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LUXURY WITHOUT COMPROMISE

Issue 110. SGD8.90

Dom Pérignon’s Plénitude 2 headlines our Renewal issue

01-02/2022

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CONTENTS

Editor’s Letter

Objectiﬁed

Auction

The Answers With...

Field Notes

Renewal

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

This issue, we take you from One Wall Street in New York City (above) to Château Ducru-Beaucaillou in Bordeaux as we explore the varied paths to renewal.

CONTENTS

The Goods Style

Genius At Work: Softly, Softly

Time 82

One Small Step

Watch & Learn

Regional Reserve

100

Size Matters

Grooming 102

Scents, Solids And Splendour

105

Dream Machines Technology

106

Something Old, Something New

Wheels 108

Role Model

110

A Triumph Of Form And Function

Wings

112

Is This Business Aviation’s Frustrating New Normal?

114

Command + Control

116

Zero Sum

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

CONTENTS

117

The Resource Cover Story

118

Second Life

Art & Design 120

Working Order

Money 122

Realty Check

128

“May I Help You?”

130

The Condo Crush

Savour 132

Bolgheri, Italy’s Other B

134

The Great Escapes

138

Beyond The Ordinary

140

A King’s Dram

142

Robb Reader

146

The Duel

On The Cover Plénitude 2 is the second life of Dom Pérignon, patiently brought to a new elevation and set on a path to eternity. Experience it at the exclusive Plénitude Suite AISA Experience, available only at the Dom Pérignon P2 Suite at 1-Altitude. Photography by Dom Pérignon.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

Since when did dreams have a limit?

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

In the realms of horology, contributing editor Yeo Suan Futt looks into the many ways that august legacy watchmakers and two independents are injecting progressive developments into their brand DNA to better prepare for the coming years. From Richard Mille establishing a donor’s club to support the Paris Brain Institute, to Roger Dubuis’ singular focus on ‘hyper horology’, there’s something to be said for a fairly olden-day craft making its impact and presence hugely palpable throughout two pandemic-touched years. As it stands, the year ahead is one of our making and it is hoped that our first offering for 2022 will fill you with grand ideas of how to make it one to remember. If you’ve felt rather in a rut, then perhaps it’s wise to reflect on the words of the originator of lateral thinking Edward de Bono. The multi-hyphenate authored 85 books (translated into 46 languages) and passed on in June last year at the grand old age of 88. For him: “You can’t dig a new well by digging the same hole deeper.” Best of luck for 2022.

Robb Report Singapore Editors

P H O T O G R A P H Y : I W A N B A A N /A U D E M A R S P I G U E T.

EDITOR’S LETTER Audemars Piguet’s production facility in Le Locle is an ambitious project that respects its environmental commitments.

THE ANCIENT CHINESE philosopher Lao Tzu, and supposed author of the Tao Te Ching – the treatise on which philosophical Taoism is founded – is credited with an enigmatic saying: “When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” This issue, meant to encompass both the Gregorian and lunar years, is a study of how new ways in old worlds can reap rich rewards. Bordeaux’s 300-year-old Château DucruBeaucaillou, the famed second-growth producer in Saint-Julien, is now seeing a renaissance of sorts. Its 65-year-old ‘bad boy’ custodian BrunoEugène Borie (who invented the Somm Butler to help pour large-format wines most elegantly) is bringing high-energy zeal to the estate, with neon artwork in the cellars and renovating the entire chateau – with the help of a top Parisian designer – to make it one of the most contemporary spaces in the region. Those hankering for the kind of golf holiday that exceeds expectations in all regards may read on to discover how the ‘revolutionary enthusiasts’ of Bravo Whisky Golf are reshaping leisure golfing. For starters, you will find yourself on the wildest, most beautiful patch of links at Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, savouring The Macallan Red Collection 40 Years Old along the way. And then, perhaps, finding yourself in four other countries, hitting 17 courses – including some of the planet’s greatest – all within 19 days.

Manufactured by the over 250-year-old crystal maker Baccarat, the Ultimate Bottle rests on a natural leather base crafted at Louis Vuitton’s workshops in Asnieres, France.

