Joe then told Hughes about the black diamond that had been in his family for generations. Hughes spent nine weeks creating the solid gold chassis of an iPhone 5 and then placed the black diamond as the home button.
The appraisal Joe had done on the black diamond put its value at approximately $14.5 million, according to Hughes, who said he saw the certificate of authenticity.
Hughes told CNN that one of the solid gold handsets with the diamonds that he crafts is worth approximately $153,000.
“We had a tech guy in Macau who was able to set the stone, which to this day has never left China,” Hughes said.
Hughes set a record in 2011 for crafting an iPhone 4S with 500 individual diamonds, totaling more than 100 carats. That phone was estimated to be valued at $9 million.
