Vertu Alphafold
Vertu has spent nearly three decades asking what luxury can add to a mobile phone once everybody carries essentially the same technology. The Alphafold seems to be the answer, and one that goes far beyond the precious materials and exclusivity. This is about service, artificial intelligence, saving time and, above all, status. The phone itself […]
TAG Heuer’s Final Lap in Orange
With the Dutch Grand Prix preparing to take its final bow at Zandvoort later this month, TAG Heuer has chosen exactly the right place to turn up the colour. The new Formula 1 Solargraph 38 mm arrives in two limited editions dressed in the unmistakable orange of the Dutch crowd, a neat piece of timing […]
The Sporting Life of Swiss Watches
Every summer, sport takes over the calendar, Wimbledon fortnight, the Tour de France, Grand Prix show jumping, an international football tournament somewhere, along with a global diving and ocean conservation push, all landing in the same few months. Ticking away in the background of nearly every one of these events, usually on an athlete’s wrist […]
Overfinch’s £1 Million Range Rover
It takes a rare breed of British audacity to transform the world’s quintessential “farmyard-to-Fifth-Avenue” SUV into a machine that rivals the price of prime real estate. Overfinch, the Yorkshire-born custodian of Range Rover customisation since 1975, has answered with a car reported to be the world’s first million-pound Range Rover. A one-of-one Holland & Holland […]
Jaeger-LeCoultre Rendez-Vous
When Jaeger-LeCoultre introduced the Rendez-Vous in 2012, it made a point that should not have needed making: a watch designed specifically for women could be both beautiful and mechanically serious. It also gave the Maison a round-cased, high-complication counterpart to its iconic rectangular Reverso. The first model used the in-house automatic Calibre 967A, while Night […]
Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck
As romantic as the name Moonstruck sounds, the reality is that the new Ulysse Nardin Blast Moonstruck belongs to the realm of science, close to an astronomical instrument. The watch places a three-dimensional Northern Hemisphere beneath a domed sapphire crystal, then sets the Sun and Moon moving around it. Local time, world time, day and […]
Project Zero
Project Zero was conceived from the outset as a genuinely sustainable alternative to traditional luxury yachting, without sacrificing beauty, comfort or performance. The 68.9-metre performance ketch, built by Vitters with design by Vripack and naval architecture by Dykstra Naval Architects, has no combustion engines and is intended to operate entirely on renewable energy. Rather than […]
Time and the Grand Tour
Breitling reunites the Top Time with the Aston Martin DB5 in three limited-edition chronographs inspired by the car’s instruments, materials and grand-touring character. The relationship started 19 years ago with the dashboard clock that Breitling created for the first Continental GT and grew into one of the longest-running alliances between a watchmaker and a motor […]
A Machine from Thra
Martin Smith’s watch winder, the Solar Orbiter looks as if it had travelled from Thra, the three-sunned world of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. More precisely, it may have escaped from Aughra’s observatory: all brass spheres, silver discs and improbable arms revolving around a private cosmology. In the film, Aughra’s enormous orrery predicts the Great […]
The Cup That Holds No Water
The America’s Cup trophy, known as the “Auld Mug” is as unique as the race it represents. The American Cup is also the world’s oldest continually contested international sporting trophy. Curiously, the trophy – crafted by London silversmiths R&S Garrard & Co in 1848, was – and still is – completely open at the bottom (the habit […]