OBJECTIFIED

Objectified

Cobalt Fury An unusual blue titanium case becomes the statement maker in this latest release of Jacob & Co’s Twin Turbo Furious series (limited to 18 pieces, price upon request). Its monster 57mm x 52mm case of blue titanium and 18-carat rose gold frames a dial of Neoralithe – an ultraviolet, thermal and shock-resistant resin. Like the other three series models, this Twin Turbo Furious uses the JCFM05 manualwinding tourbillon movement, made up of 832 components. The complications include two high-speed triple-axis tourbillons, a decimal minute repeater, a monopusher chronograph and a reference time differential function. The complex movement allows for a 50-hour power reserve. The series is an ode to highperformance hypercars, so the nostalgic pit board and fuel gauge settings are front and centre on the dial, and you’re able to manually set reference times by using its crank – pulled out to the ﬁrst position and unfolded – to move the coloured, rotating disc and central digital display to set the reference time. If you start the chronograph using the monopusher, you’ll begin to notice the elapsed differences. This rather vintage method of measuring time gives a nod to classic motorsports, proof that not everything old is outdated.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

Objectified

The Power & The Glory Even today, French jewellery designer Jean Schlumberger’s adoration of nature reverberates within Tiffany & Co’s high jewellery creations. A Tiffany & Co Schlumberger Leaves necklace (price upon request) wreathed in platinum and 18-carat gold attracts the eye with its magnificent cushioncut aquamarines and sculptured leaves, all deftly set with round brilliant diamonds. A slightly more demure but no less opulent Butterfly necklace interspersed with 15 green tourmalines shows off the delicate 18-carat yellow gold links that join each platinum and diamond-set butterfly. Echoing the many-petalled, doveshaped aquilegia or columbine flower, an Ancolie clip executed in 18-carat yellow gold features a breathtaking array of sapphires that stretch upwards and outwards, as if in full bloom. At its centre wae round sapphires and over eight carats of round and oval pink sapphires, while at the brooch’s edge are over 10 carats of pear-shaped sapphires, dripping from the ends of its finely wrought petals.

R O B B R E P O RT

Objectified

Scents Of Time The notion of a Louis Vuitton object passing from one generation to the next is what inspired its perfume artisans to conceive the Ultimate Bottle (€15,000). For the ﬁrst time in its history, Les Parfums Louis Vuitton has created an oversized Ultimate Bottle, idealised by the creative nous of designer Marc Newson. A trio of Louis Vuitton’s most popular fragrances – Rose des Vents, Matière Noire and L’Immensité composed by the maison’s master perfumer Jacques Cavallier Belletrud – are presented in a luxurious onelitre Baccarat crystal bottle. Only 200 unique, numbered and engraved pieces of the Ultimate Bottle will be made by the 250-year-old crystal maker. This heirloom-to-be is topped with a cap of black crystal with the Louis Vuitton logo in hand-painted gold enamel. The entire bottle rests on a natural leather base which, as one might expect, is produced in-house, and is accompanied by a glass dome.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

OFF THE BLOCK We keep you up-to-date on the hottest lots under the hammer.

Choupette by Joana Vasconcelos

Karuizawa 1964 - 51 Year Old

Auctioned by Sotheby’s in Monaco for €20,160

Auctioned by Bonhams in Hong Kong for HK$1.2 million

Comfortably exceeding its pre-auction top estimate of €7,000, this faience sculpture of the late Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved cat, Choupette, was created by the Portuguese contemporary visual artist Joana Vasconcelos. Composed of earthenware by Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro, polychrome enamelling and hand-crocheted cotton, the sculpture was executed in 2013 and was a highlight of the ﬁrst session of the Karl auction series, featuring items from the German designer’s estate. Following the completion of the ﬁrst and second sessions last December (both in Paris and online), the third auction is scheduled to take place in March in Cologne.

Of the many Karuizawa whisky lots sold by Bonhams in November 2021, none attracted more attention than this bottle, which contains Karuizawa whisky (with an ABV of 51.6 per cent) distilled at the beginning of May 1964. “The fact that there were some casks left from the 1960s was nothing short of a miracle. This was old, old-style Japanese whisky, of a character that would never be seen again,” commented expert David Broom. Numbered bottle 32 of 43 and drawn from cask number 17, the single malt was bottled in 2015 by Wealth Solutions and presented in a walnut wood box decorated with cherry blossom carvings.

