The Key to a Fine Finish
For the bull marketeer who has everything comes the handcrafted wooden computer chassis. The Oberhofer Classic Series, brainchild of a 26-year-old Beverly Hills-based computer consultant and entrepreneur, is a line of computer peripherals--including wireless mouse, keyboard and flat-screen LCD monitor--carved from cherry, maple or mahogany and trimmed in ebony.
Dennis Oberhofer said he conceived the idea while helping a Hollywood TV actor--he wouldn’t say whom--set up a home-office computer. The client’s desk, he said, was “a $15,000 custom-made job with wrought-iron hand pulls, a grand piano right outside the door and everything thought out to the nth degree”--except the computer. Oberhofer described it as an “oatmeal-colored plastic box.”
That’s when he saw the potential for handsomely crafted peripherals.
“Just putting it in wood doesn’t make it great design,” Oberhofer said. “We went and found the best craftsmen who do it to meet our design specifications. The real craftsmanship comes in as these are hand-finished. It’s a very detailed, labor-intensive product that’s literally finished with a fingernail file.”
The company released its first line last March and expects to release a new line this coming March. Models fashioned from zebra, imbuia and wenge woods were shown at NeoCon, the annual trade show of products for commercial interiors, held in Chicago in June. Mike Kays, a buyer for Neiman Marcus, said the product is “truly one of the unique pieces out there in the computer industry.” Items are available in the chain’s Beverly Hills store and its Christmas catalog.
The line also can be ordered from Oberhofer (888) 557-7786 or https://www.oberhofer.com on the Web) or viewed in his new showroom at 225 N. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills. Prices start at $3,995 for the 14-inch flat-screen monitor, $650 for the keyboard and $350 for the wireless mouse. They can be customized to fit any Windows-compatible PC, as well as Macintosh, Sun and SGI hardware.
“In any other product category, you have a high end and low end to everything,” Oberhofer said. “Just as one treats themselves to the quality of the Mont Blanc pen, this provides them with the alternative.”
