Caviar has taken its taste for over-the-top Apple hardware to a new extreme: an iPhone 17 Pro Max designed to store a Swiss watch in its back panel. The company’s new Masters of Time collection is less ”phone case” and more jewelled transport system, built for owners who apparently looked at a Patek Philippe and thought, ”This would be better if it clicked into a smartphone.”
The idea is surprisingly mechanical for something this extravagant. Instead of sticking a watch face onto the phone, Caviar built a quick-release Watch Vault into the chassis, using a threaded locking ring and a lever-based release system so the watch can be removed without tools and mounted on a normal strap. That puts the whole thing somewhere between horology and a very expensive gadget, which is exactly the sort of overlap luxury brands love to pretend is inevitable.
How the iPhone 17 Pro Max Watch Vault works
The back panel is lined with a soft protective material to keep the watch case from getting scratched. If you take the watch out and want the phone to look finished rather than hollow, Caviar supplies a decorative metal cover that snaps into the open slot. One version uses a silver plate etched with an astrolabe design, which is a very polished way of saying the phone would otherwise have a giant empty hole in it.
That detail matters because this is not a novelty sticker job. Caviar is clearly selling the engineering as much as the materials, and the company says it can build custom chassis for Swiss watches with case diameters between 42 and 44 mm. In other words, if your watch is expensive enough and appropriately sized, the phone will adapt to it.
Celestial and Portugieser editions
The first two single-edition models are the Celestial and the Portugieser. The Celestial is built around a Patek Philippe Celestial and uses 18-karat white gold, blue enamel, diamonds, and a piece of Muonionalusta meteorite. The Portugieser pairs with an IWC Portugieser Tourbillon Mystère Squelette and uses white gold, hand-engraving, white diamonds, and orange sapphires that echo the watch’s exposed tourbillon.
Caviar is also teasing concept renders for versions built around a Jacob & Co. Casino Tourbillon and a Rolex Sky-Dweller. That’s a useful reminder that the company knows its audience: collectors who already think in terms of limited runs, display cases, and objects that are more conversation piece than daily driver.
Price tags for the iPhone 17 Pro Max Watch Vault
The white gold Celestial is priced at $215,360. A titanium option made for an Omega watch starts at $49,640. For anyone keeping score, that is a lot of money for a device that is simultaneously a smartphone, a watch carrier, and, depending on your pocket, a small burden.
- Celestial: $215,360
- Titanium Omega version: starts at $49,640
- Supported watch size: 42 mm to 44 mm
Caviar’s latest stunt also fits a broader pattern: luxury tech companies are leaning harder into personalization because standard premium devices are increasingly samey. The difference here is that Caviar is not just changing colorways or engraving a logo; it is building a physical bridge between two collector hobbies that rarely bother to share a table.
The real question is whether there are enough buyers who want a phone that doubles as a watch vault, or whether this stays where it belongs: in the rarefied corner of the market where absurdity is part of the appeal.