Diego y yo by Frida Kahlo Auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York for US$34.9 million Returning to the art market for the ﬁrst time in over 30 years, the sale of Frida Kahlo’s 1949 self-portrait, Diego y yo (Diego and I) smashed her previous highest-selling auction record of US$8 million. Painted in the wake of her husband Diego Rivera’s affair with actress and singer María Félix, it conveys the artist’s passion, pain, vulnerability and her tumultuous relationship with Rivera. This new auction record is all the more signiﬁcant given that this work fetched just US$1.4 million at Sotheby’s in 1990, illustrating the soaring popularity of Kahlo’s work and Latin American art.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

W O R D S : R E N Y I L I M. P H OTO G R A P H Y: B O N H A M S , S OT H E B Y ’ S .

Auction

Coin du bassin aux nymphéas by Claude Monet Auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York for US$50.8 million Hotly pursued by collectors from Asia and the Americas, this 1918 masterpiece by Claude Monet had – until its appearance at auction remained in the same private collection for almost 25 years. Within this celebrated canvas, ﬂoating water lilies are juxtaposed with weeping willow tendrils and water grass fronds to create a sense of dynamism and motion. Considered a hallmark of 20th-century art, this rich, kaleidoscopic depiction of Monet’s lily pond at his garden in Giverny (a prominent subject of the artist’s work throughout several decades) outlines the vision and creativity of his mature years.

Entrance of Act II, Giselle by Natalia Osipova

Hublot Classic Fusion Tourbillon Haute Joaillerie, Ref 505. WX.9000.LR

Le Nez by Alberto Giacometti

Auctioned by Bonhams online and in London for £10,837.50

Auctioned by Bonhams in Hong Kong for HK$1.1 million

Auctioned by Sotheby’s in New York for US$78.4 million

A unique attraction of Bonhams’ Encore! Modern Art on Stage sale, this was the ﬁrst time that NFTs for ballet were offered for auction. Russian ballerina Natalia Osipova, a principal dancer at The Royal Ballet in London, performed two pieces from the classic ballet Giselle and one from the contemporary duet Left behind, collectively referred to as Natalia Osipova: Triptych. Her interpretation of the role of Giselle was recorded exclusively for the NFT last November, marking one of the ﬁrst opportunities for collectors and ballet admirers to own a piece of performance art.

A total of 1,185 baguette diamonds, 500 hours of dimensional checking and quality control, 4,100 hours of cutting, and four months of stone-setting work were poured into this extraordinary wristwatch. Hublot fans who were present at Baselworld 2013 may recall the moment it was unveiled as an haute joaillerie piece, following which only eight pieces were produced of this 18-carat white gold and baguette-cut diamond, skeletonised tourbillon timepiece. This watch, which was crafted in 2015, has a power reserve of 120 hours and a water resistance of 30m.

This bronze, steel and iron sculpture was one of 35 artworks from The Macklowe Collection to appear at auction – an event that brought in a combined total of US$676.1 million, making it the most valuable sale to be held at Sotheby’s. Only eight examples of Le Nez were created by Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti, with this particular example having been conceived in 1949 and cast in 1965. This is one of just three examples to remain in private hands. Having previously belonged to real estate developer Harry Macklowe and his wife, it eventually sold to a collector in Asia.

R O B B R E P O RT

THE AN S WERS WITH . . .

PROSPER ASSOULINE The French businessman opens up about his collection of extraordinary books, wine choices and more. Words: Lucy Alexander Photography: Weston Wells PROSPER ASSOULINE IS impatient for a return to normality. Normality, that is, of a very French and rareﬁed type, for the 64-year-old luxury-book publisher really embodies the brand that bears his name. Founded with his wife, Martine, in 1994, Assouline issues jewel-hued, fat-paged tomes that express the couple’s devotion to all things nonpareil. Beginning with a homage to their favourite hotel on the Cote d’Azur, Assouline has since published more than 2,000 monographs on topics including panama hats, Venetian synagogues and the official history of Formula 1, doused in rubber-scented perfume. “What I like is to make books alive and tactile,” says Prosper. He enthuses about a recent two-kilo doorstopper on Versailles, “a special edition with the seal of Louis XIV... huge, gold, the cover is in velvet, it’s just unbelievable. When you buy the book, you can have a private visit with the curator and the president of Versailles. We just made 100 copies.” While eye-popping books remain the core business, the Assoulines also curate private libraries and operate boutiques. Prosper, Martine and their son, Alexandre, the company’s global vice president, divide their time between New York’s Upper East Side and Paris’s 1st Arrondissement. What do you do in your life that is still analogue? It’s the only thing I do. I write a lot; I draw. Each time I have an idea, I draw it immediately, so I always have pens with me. Digital is not very important for me. What in your wardrobe do you wear most often? A white jean by Incotex. I have a ton of that; it’s like the black dress. Cashmere T-shirts from Hobbs and Loro Piana shoes. This is my day-to-day. What song is in your head? Philip Glass when I want to work calmly, and Lenny Kravitz when I need energy. What is your exercise routine? A little bit of bicycle at home, squash, and each time I am in an elevator, I put my back on the wall very straight, like in the army. So I take elevators as exercise.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

Prosper Assouline in his Park Avenue ofﬁce.

