The iPhone 17 Pro Max “2007” edition is the most expensive way to remember that your first iPhone is now a museum piece.
What Caviar Is Actually Selling Here
Caviar, the Russian brand that has built a business turning mainstream flagships into ultra-luxury status symbols, is back with another hyper-limited Apple project. This time, it’s a special “iPhone 2007” edition based on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.
Instead of just slapping on gold and calling it a day, Caviar is leaning hard into nostalgia. The hook: both phones embed fragments of the motherboard from the first-generation iPhone (iPhone 2G), launched in 2007. So yes, you’re technically carrying around a tiny physical piece of Apple history.
The phones are being positioned as a 50-year Apple anniversary tribute, combining modern iPhone hardware with literal scraps from the device that started the iPhone era.
Nostalgia in Hardware: Original iPhone 2G Fragments
The main party trick is the fragment of the original iPhone 2G motherboard embedded in the back of each device. Caviar puts that piece into a capsule shaped like the Apple logo, placed in the center of the rear panel.
Around that, the company engraves circuit-like lines that echo the internals of the first iPhone. It’s very on-the-nose, but that’s the point: this isn’t subtle industrial design, it’s a collector piece that wants you to know exactly what it’s referencing.
There’s no claim that these fragments improve performance or add functionality; they’re purely aesthetic and symbolic. You’re buying the story and the rarity, not a better iOS experience.
Design: Titanium, PVD Black, and Jobs’ Signature
Caviar reworks the exterior heavily. The casing uses titanium with a black PVD (physical vapor deposition) coating, which gives it a darker, more aggressive finish than a standard iPhone.
Color blocking mirrors the original iPhone 2G: silver on the upper section, black on the lower section of the back. It’s a direct visual callback to that 2007 design language, which is still iconic for a lot of longtime Apple users.
To round it out, Caviar engraves Steve Jobs’ signature on the case. That, plus the motherboard fragment and the Apple-logo capsule, is clearly meant to turn this from “luxury iPhone” into “Apple shrine you can put in your pocket.”
Only 11 Units: Ultra-Limited for Serious Collectors
Exclusivity is the whole business model here, and Caviar leans into it hard. The iPhone 2007 edition is limited to just 11 units worldwide.
Each phone ships in a premium box with extra collector bait inside: a commemorative coin coated in 999 fine gold and Caviar-branded accessories.
This is not aimed at mainstream iPhone buyers, or even typical enthusiasts. The target is clearly high-end collectors and people who treat tech as investment-grade memorabilia.
Pricing: Purely in ‘If You Have to Ask’ Territory
On the pricing side, Caviar doesn’t even pretend this is reasonable.
For the iPhone 17 Pro base model with 256 GB of storage, the “2007” edition starts at 10,770 US dollars, roughly 183 million rupiah. The 1 TB variant climbs to 11,490 dollars, around 195.3 million rupiah.
The iPhone 17 Pro Max version is even higher. The 256 GB configuration starts at 11,270 dollars (about 191.6 million rupiah). If you want the maxed-out 2 TB model, you’re looking at 12,700 dollars, or roughly 215.9 million rupiah.
There’s no performance bump, no extra camera sensor, no bonus RAM. You’re paying a massive premium purely for materials, design work, and the embedded historical fragment.
How This Fits Into Caviar’s Ultra-Luxury Playbook
Caviar has been running this formula for years: take popular flagships (usually iPhones), wrap them in premium materials, give them a themed design, and charge eye-watering prices. Production numbers are always low, and the marketing is squarely aimed at the top end of the market.
Previous releases have gone even more personal with the Apple mythology. One earlier variant, called “Jobs Turtleneck,” claimed to embed a piece of Steve Jobs’ iconic black turtleneck into the device—and Caviar says that model sold out.
The company isn’t chasing volume, reviews, or mainstream tech relevance. These releases are designed to trend on social media, show up in luxury catalogs, and sit inside display cases rather than pockets.
Does This Actually Matter for Regular Users?
From a practical standpoint, this changes nothing for everyday iPhone or Android users. The underlying phone is still Apple’s iPhone 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max. Caviar doesn’t alter the chipset, display, camera, storage options, or iOS experience, and the source doesn’t mention any functional changes at all.
For most people, these prices are absurd. You could buy several high-end Android flagships, a laptop, a tablet, and still have money left over instead of getting a single Caviar-modified iPhone.
But there is a cautiously optimistic angle: projects like this do show that tech history matters enough that people will literally embed it into new devices and pay for the privilege. That’s a sign of a maturing industry, where hardware has moved from disposable gadget to collectible artifact.
If you care more about performance per dollar, you can safely ignore all of this. If you’re the kind of person who puts original consoles, old Nokias, or first-gen iPhones on a shelf, you at least understand why this exists—even if you’d never dream of paying these numbers.
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