs and the monkeys. At $400, these are the most expensive production flip-flops available.

The Kentucky Derby, also known as “The Most Exciting Two Minutes in Sports,” has been held annually since it was first organized in 1875. This year’s derby drew one of the largest crowds in history, consisting of over 157,000 people. It also marked the 35th anniversary of legendary equine athlete Secretariat’s spectacular win at Kentucky Derby 99 in 1973. To mark this auspicious occasion, Churchill Downs and Woodford Reserve have created the world’s most expensive mint julep cup.

The handcrafted cups are plated with 24-karat gold and feature artwork by legendary sports artist Leroy Neiman. Each one was sold in an oak box lined with a satin reproduction of Secretariat’s blue and white silks. The mint julep inside was made of all-natural ingredients, including mint grown from Claiborne Farm in Paris, Kentucky, where Secretariat was buried whole. The drinks also include ice made from limestone water and a special blend of sugar from a local sorghum farmer. Ninety-seven of the ninety-nine cups sold for $1000 each.

The remaining two cups, 1 and 99 in the series, have been adorned with one carat of diamonds and sapphires, again reproducing Secretariat’s silks. These two were auctioned online prior to the race. While we’re not yet sure how much these two cups brought in, we think it’s safe to assume that these two cups house the most expensive mint julep cups in the world.

Henry IV was the name of an English king, a French king and even a Holy Roman Emperor in Germany. It’s also the name of the world’s most expensive high chair and, considering the chair’s German creators, was probably named after the latter king.

Sibi, the brand name used by interior architect Wolfgang Sirch of the Sirch Company and sculptor Christoph Bitzer, began producing items for children in 2000. Previously, the Sirch Company dealt only in industrial shipping pallets. Under the Sibi brand, the Sirch-Bitzer team has produced a doll house, push car, trailer and, of course, the Henry IV Convertible High Chair.

The most expensive high chair in the world has all of the standard features of a high chair—a tray, straps and a cushion—but it also has a few tricks that you won’t see in many other high chairs. For starters, the chair is made of laminated and varnished birch, as well as powder-coated steel. The seat swivels so that you can easily change the direction your child is facing. The most remarkable feature, however, is that the seat converts to a children’s chair suitable for a child of up to fifteen years of age. The high quality materials used to make the chair may even ensure that it survives for that long!

This luxury high chair is made in Germany and can be purchased for $1,350 from babygeared, an online retailer specializing in children’s items.

London has long been one of the exclusive real estate capitals of the world. In fact, the world’s most expensive house was just recently sold there. Houses aren’t the only expensive properties in London, though. The city also boasts the world’s most expensive apartment—and construction on it hasn’t even been finished!

The four penthouse apartments atop One Hyde Park, London’s newest and most luxurious address, sold well before the arrival of the new year. The building, developed by Candy & Candy and funded by Qatar’s foreign minister, will include eighty apartments designed by architect Richard Rogers. It will also feature communal spas, squash courts and even a private wine-tasting facility. The building will cost £1.5 billion (around $3 billion USD) to develop and Candy & Candy plan to have it finished sometime in 2010.

A computer-generated image of the world’s most expensive apartment.

One of the four penthouse apartments was sold for over £100 million (over $200 million at the time), making it the most expensive apartment in the world. Each of the four penthouses will have a number of security features, including bulletproof glass, panic rooms and access to an underground passage leading to a nearby hotel.

Other apartments in the building are going for an average of over £20 million (around $40,000).

Freezing wind, icebergs, penguins and a dearth of hotel rooms—these are the things you’ll find in the most expensive cruise destination in the world. Antarctica may not be the most hospitable region in the world, but it’s popular enough to guarantee that cruises destined for the southernmost continent will have passengers aplenty.

The tourist season in the Antarctic region is relatively short. The four months from November to February are the only time the temperatures are high enough to make the trip. The tourist season is also the time when the region gets the most sunlight. In December and January, days can last up to 20 hours.

The wildlife you’ll see also depends on when you go. Hatching penguins can be seen in December and November while slightly more mature young can be seen in February. February also brings more whale sightings than any other time of year.

(Photo by Mila Zinkova. Distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license version 3.0.)