The Answers With...

What is the most recent thing that you have added to your collection? I am a big collector of books. I just bought at Christie’s in Paris an extraordinary book. It was (one of) just six copies made by an artist in the 1960s. The cover is in plexiglass, with a lot of different colours. It’s the ﬁrst book I ever saw with a light; there’s a battery inside. What is the most recent thing that you regret not buying? A Harley Davidson motorcycle from 1947. I saw one that was beautiful and red; it was amazing. People are going to think I am crazy, but I want to have that in my office as a sculpture. Aside from books, what do you collect? I have a big collection of handmade musical instruments from the 18th and 19th centuries, some made by Shakers. They are all unique. Where do you buy your clothes? For 30 years I bought custom suits from Caraceni in Milan. And now (I go to) a nice Italian guy in America, Denis Frison. How do you get to sleep? Wine. Pomerol for French wine, Amarone for Italian and pisco sour for cocktails. What do you most regret? That I did not spend more time with my brother, who passed away ﬁve years ago. Do you like to drive or be driven? When I am in Paris, I have a beautiful Jaguar sports car and I love to drive. Here (in New York), I take Uber. It’s impossible to drive in this city. Where are your regular tables in London, New York and Paris? In London I always have dinner at a club, 5 Hertford. In New York, it’s only at Il Buco. In Paris, I go to L’Ami Louis. Are you wearing a watch? How many do you own? For years my son stole my watches. Now he has his own watches; I have taken mine back. Right now on my hand I have an old gold Patek Philippe, which I love. And on the weekend I wear an old TAG Heuer. How would others describe your look? Fun. I have a collection of handmade hats, maybe 50, in different colours. I love them.

Clockwise from left: vintage photographs of artworks, including Florence’s Duomo, in Prosper Assouline’s ofﬁce; his collection of handmade hats; Assouline wearing his gold Patek Philippe; a Denis Frison suit.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

What is your favourite hotel? In Kyoto there’s a small hotel that I love called Tawaraya. It’s absolutely amazing, from the 19th century. The Surf Club in Miami, the Connaught in London and the Plaza in Paris. What person do you admire most? I love artists who don’t compromise, like Brâncuși and Lucio Fontana. People who want to push boundaries and make a new world.

Field Notes

2022 Another year of living dangerously. Andrew Leci stares into his crystal ball and ﬁnds it rather more opaque than usual. Illustration: Kenny Nguyen

THERE IS ONLY one thing about 2022 that I can state with any degree of certainty, and it is this: the year will be full of uncertainty. I’m pretty sure about this, and intend to begin a lecture tour explaining just how unsure we should all be about almost everything. The problem is that I’m not sure where I should go, and I am even less conﬁdent of being able to get there. We were all hoping that things would return to a semblance of normality at some point during 2021. The summer months were supposed to get us over the pandemic hump, after which we could get back to the pre-COVID status quo in which most people were miserable but didn’t have to worry about lockdowns and all the malarkey that made them even more miserable. We all embraced the concept of a ‘new normal’ - whatever the hell that ever meant - and would have done our bit in pretending that we were bold and adaptable enough to deal with whatever vicissitudes the pandemic threw our way. We also thought that the said pandemic had a shelf life/expiration date, and we’d be out the other side by now, having beaten it into submission with the resolve and collective will for which human beings are renowned. Yes, this is sarcasm. We’re not, and we didn’t, creating another uncertainty for 2022, to wit; whether there will be enough letters in the Greek alphabet to cater to the forthcoming COVID-19 variants. Omicron seems to be the ﬂavour of the current months, and I would imagine that there are quite a few brands out there – Omega, Sigma and Kappa to name but three – who

