The World's Most Expensive Items: Watches, Cricket Bats, and Ink Stones

The intricate process of crafting a tourbillon watch, English Willow cricket bats, and prized ink stones is what makes them so expensive.

### The Making of the World's Most Expensive Items: Watches, Cricket Bats, Seaweed, and More
* ⌚ " A collector bought this tourbillon watch for **$5.8 million** at a Christie's Auction in 2023.
* 🏏 " English Willow bats are considered the **cream of the crop** associated with Star players like India's **Surya Kumar Yadav** and **Ms. Dhoni**.
* 🌿 " An 8-sheet pack of Kelp seaweed costs **$16.50**, significantly more than mass-produced seaweeds.
* 🌶️ " This small bottle of chili paste costs nearly **$20**, much more than the **$3 price** of mass-produced chili pastes **seven times the size**.
* 🐕‍🦺 " It costs the Seeing Eye about **$75,000 to breed, train, and match each seeing Guy dog** and about **40% of pups don't make it to the end of the program**.
* ⌚ " The entire watch consists of about **200 parts** in total, **50 of which make up the tourbillon**.
* 🏏 " An English Willow Tree is ready to be cut down when it reaches **60 cm in circumference**, which takes an average of **15 years**.
* 🌿 " PK can only grow in the wild on **mud flats, coastal wetlands** that form when ocean tides wash in **sediment and mud**.

### Training Guide Dogs, Crafting Expensive Ink Stones, and Making Luxury Wine Barrels: The Art and Cost of Traditional Crafts
* 🐕  Training guide dogs involves advanced techniques like **blindfold walks** to ensure the **safety and focus** of both the dog and handler.
* 🖋️  Crafting expensive ink stones requires meticulous handwork, with prices reaching **over $2,200 for larger pieces**.
* 🍷  Producing luxury wine barrels, known as futas, involves selecting the **finest French Oak** and can cost up to **$50,000 each**.
* 🍄  Cultivating forest-grown Shiitake mushrooms, particularly the rare white flower variety, is a labor-intensive process that can fetch up to **$400 per kilo**.
* 🎵  Building massive pedal harps, which can cost over **$70,000**, involves intricate handcrafting and over **2,000 parts** assembled by skilled artisans.
* 🧱  Making cement tiles, a traditional craft, requires manual labor and can cost up to **$30 per square foot**, with **growing demand for handmade tiles in interior design**.

10 Of The World's Most Expensive Items | So Expensive Season 13 | Business Insider Marathon

What you want to know about business. 

Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day: https://www.businessinsider.com 
Business Insider on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessinsider
Business Insider on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/insiderbusiness
Business Insider on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/businessinsider
Business Insider on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/Business_Insider/5319643143
Business Insider on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessinsider

If you have a permissions or licensing request, please connect with our partners at PARS International who will be able to provide you with an accurate quote for the overall usage rights that you’re interested in. A representative from PARS will contact you shortly after filling out this request form: https://www.parsintl.com/publications/insider/


Business Insider

The Story of the World's Most Expensive Watches

Tourbillon watches are meticulously assembled, with one selling for $5.

8 million at a 2023 auction, despite no longer improving watch performance.

The high cost of these watches is due to the complexity and precision of the tourbillon mechanism, with some watchmakers taking months to create a single piece.

The intricate process involves crafting over 50 precise components, with each part requiring meticulous sculpting, machining, and hand-finishing to achieve the desired level of quality.

The Art and Science of Crafting High-End Cricket Bats

High-end cricket bats, like the Gunther made of English Willow, can cost up to $1,000 due to the quality of wood, meticulous craftsmanship, and unique sound.

The process of creating these bats starts with selecting the perfect English Willow tree, which takes about 15 years to mature, and can yield about 40 bats each.

The wood is then carefully graded, dried, and shipped around the world for bat production, with the narrow-grained wood being preferred by professional players for its performance.

Each high-end cricket bat takes 24 to 36 hours to make and goes through a detailed process of shaping, smoothing, and compressing the wood, as well as adding the handle made from imported cane.

The demand for authentic bats is increasing worldwide, leading to a booming business, but counterfeit bats made from cheaper wood are also a problem.