The operational cost of an Antarctic voyage, as well as a lack of tourist infrastructure on the mainland, ensures that ticket prices won’t be going down anytime soon.

Antarctic cruises most often start in South America. The largest ships only offer sail-by tours of the continent—no disembarkation from the ship. A cruise to the world’s most expensive destination may cost as little as $5,000 and could climb as high as $26,000 or higher!

The average person spends roughly a third of their life sleeping. It only makes sense, then, that you should spend as much on your bed as you would on your car, right? If you agree with that, then you might want to check out Charlotte Thomas Bespoke—the most expensive bed sheets in the world.

Not only are these sheets made of the finest merino wool backed with thousand-count Egyptian cotton sheet, they’re also threaded with 22 carat gold. These luxurious sheets are handmade to your specifications so you can be sure you’re getting the best quality linens that money can buy.

And just how much money does it take to buy? The pillowcases alone cost £1,200 (around $2,400 USD). One can only imagine how much the rest of the world’s most expensive sheets actually cost.

The yo-yo has been around for at least 2,500 years. The earliest surviving yo-yo dates back to 500 BC and was made using ceramic disks. The yo-yo was probably used as a weapon for 400 years in the Philippines, though the chairman of the American Yo-Yo Association’s History and Collecting Committee denies it. The world’s most expensive yo-yo, however, was made far more recently.

The expensive yo-yo was presented by country singer Roy Acuff to President Richard Nixon at the Grand Ole Opry in 1974. There to celebrate Mrs. Nixon’s birthday, the president reportedly attempted a few tricks before signing the yo-yo and giving it back to Acuff. When Acuff died in 1992, the yo-yo was sold for $16,029.

The most expensive yo-yo currently available for retail is Duncan’s Cold Fusion Yo-Yo. Made of aircraft-grade aluminum, the yo-yo also features Brake Pads and a precision ball-bearing axle. In fact, the world record for spin time was achieved using a Cold Fusion Yo-Yo. Depending on where you buy it, this professional yo-yo could cost you up to $250.

Just try not to kill anyone with these lethal and expensive weapons.

Jeff Koons’ “Hanging Heart”

The record for most expensive living artist seems to change hands like a $20 bill. Currently, the record is held by Jeff Koons for his “Hanging Heart” piece, which sold for $21.6 million. Before that, the record belonged to Damien Hirst. His “Lullaby Spring” pill box sold for $19.1 million at Sotheby’s in 2007. He took the record from friend Lucian Freud, grandson of the famous psychoanalyst, who held the record for a mere twenty-four hours when his “Bruce Bernard” painting sold for $16.5 million.

Freud may hold the title again, however, as his “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping” painting is expected to sell for over $30 million at auction in May. The piece, depicting a fleshy femme reclining on a sofa, was painted in 1995 and became the first nude ever to make the front page of the UK’s Financial Times newspaper.

Lucian Freud’s “Benefits Supervisor Sleeping”

The 51-year-old model, Sue Tilley, spent months posing for the artist. During this time she wasn’t allowed to vacation, lest she return with a tan. While she was paid a mere $40 to pose for the painting, she was able to sell one of Freud’s earlier etchings of herself for a cool $50,000. Of course, she’ll also enjoy a certain level of fame from being the subject of one of the world’s most expensive paintings.

Tequila, triple sec and fresh lemon or lime juice—these are the components of a standard margarita. The proportions may vary and orange liqueurs other than triple sec may be used, but these are the three main ingredients endorsed by the International Bartenders Association. What, then, are the ingredients in the world’s most expensive margarita?

Johnny Utah’s, a Western-style restaurant located in New York’s Rockefeller Center, features both a mechanical bull capable of rendering you permanently paralyzed and a mixed drink, The Vault, that can do the same to your wallet. Johnny Utah’s uses a $300 bottle of Herradura Suprema tequila to mix The Vault, along with grilled-lime juice and agave syrup. Notably missing from the mix is any sort of orange liqueur, though the syrup may make up for that. The drink costs $51 and was touted as the most expensive margarita in 2007.