are desperately hoping that things get better before they get adverse (from a marketing perspective). I approached the corporate communications team at Iota for a comment, but they didn’t seem to care even a little bit. The global economic outlook is… uncertain – with the exception of continued volatility in the marketplace, which is an absolute certainty. Broadly speaking, there should be growth, but graphs depicting such are likely to look more like a relief map of the Himalayas than smooth, comfortably trending lines. This is partly due to the disruption that the pandemic has created with regard to supply chains, and also (perhaps in equal part) down to the changing nature of the labour market. When supply chains are under stress, price hikes can occur, which is a headache for both manufacturers and consumers alike. The pain is felt, and then invariably passed down. When a signiﬁcant part of the workforce, however, appears to be going through an existential crisis – questioning their very being as ‘employees’ – we have a whole new set of issues. ‘The Great Resignation’ has become a buzzy phrase in my hood. Allegedly coined by Anthony Klotz, a professor at Texas A&M University in the US, and no doubt invoking ‘The Great Depression’ - which was all the rage in the 1930s - it suggests that workers (particularly those with white collars) are leaving their jobs in droves. The movement is also being dubbed as, ‘The Big Quit’. I’m not sure which one I prefer. Affected by lockdowns, social distancing and working from

R O B B R E P O RT

Field Notes

The pandemic has created a different landscape and reassessments are being made with respect to what we’ve been made to do, what we might be prepared to do, and what we would truly like to do.

home, many of us, it seems, are questioning the whole concept of office jobs and the nine-to-ﬁve routines and schedules that have become the norm. The pandemic has created a different landscape and reassessments are being made with respect to what we’ve been made to do, what we might be prepared to do, and what we would truly like to do. With ‘work/life balance’ becoming another, evermore catchy phrase, many have already thrown in the towel in the changing room next to the gym at The Gainful Employment Country Club, while others have hung them up to dry until the pandemic is over. This won’t be in the course of 2022, by the way. Just saying. I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up. As a new year dawns, resolutions are made, and one of the most common is to change jobs; get a better job; get a job that allows the individual to spend more time doing what’s important to them – be it family, self-actualisation or macramé. 2022 may very well present the kind of uncomplicated slate that could facilitate that, and while it will be good for some, it’s going to be a potential nightmare for many others; companies in particular. With the ongoing supply chain difficulties mentioned earlier, industries and businesses have found themselves having to ‘pivot’. With the exception of ‘perseverance’, this was probably the most overused word of 2021. Both words are equally annoying, unless the latter directly refers to the Mars

rover. Reducing manufacturing capacity and, by implication, production, has also meant that companies able to streamline operations (and product lines) and do less, better, will survive and possibly even flourish. Their employees? Not so much. Those with real talent, however, will be able to call the shots in the new normal, and retaining those members of staff will be one of the biggest challenges employers will have to face throughout 2022 and into our craven new world. There is talk of a ‘war on talent’, and the battlefield will be the workplace – both real and virtual. This year may prove to be fruitful and profitable for those who know what they’re doing and whose services are in high demand. The hindmost will have to be ware of the devil. It won’t be their year. The COVID-19 pandemic has produced such a level of uncertainty that it has prompted many of us to think about ways in which to shape our own futures and take control of our lives, in unusual circumstances. This is what, I predict, will characterise 2022, but I’m not entirely sure. We’re very fortunate in that the technology exists to enable many of us to keep calm and carry on, but it has become increasingly clear to some that this is simply not enough anymore. No one knows what 2022 will bring us; of that we can be certain. It will be those among us who are prepared to expect the unexpected and embrace the uncertainty who will do Charles Darwin proud.

R O B B R E P O RT

THE RENEWAL ISSUE

“The cyclone ends. The sun returns; the lofty coconut trees lift up their plumes again; man does likewise. The great anguish is over; joy has returned; the sea smiles like a child.” – Paul Gauguin

THE RENEWAL ISSUE

Old World, New Attitude From the vaunted wine to the contemporary art, modernity reigns at Bordeaux’s Château Ducru-Beaucaillou. Words: Ted Loos

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Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, an 18th-century chartreuse in the Médoc region of France.