The quality of the English Willow trees used to make the bats is being affected by climate change, leading to a potential shortage of the high-grade wood in the future.

The Unique Process of Kombu Production and Its High-End Market

Kombu, a type of seaweed, is processed using modern techniques, but its washing is still crucial for taste.

Its unique taste and texture have made it popular in high-end restaurants worldwide, driving up demand and prices.

The production of Kombu paste, known as Gansui, is a meticulous process involving snow bleaching and years of fermentation, making it more expensive than mass-produced chili pastes.

The Making of Kanuri's Gurri and the Challenges It Faces

Kanuri's Gurri production is true to the original method, but struggles to find enough snow for the traditional snow bleaching process.

The company is facing a shortage of the local togarashi peppers, potentially having to grow them in-house.

The production of Gurri is limited, and its demand is growing, making it a costly condiment to produce.

The cost of raising and training a seeing eye dog is around $75,000, funded through donations, creating about 260 partnerships a year.

Puppies are raised and trained by volunteers until about 2 years old, experiencing real-world situations like riding ferries.

The advanced training involves testing the dogs' ability to keep themselves and their handlers safe, with first-time students spending about 25 days on campus to bond and learn with their new partner.

The Laborious Process of Creating Expensive Ink Stones

Expensive ink stones, used in traditional calligraphy, are crafted from a rare red stone called Sanjok, making them highly valuable.

The process of creating these ink stones is slow and meticulous, involving hand-sawing the stone, chiseling, grinding, and polishing to perfection, which is why they are so expensive.

Despite the availability of more affordable liquid ink, many calligraphers prefer ink stones for the level of control they offer and the unique experience of creating ink from a laboriously crafted stone.

The Cultural Significance of Ink Stones and Luxury Wine Barrels

Haku is reviving the production of Sanjok inkstones by hand, preserving a tradition threatened by mechanization.

The use of French Oak barrels in wine production, particularly the futa barrels, is crucial for creating the subtle flavors of expensive wines.

The slow growth and fine grain of French Oak, along with its controlled release of compounds, contribute to its superiority and higher cost compared to American Oak.

French Oak barrels are customized for wineries, with each one costing thousands of euros.

The oak trees used for the barrels are a limited resource, taking over 120 years to mature, and the French government carefully manages their growth.

The rare and specific conditions needed to produce forest-grown Shiitake, especially the White Flower variety, make them expensive and difficult to cultivate, leading to a high price tag in the global market.

The Impact of Climate Change on a Shiitake Mushroom Farm

Kusa's mushroom farm productivity is shrinking due to the increasingly unpredictable climate, leading to a smaller yield of white flower shiitakes.

The farm's shiitake mushrooms are hand-sorted by color, shape, and size, with the white flower mushrooms separated for special treatment.

The global demand for shiitake mushrooms, driven by their perceived health benefits, is increasing, leading to a growing international market for the product.

The quality of a harp's sound is determined by the specific spruce wood from the Alps and the parallel grain of the soundboard, with each harp having a unique sound.

Harp production involves modern tools but follows a traditional process, with pedal harps being much more expensive than lever harps.

On the other hand, the high cost of cement tiles is driven by expensive pigments, intricate designs, and manual production processes, despite facing supply chain challenges.

The sound quality of a harp relies on the specific spruce wood from the Alps and the parallel grain of the soundboard, resulting in each harp having a unique sound.

Harp production combines modern tools with a traditional process, and pedal harps are significantly more costly than lever harps.

The expensive nature of cement tiles is due to costly pigments, intricate designs, and manual production processes, which have led to supply chain challenges.

Cement tiles are handcrafted one at a time, with artisans producing 50 to 90 tiles a day, using a simple funnel and stick to control the design flow.

The price of cement has more than tripled since 1990, with supply chain disruptions and shortages further pressuring the cost, yet the demand for handmade tiles is growing both domestically and internationally.

The unique, imperfect nature of cement tiles, along with their bold design statements, is driving a steady increase in market size and popularity, appealing to those who appreciate the timeless, artisanal quality of the craft.