iPhone 6s: pre-orders open for handsets covered in 24K-gold, diamonds

Platinum and crystal-covered options can be ordered, too

Pre-orders have begun for the unreleased iPhone 6s and 6s Plus – as long as customers are happy to pay £2,500 to have them coated in gold or platinum.

The new iPhone isn’t set to be launched until September 9, and won’t go on sale until after that, but Goldgenie is already offering the chance to pre-order one that has been coated in precious metals.

Goldgenie offers a similar service for almost all phones, and appears to be looking to get out ahead of the official launch.

The company offers a range of different levels of precious metal, at varying price points.

The basic version is the “Elite”, which offers a phone coated in gold, rose gold or platinum and costs £2,500.

Goldgenie also offers the “Swarovski Style Brilliance Elite”, which is the same price and covers the bottom, top, sides and Apple logo in Swarovski crystals and also costs £2,500. The “Supernova” is much the same except the crystals spread across the whole back of the phone.

Another version coats the back of the phone in red crocodile leather.

The company also offers a £10,000 Diamond RockStar version. That coats the phone in 24-karat gold and then sticks real diamonds around its side, rather than using Swarovski cut glass that looks like diamonds.

All prices are before VAT, but include free shipping, according to the company. Customers won't be likely to get the phones any earlier than anyone else, despite the early pre-orders, since Goldgenie will presumably have to buy them through Apple or other official retailers.

The standard iPhones come in silver, space grey and gold, and are all made of aluminium. Apple has also been rumoured to be considering offering the iPhone 6s and 6 Plus in a rose gold colour, to match the Apple Watch – but that will be coloured aluminium if it launches, rather than real gold.

Apple is likely to keep the same prices for the iPhones, which begin at £539.

Goldgenie recently gained further prominence by selling a £1,580 gold phone in memory of Cecil the Lion. The HTC One M9 handset was engraved with the message “For Cecil and His Kingdom” and Goldgenie said that it would give a small part of the profits to Friends of Hwange, a charity that works in the Hwange National Park where Cecil lived.