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ordeaux is a beloved wine region, but it has a reputation for being a little staid. For an elite property, incentives for radical change are few. Take Château Ducru-Beaucaillou, the revered second-growth producer in the Saint-Julien appellation. Founded in 1720, Ducru (insiders use just the ﬁrst part of its name) is celebrating 300 years of exceptional winemaking with the recent release of its 2020 vintage, which is adorned with a special commemorative label, to high demand at US$239 a bottle. The chateau has had a level of longevity that is hard to grasp. When the estate was formed, the French Revolution was still nearly 70 years away. “Ducru has historically had an aura about it,” Jamie Ritchie, the worldwide head of Sotheby’s wine department, says of its reputation for plush and long-lived red wines based primarily on Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. But the current custodian of the legend of Ducru, Bruno-Eugène Borie, doesn’t quite ﬁt the expected mould. His family took over the vineyard in 1942, and Borie, who assumed control in 2003, is something of a bad boy, in his own words, and someone who is constantly innovating and blowing through the stop signs of convention. When he realised, for instance, that there was no way to decant and pour those enormous large-format bottles seen in wine-auction catalogues and on top-tier restaurant wine lists, he simply invented a contraption, the Somm Butler, to help out (it’s been used at Spago, Robuchon and the like). It cradles the bottle and makes it easy to serve.

Left: the formal dining room, with Lunar chairs by Stellar Works and Tassel sconces by Apparatus. Below: Frog Table by Hella Jongerius.

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“We are 300 years young,” says Borie, who, at 65, is possessed of high energy, an intense focus and the ability to wink at pretension. Like a lot of Frenchmen, he has the gift of the gab, but he actually has something to say, especially about taking a revered name and giving it a good shake to make sure it can move forward. He adds that his motto, which he borrowed from an artist friend, is “modern forever”. That’s certainly reﬂected in his taste in art and design. Borie was a collector of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s work in the 1990s, before it was de rigueur for high-end buyers, and he put a neon artwork of a cat dribbling a basketball, by French artist Alain Séchas, in the august cellars where the wines age before they are released. The time he spent in his younger years trawling the galleries in New York’s SoHo and Chelsea neighbourhoods seems to have paid off. When Borie was on the professional association called Conseil des Crus Classés de Bordeaux in the 1990s, he tried to realise an elaborate installation by the great French conceptual artist Daniel Buren for the group’s headquarters. It involved, he recalls, “61 tall poles, each carrying a striped banner bearing the silhouette of each of the 61 growths”. The proposal was too radical for his Bordelais compatriots, so he had to give it up. Looking back on the project now, it seems ahead of its time. Closer to home, he has gotten his way, with spectacular results. Borie hired a top interior

Ducru’s wine cellar, lit at the end with a neon sculpture by Alain Séchas, seen in close-up below.

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designer from Paris to gut-renovate the chateau itself – a massive stone pile with a centre wing dating to 1820, flanked by later-Victorian towers at either end – and the result is full of eye-popping colour and cutting-edge lighting and furniture, a vibrant and un-quiet scheme that is kilometres away from the musty and fusty environments seen elsewhere in the neighbourhood. Wineries, particularly ones housed in old castles, are a very high-end version of living above the store, where design choices are intensely personal. Not only did Borie grow up in the chateau, but he now lives there with his wife, Frederique, and their son and daughter. His 93-year-old mother, Monique, also has her own apartment in the chateau; she’s been living on-site since 1950. Among its other charms, the estate is set on an elaborately landscaped 4.9-hectare park, designed by Eugène Bühler in the 19th century. The Bories are also the previous proprietors of Bordeaux’s Château Haut-Batailley, and Borie’s brother, François-Xavier, owns and runs Château Grand-Puy-Lacoste, which has a lesser ranking than Ducru but is respected and venerable. Given that major corporations such as LVMH are running some of the highest-profile neighbouring producers, it’s worth noting that members of the Borie family control two of the best, oldest names in the region. The decorator Borie hired to energise the Ducru château, Sarah Poniatowski, founder of Maison Sarah Lavoine, notes that Bordeaux has a reputation within France of being “very conservative” and that the fun comes from how Ducru’s current principal upends expectations. “That’s what’s great about Bruno,” says Poniatowski. “When you look at him and meet him for the first time, you think he’s always a conservative man. But he’s the opposite of that. We really had a great time on this project because he’s so bold.” Poniatowski knows something about updating gilded lineages. She’s technically a princess, being descended from a king of Poland, and she was married to French pop star Marc Lavoine. Her strategy for Ducru was all about pairing “very strong contemporary pieces that contrasted a lot with the classical side of the house”. In the reception room known as the Grand Salon, objects by some of the world’s most cuttingedge designers are juxtaposed with mouldings, panelled walls and other elaborate woodwork. A mirrored commode by the Paris design duo Garouste & Bonetti as well as Ron Arad’s Big Easy chair and Marc Newson’s Zenith chaise, made of gleaming aluminium, enliven the centuriesold architecture.

