These are the AirGolds, a pair of AirPods made by jeweler Pablo Cimadevila. They are not plated in gold, but casted from a mold made from the original plastic shell. I’m an enemy of bling in gadgets, but this is just a great material choice.
These wireless earbuds so good that it makes me think that Apple should start making AirPods in metals like aluminum, steel or platinum. Platinum would be sweet.
The idea of turning AirPods into AirGolds, Cimadevila says, came from the Think Different campaign that Apple ran from 1997 to 2002. Since he is in an expert jeweler and these headphones almost feel like fashion accessories, why not take them to the next level?
As the video shows, he didn’t plate the AirPods. Instead, he casted a mold of the two pieces that make each AirPod after carefully removing their electronic guts. He then filled with molten 18K gold. After cutting the supporting parts of the mold and and sanding the excess gold, he polished the pieces, put the electronics inside, and welded the two parts of each AirGold.
Sadly, Cimadevila says that the Air Golds are not for sale. Like I said, I hate bling on electronics, but this is simply a cool material replacement that makes sense, even if it makes the earbuds feel a couple grams heavier than the original.
Come on, Pablo. Apple is not going to do this — or maybe they will, who knows — but this is a great opportunity. These will sell like hot cakes. I want mine in platinum. Or matte stealth black anodized titanium.