Regardless of whether or not you consider The Vault to be a true margarita, the Riverside Hotel in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, has flattened that record with the Riverside Grand Margarita. This exclusive drink uses freshly squeezed lime juice; Cuvée Speciale Cent Cinquantenaire, a special triple sec made to commemorate the Grand Marnier company’s 150th anniversary, and Patron Tequila Gran Platinum. Both the tequila and liqueur cost about $200 a bottle. The finished product costs $65, making it the most expensive margarita in the world.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, spent $16.5 million dirham ($4.5 million USD) at a recent beauty pageant in the United Arab Emirates’ capital city of Abu Dhabi. The remarkable part is that the acquisitions, like the contestants in the pageant, were camels.

The contest included over 10,000 camels from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Bahrain. It was organized by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage in order to celebrate unique aspects of the Gulf region’s culture.

The most expensive camel in Sheikh Hamdan’s lot, a 10 million dirham ($2.72 million USD) female, is also the most expensive camel in the world. While no details regarding the camel or Sheikh Hamdan’s plans for it have been released, it is known that female camels are faster than their male counterparts.

Money for the pageant was donated by Abu Dhabi’s ruling family. Altogether, owners of winning camels will receive a total of $9.5 million and 100 cars.

Few cars invoke images of wealth as readily as Rolls-Royce. It’s fitting, then, that the world’s most expensive hood ornament should embellish such a car.

The Spirit of Ecstasy, known in the US as The Flying Lady, has a tangled history. Originally commissioned as a personal emblem for Lord John Walter Edward Douglas-Scott-Montagu’s Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, the sculptor, Charles Sykes, chose Lord Montagu’s secret love, Eleanor Velasco Thornton, as a model for the mascot. He dubbed the resulting ornament “The Whisper.”

When Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, concerned that the fashionable personal emblems of the day were inappropriate for such a prestigious vehicle, set out to create their own mascot, they turned to Sykes to sculpt an emblem that embodied the grace and beauty of the Rolls-Royce. Once again he used Ms. Thornton as the model for his Spirit of Speed, which he later referred to as the Spirit of Ecstasy.

The rights to the Spirit of Ecstasy have changed hands over the years. At one point they were purchased, along with rights to the shape of the Rolls-Royce radiator grill and even some Bentley components, by Volkswagen. Having only wanted the Bentley rights in the first place, they eventually reached a deal with BMW, who owned the rights to build Rolls-Royce cars, which allowed the familiar hood ornament and grill to be reunited with the luxurious car.

This year, designer Jean Kemanjian created a special version of the Spirit of Ecstasy for Manhattan Motorcars to show off at the New York Auto Show. Made of platinum and other rare metals, the figurine is completely coated in 150 carats of high-quality (VVS1) diamonds. While it’s valued at $200,000, it’s not for sale. Even so, it can certainly be called the most expensive hood ornament in the world.

What kind of wax do you use on a Classic car? If you’re the sort of person who only uses the best of anything on your pampered vehicle, then the answer is clear. You’ll get the most expensive car wax in the world.

Enter Swizöl International, a Switzerland-based company that specializes in handmade car care products. Their cheapest wax, “Onyx,” is priced at $95. It only goes uphill from there. Their costliest standard wax, “Mystery,” can be purchased for $555. Those prices don’t include the over $40 pretreatment required before applying any of their pricey waxes.

Their waxes reach such high prices because, unlike other brands, they’re made of 30% to over 60% carnauba. This allows Swizöls waxes to achieve an unrivaled level of hardness and transparency. Further, the waxes are infused with essential oils to make your car smell as good as it looks.

I called “Mystery” their most expensive standard wax for a reason, though. Each year, only a very few can get their hands on the most expensive car wax in the world. Swizöl’s “Divine” wax is specially formulated for the owner’s car based on the color and the paint used. It’s so exclusive that it even comes with a hand-engraved plaque bearing the owner’s name and the serial number, as well as a certificate of authenticity.

This elite wax costs a pretty penny at a little over $2,800.

Originally considered ornamental plants, the flowering Macadamia trees have become a valuable crop since they were originally described by John Macadam—after whom they were named—around 1857. The reason for their commercial importance is that two of the nine species of Macadamia produce the most expensive nuts in the world.

While the trees originated in Australia, the first Macadamia plantations were located in Hawaii. Today, Hawaii is still one of the largest sources of Macadamia nuts and the US is their largest consumer. Other sources of Macadamia nuts include South Africa, Central America and Australia—the largest source of the expensive nuts.

