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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.

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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.

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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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