Money no object

The message is clear, simplicity rules the waves
In an age when new and multifunctional is all the rage, the simple Aesir AE + Y phone seems almost quaintly old-tech. It comes with no unlimited apps, no bags of tricks, no appendages and no cybersonic contraptions. It's a phone. Just a phone. Well, with a slightly more exorbitant price tag than most, but in its simplicity, it harks back to a bygone era when telephones were mainly used to talk to people.

The new, long-lasting, chunky gold phone is the creative offspring of Copenhagen-based Aesir. Designer Yves Behar is on record as saying: "Instead of more, we proposed better and longer lasting. In an age when the industry seems to think that phones aren't for speaking anymore, I wanted to focus on the idea of voice, clarity and simplicity."

Aesir founder Thomas Moller Jensen and his crew enlisted specialists, engineers and craftsmen to create the clear-cut, clear-audio contraption with fully replaceable parts. So should time's wear and tear take effect, you can send it back to be fixed - no muss, no fuss.

The phone boasts metalwork in 18-carat gold (or in surgical-grade stainless steel), a sapphire crystal screen that's exceptionally clear even in bright sunlight, and a durable, high-gloss ceramic casing.

It costs HK$436,000 for the gold incarnation. But if that's a bit rich, the handset comes in stainless steel for HK$80,000. It is available at Lane Crawford in gold in December and in stainless steel now.


Byline: P. Ramakrishnan