The Macadamia nut is prized not only for its rich, buttery flavor but also for its oil. The kernel may consist of up to 80% oil. This oil is useful in cosmetics, particularly in skin care products, because it is a viable alternative to mink oil.
The price of the world’s most expensive nut may be attributed to the fact that not only must a Macadamia tree be 7-10 years old in order to produce nuts, but also the incredibly hard shell of the nut must be broken prior to sale. The shell is so hard that it can actually break nutcrackers sold for home use.

So how much is this costly nut? Macadamia nuts can easily fetch around $30-$40 per kilo (2.2 lbs).

Cognac, like Champagne, is named after the area of France from whence it originates. In order to be considered worthy of the name, the brandy must be produced in the area surrounding the town of Cognac and it must be made at least 90% from three varieties of grapes that grow in the region—Ugni Blanc, Folle Blanche or Colombard grapes. In fact, those are only two of the criteria required by the Bureau National Interprofessionel du Cognac (BNIC), the body that has ultimate control over whether or not a brandy may be called Cognac.

Considering the specific processes required to produce the most basic variety of the drink, the most expensive Cognac in the world must be something special indeed.

Called Henri IV Dudognon Heritage after the French king whose descendents have been producing this wine since 1776, this particular wine was aged for 100 years in barrels that were air dried for five years before use. The final product is 41% alcohol (82 proof).

That alone wasn’t enough to make it the world’s most expensive Cognac, though. The priciest aspect isn’t the wine itself, but the packaging. Dipped in 24k gold and sterling platinum, the bottle was adorned with 6,500 brilliant cut diamonds by its designer, jeweler Jose Davalos.

The final price of this costly Cognac is £1 million (around $2 million USD) and, if you’ve been paying any attention at all, it shouldn’t surprise you that Tequila Ley, the Mexican distilling company responsible for the expensive brandy, is planning to sell it in Dubai.

Hot on the heels of Toshiba’s concession to Sony in the high definition format war, luxury home theatre manufacturer Goldmund has released, in their words, the “first high-end Blu-ray player.” If nothing else, Goldmund’s Eidos 20 BD is certainly the most expensive Blu-ray player on the market.

The player has a number of features to justify its price, of course. The “AC-Curator” power supply circuit, for instance, supposedly improves audio and visual stability. The player is also specially constructed to eliminate vibration and thereby reduce video errors. Furthermore, the player is lovingly crafted with all the aesthetic appeal of an original model VCR (for those of you born after the Industrial Revolution, videocassette recorders are what your primitive forefathers used to pirate movies).

Goldmund is well known in the audio industry for producing high-end, expensive equipment. The Eidos is their first foray into the high-definition video market.

So how much is the world’s most expensive Blu-ray player? It can be purchased for the extremely low price of $16,900.

Getting the autograph of your favorite celebrity can be a thrilling experience for most. For serious philographers—autograph collectors—living celebrities’ John Hancocks are just the tip of the iceberg. For these collectors, the most valuable autographs are those of deceased historical figures. Still more valuable are those same signatures decorating handwritten documents and, especially, personal letters. The most expensive autograph in the world, if sold today, would be worth around $5 million dollars. It belonged to William Shakespeare and, if affixed to a play written in his own hand, it would easily be worth ten times as much.

He may have authored such famous works as A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Romeo and Juliet and a remarkable number of histories regarding England’s many kings, but only six copies of Shakespeare’s autograph are known to have survived to the current day. In fact, these are some of the only examples we have of the legendary bard’s handwriting, as not a single manuscript handwritten by Shakespeare has yet been discovered. Three of the surviving signatures are attached to his will. The other three adorn the deed to a house in London, the playwright’s mortgage and his testimony in a legal case.

Considering the autograph itself, it isn’t surprising that so few examples of his handwriting still exist. In fact, his atrocious penmanship may explain at least some of the many variants on his surname—from the dull and pedestrian Shaxberd to the evocative and famous Shakespeare.

In 1991, ground was first broken for the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project. The project was meant to reroute the chronically congested Central Artery (I-93) in Boston, Massachusetts, through a 3.5 mile tunnel under the city for a projected cost of $2.8 billion. Over the course of the project’s duration, the project became colloquially known as the “Big Dig” and its cost escalated to over $14 billion, making the Big Dig the most expensive public works project in the nation.

