Zafirro debuts a $100,000 iridium razor with sapphire blades

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As a novel way of increasing face value, it’s hard to beat a $100,000 limited-edition iridium and sapphire razor.

According to its website, the Zafirro Iridium, which went on sale June 20, has a handle crafted from 99.95% iridium, held together with custom-made hexagonal platinum and finished off with blades of solid white sapphire honed to an edge ‘5,000 times thinner than a human hair.’ The price tag includes a decade of professional cleaning and servicing.

While it’s admittedly one of the most gorgeous pieces of grooming gadgetry porn ever made, even if one had the kind of disposable income needed to afford the world’s least-disposable razor, how could you justify the purchase price -- and still be able to look at yourself in the shaving mirror every morning?

Here’s one way: Assume a man shaves once a day from age 15 to age 85, that’s roughly 25,550 shaves at about $3.91 a piece.

By comparison, the total cost of those shaves using Gillette Mach 3 cartridges -- changed once a week -- would be about $10,447, or about one-tenth the price. The Zafirro is certainly more expensive, but a cost factor of 10 is hardly an outrageous premium to pay in the world of the ultra-wealthy.

Still, it remains to be seen whether anyone will be willing to shell out luxury car prices for a lifetime of shaves. Five weeks after the Zafirro launched, a single one of the 99 limited-edition pieces has yet to change hands.

‘While we have received hundreds of orders,’ a company representative told us Friday afternoon,’we are still combing through them to figure out which ones are legitimate.’

-- Adam Tschorn

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