Jony Ive and BALMUDA Unveil $4,800 Limited-Edition Sailing Lantern

Jony Ive's design firm, LoveFrom, is back with a new hardware project, but it isn't the AI device many have been watching for. Instead, Ive has teamed up with Japanese design company BALMUDA to create the Sailing Lantern, a limited-edition light with a classic, maritime-inspired look. The new lantern marks another high-profile collaboration for the former Apple design chief since he left the company in 2019.

The lantern itself is built from a precision-machined stainless steel body with a polished finish and accented with a gold lens guard. A single dial controls both brightness and color temperature, shifting the light from cool to warm. Inside, the lantern uses two LEDs powered by a rechargeable battery.



Materials were clearly a focus, with a textured polyester lanyard designed to repel salt and sun, and a construction engineered for easy maintenance and repair.


"As a young boy, I adored sailing and spending my time on water," Ive said in a statement. "Our lantern was created and built for maritime conditions. While the materials, form and product architecture are new, there is a reassuring familiarity to the nautical lanterns and Fresnel lamps of the past."



The BALMUDA project is the latest in a string of high-profile partnerships for LoveFrom, which has also worked with brands like Ferrari and Airbnb. It's a notable departure from Ive's more recent focus on a highly anticipated AI hardware device he's developing with OpenAI's Sam Altman.

The Sailing Lantern is a limited edition of just 1,000 pieces and is priced at $4,800. It will be available at select BALMUDA retail locations in Japan and at one store in Brooklyn, New York.


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