The I-93 tunnel. (Photo by Rene Schwietzke. Distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 license.)

Originally conceived in the 1970s by the Boston Transportation Planning Review, official planning for the project didn’t begin until the early 80s. In 1987, US Congress passed a bill, later overriding a veto by President Reagan, appropriating funds for the Big Dig.

The project suffered from numerous setbacks. The tunnel itself was dug in an area of pipes, utility lines, subway lines and landfills. Additionally, leaks, findings of substandard materials followed by criminal arrests and even a fatal accident have all shut down parts of the project at various points in time.

The most expensive public works project in the US was supposedly finished at the end of 2007. However, as of January 2008, 237 serious leaks are being reported as going unchecked.

Audiophiles may lament the fact that sometimes the source of their music doesn’t live up to the standards set by their tens of thousands of dollars in audio equipment. Vinyl records and compact discs both degrade rather easily, after all, and many audiophiles still contend that CDs just sound worse. Last year, a Japanese recording engineer named Suenori Fukui may have solved both problems by inventing the world’s most expensive CD—and it’s made of glass.

As glass is a completely transparent medium, unlike the plastic used in other CDs, the laser in your CD player can read the information on this expensive disc perfectly. Additionally, glass is less prone to scratching than plastic and neither heat nor humidity will harm the most expensive compact disc in the world. Of course, detractors point out that one thing that glass is famous for is shattering.

Glass CDs currently need to be made by hand, which has contributed to its significant price tag of 98,700 yen ($883 USD). The first glass CD made available to the public was Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air on G String,” sold by N & F Label. Judging by the lack of media attention in the year or so since it was released, though, you shouldn’t hold your breath waiting for your favorite band’s entire discography to be released on glass.

Stuart Phillips has been the official hairstylist for the BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Awards every year since 2004. He’s been featured in a plethora of fashion magazines and has styled for a host of actors, actresses and other celebrities from Jean-Claude Van Damme to Ivana Trump. Recently, he gained entry into the Guinness Book of World Records for the world’s most expensive haircut.

Stuart Phillips

The recipient of the expensive haircut, retired millionaire Beverley Lateo, paid first-class airfare from Italy to London, enlisted a limousine service to get her to Phillips’ salon and engaged the celebrity stylist for an entire day. The total cost of this hairdressing adventure: £8,000. For those of us in the US, that’s around $16,000.

Should you wish to partake in the Stuart Phillips experience yourself, though, you won’t have to pay the price of the most expensive haircut in the world. His standard hairstyling fee is only around £150. That’s right, “only” $300 for a haircut.

The town of Spa, Belgium, was known in medieval times for its chalybeate spring used to treat iron deficiencies. Since then, we’ve applied the name to any sort of medicinal water treatment, whether the healthful properties come from the iron in chalybeate springs or the trace elements of sodium and magnesium, potassium and calcium sulphates found in the seawater used in thalassotherapy. Of course, in modern times such treatments are generally a luxury afforded to those with some measure of surplus wealth. That’s certainly the case with the world’s most expensive spas.

Surprisingly, the three most expensive spas in the world are all located in the US. Of course, it’s no surprise that one of them is in California’s Bay Area. The Grand Luxe Facial, offered by Spa Radiance in San Francisco, includes Diamond Peel Microdermabrasian, which seems to involve sanding—er, exfoliating your face with tiny diamonds, Microcurrent Disencrustation to remove blackheads and sebum deposits, treating your eyes with caviar and LED light therapy to counteract sun damage. The process entire process takes three hours to complete and costs $750.

New York’s Mandarin Oriental offers an even longer treatment. Their Art of Indulgence mostly involves massages but also includes exfoliation and both a manicure and pedicure. At $1,034, this five-hour session makes Mandarin Oriental the second most expensive spa.

The most expensive spa in the world, however, is located in Florida. Available only to guests of the Hotel Victor in South Beach, Spa V offers a bath filled with nearly 350 gallons of Evian mineral water then showered with rose petals. The bath is creatively referred to as the Evian Bath and costs a phenomenal $5,000.