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Borie reduced production by more than half and extended the wine’s pre-release cellar time. “Many of the decisions were opposite to our accountant’s suggestions.”

f course, it’s the hedonism in the bottle that the larger world is focused on, given that the average person stands scant chance of snagging an invitation to the chateau (though Borie, an enthusiastic cook, does a lot of entertaining). When he arrived in the top job a few years after his father died, Borie was lucky enough to start with a storied brand. But his ﬁrst year running the estate, 2003, was a notoriously hot, tricky vintage, with weather that was responsible for thousands of deaths across Europe. Right away, he demonstrated a serious hands-on attitude and a commitment to ﬂexibility. Going against an instinct that would become his hallmark – what he calls a “constant process of reduction” in the vineyard, referring to pruning and the selection of grapes – he made sure that the

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Right, from top: the chateau and two views of its library collection. Below: Château Ducru-Beaucaillou 2020 Tercentenary Vintage, marked by a commemorative label.

method for this special vintage left leaves on the vine, forming what’s called a canopy, in an effort to protect the grapes from the heat. It worked. In the 18 vintages since then, he has signiﬁcantly reduced the amount of wine the chateau produces – what had once been 15,000 yearly cases is now more like 7,000 – a decision about quality that is not great for the bottom line (given that whatever Ducru makes will always sell). With a sly smile, Borie says: “Many of the decisions were opposite to our accountant’s suggestions,” something of an understatement. The process of ageing Bordeaux in oak is always an expensive endeavour, and Borie increased the length of Ducru’s pre-release cellar slumber by 50 per cent, from 12 months to 18 months, before the wine is sold. “We make wine for the future,” says Borie. “And what is the maturation in casks? It’s mainly to give the ageing capacity to the wine.”

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The walls and some of the upholstered furniture are in different shades of the same rich teal colour used all over the house– highly untraditional in one way, but then again, it may evoke the deep inﬂuence of water on the Médoc district. Home to Ducru, the legendary Médoc is located on an isthmus between the Atlantic Ocean and the estuary of the mighty Gironde River, which has a profound impact on the wines. In the living room overlooking the lush park, the dining table is a round, chic concrete piece by Martin Szekely, surrounded by tubular chairs from Cassina based on a design by the great Frenchwoman Charlotte Perriand. Throughout, the lighting is unexpectedly sleek and surprising, including a fringed lamp by the Dutch designer Wieki Somers and a modern wall sconce by Apparatus. But the house’s past wasn’t discarded. When, during construction, a layer of old wallpaper was revealed in the dining room, Poniatowski had it replicated and installed in several spaces. All of it delights Borie. “Sarah is very modern,” he says. “She gave us something comfortable, but also hedonistic.”

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Right: proprietor Bruno-Eugène Borie with his Keith Haring.

Below: Ducru’s 4.9-hectare park, which was designed by Eugène Bühler.

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In the living room, an Olivier Gagnère vase sits atop a commode by Garouste & Bonetti. The grouping by the window includes Wieki Somers’s lamp, Marc Newson’s Zenith chair, Ron Arad’s Big Easy chair and a Geta black coffee table by Ronan and Erwan Bouroullec.