Have you ever wanted people to put reflectors on their Bluetooth headsets so that you could more easily tell the gadgeteers from the crazies? Amosu Luxury Ltd, a UK-based company specializing in luxury cell phones, has created a headset that seems designed to trick people into doing just that. The lure is that this is also the most expensive Bluetooth headset in the world.

Amosu’s Diamond MotoPure H12 is based on Motorola’s standard H12 headset. The expensive headset filters out background noise using by using two microphones, features three interchangeable ear cushions for maximum comfort and even the standard edition is made of premium materials. The front of the Diamond H12 is made of your choice of 18 karat white or yellow gold and set with 184 diamonds (3.47 ct. total). You even have the choice to opt for white, pink or black diamonds.

Only 100 of the world’s most expensive Bluetooth headsets will be made. They cost around $12,000 and potential owners must wait around three weeks for delivery.

One can only hope that they’re as reflective as they look.

How much would you be willing to fork over for a subscription to a magazine about quantitative finances? Forget the ten to twenty dollars you’d pay for a subscription to Maxim, Cosmo or Rolling Stone. Quantitative analysts who want to keep up to date in their chosen profession may need to pay up to nearly $700 for a bimonthly subscription to the most magazine expensive magazine in the world.

Published out of the UK, Wilmott magazine offers information about the most recent research, innovative financial models, reviews and in-depth analysis. Of course, you may need a PhD in mathematical finances to understand any of it. Each issue is an eleven inch square, giving you the feeling that you’re holding the teacher’s copy of a textbook, with all the answers in the extended margins.

Individual subscribers pay only $325 for a year-long subscription while institutions pay $650. Subscribers to the world’s most expensive magazine are also inducted into the Wilmott Book Club, giving them discounts on many quantitative finance and popular science books.

Looking for a top of the line audio system to put in your spacious new SUV? Why not try the world’s most expensive car audio system? Up and coming luxury audio system creators Rogue Acoustics made a splash when they unveiled their premiere car audio system, the RA:1K.

While the RA:1K is highly customizable, the majority of systems will be installed with nine or ten drivers—four tweeters, four mid-range drivers and one or two subwoofers. These will be supported with up to six amplifiers capable of delivering extraordinarily clear sound at equally extraordinary volumes (0.0008% harmonic distortion at 100 watts and a signal-to-noise ratio higher than 115dB). All of these features will ensure that your car stereo will sound better than it ever has.

Drivers used in the RA:1K

Additionally, the central amp will include a cellular connection allowing Rogue technicians to remotely tune the system or even disable it if it’s stolen. The system can even diagnose itself and, if necessary, automatically request that a service appointment be scheduled.

The most basic version of the most expensive car audio system can be purchased for $72,000, but a serious audiophile can spend over $300,000 on all the bells and whistles that may be included.

Prior to the unveiling of the Rogue Acoustics Audio System, Critical Mass’ CES5.1 Electrostatic Surround Sound System was the most expensive car audio system available. It was lauded for the twelve relatively small electrostatic speakers included in the system; such speakers are normally quite large. In fact, the system outfitted four seats with independent left, right and center drivers while a single pair of rear speakers and a UL12 subwoofer dominated the back of the car. Only ten of these systems were made and they were priced at $259,000.

Swiss designer Roland Iten won’t touch a timepiece of any sort, but he still manages to create high precision, mechanical fashion accessories for men of discriminating taste. His solid gold, mechanical belt buckle is as much a work of art as it is a work of engineering. It takes nine to eighteen months to produce and, as such, costs around $25,000. That quite possibly makes it the most expensive belt buckle in the world.

The expensive watch takes so long to produce because it uses the same manufacturing process as Geneva’s renowned watch-making industry. Its mechanical features make the belt especially attractive to those who like to loosen their belt after a big meal.

Roland Iten’s gold buckle isn’t the first luxury belt buckle, of course. Perhaps the second most expensive belt buckles in the world adorn these belts by Kale Miles. The belts, available in three different styles, include buckles made of seven to eight ounces of platinum. The $18,000 price tag, however, also includes the rest of the rather nice leather belt.

The world’s most expensive belt buckle and other items (cufflinks are mentioned) from the same collection will be launched at the SIHH watch fair in Geneva.