Not that Borie lacks business acumen. In 1985, well before his stewardship of Ducru, he purchased the famed French aperitif Lillet, increased the sales by a factor of 20 in France and a factor of six in the US, and then sold it in 2008 – just before the global economic meltdown. And he made a move at Ducru that goes against an ingrained part of French culture:;he eliminated automatic August vacations for workers on the estate. As the climate has warmed, late summer has become a much busier period in the vineyards, with harvests coming earlier and earlier. Joking that it’s considered “criminal in France” to make people work at that time of year, Borie says it is all in the service of “changing and adapting, making sure we don’t do the same things every year just because it’s comfortable”. Bucking the system has paid off. As Ritchie of Sotheby’s notes: “Bruno has brought more volume and weight and more dimension to the wine, but keeping it refined and classy.” The 1970 Ducru is the one that keeps popping up at auction, Ritchie adds, and is one for collectors to seek out. In November 2020, 10 bottles of the 1970 went for nearly US$2,000 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong. Or you can go to a fine restaurant such as Eleven Madison Park in Manhattan. “We’re fortunate enough to be able to feature several legendary vintages, including 1961 and 1966, the latter of which is in magnum,” says the restaurant’s wine director, Watson Brown. “When Ducru reaches a full maturity, there is a certain softness on the palate which is really inviting, but the wine still maintains its length and aromatics.” Eleven Madison Park’s list also offers the 1988, a bit of a sleeper vintage that will reward oenophiles with the elegant flavours of a mature Bordeaux, such as mellow cassis and coffee. For collectors, a good entry point for the estate’s charms is Ducru’s “second label”, Croix de Beaucaillou, which is made from different plots. The 2010 (around US$75) demonstrates Borie’s interest in design to be sure, with a label by jewellery maven (and daughter of Mick) Jade Jagger. It needs decanting and/or cellaring time, but then keeps your interest with an intensity that is tightly wound. Borie jokes that he can pursue quality at this level via unconventional means because “I will not fire myself” for overspending or overthinking things. But the passion for the process and the results is deeply felt on his part and can be deeply tasted by everyone. “We’re experimenting all the time,” he says, “and there’s a real ambition to find the best solution.”

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This and facing pages: Ardﬁn combines ﬁve-star luxury with a Bob Harrison-designed golf course.

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High Tee When is a round of golf as exciting as heli-skiing? When revolutionary enthusiasts take charge of logistics. Words: Jen Murphy Photography: Amanda Farnese Heath

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boutique hotels and VIP experiences, such as special entry to distilleries or a private dinner with a lord at his grand ancestral estate. Thanks to a relationship with the only commercial seaplane company in the UK, they are able to escort guests like me to Ardfin in under an hour. The evening before my scheduled departure for Jura, Geddes surprises me with a private whisky tasting at my hotel, Edinburgh’s grande dame, the Balmoral. Scotch, the hotel’s exclusive whisky room, boasts over 500 varieties of the Scottish spirit, including the sought-after Macallan Red Collection 40 Years Old. As we taste our way through a flight of the Macallan Sherry Oak 12 Years Old, the distillery’s Double Cask 15 Years Old and the 2021 release of its Rare Cask, my whiskywarmed worries about the ominous weather forecast spill out. Geddes, a baby-faced 49-year-old with a predilection for extreme skiing and fine French wines, seems anything but concerned as he takes another sip of the Rare Cask, which he poetically describes as Christmas in a glass. “We’ll be fine,” he says with a sly smile. “Plus, a helicopter and helipad are a back-up if we can’t make a water landing, and if it’s too windy, a private boat is on standby.”

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he dramatic clifftop golf course at Ardfin Estate sits mostly on rock and clay rather than on sand and dunes, with holes placed on slivers of beach and in towering bluffs. Boldly sculpted into the rugged shoreline of the southern tip of Jura, an island in Scotland’s Inner Hebrides, it requires an adventurous soul to play, not to mention to reach. George Orwell described the secluded isle, population 230 people and 6,000 deer,as “an extremely un-get-atable place”. In the late 1940s, it was the perfect remote retreat to pen his final work, 1984. Today, it’s home to one road, one pub, one whisky distillery and Ardfin, one of the world’s most ambitious and lavish golf retreats. It’s exactly the type of edge-ofthe-world locale Bravo Whisky Golf specialises in discovering and making accessible to guests. Some of the most spectacular links in Scotland are tucked away in the deepest corners of fissured coastline and middle-of-nowhere islands, calling for hours of travel by car, plane and ferry to reach. Accessing the Ardfin estate from Edinburgh, for example, typically demands a full and exhausting day requiring a nearly five-hour drive plus an hour-long ferry ride, or an hour’s drive to Glasgow to catch a regularly delayed regional flight to Islay, followed by a ferry crossing and a short drive, all at the whims of the west coast’s unpredictable weather. But Bravo Whisky Golf co-founders Neil Scott Johnson and Paul Geddes adamantly believe that a proper golf holiday should never involve more than 30 minutes of driving in one day. Whether zeroed in on their native Scotland or looking farther afield in Scandinavia, the duo aligns hard-to-reach courses with airstrips,

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From far left: The Macallan Rare Cask which Bravo Whisky Golf co-founder Paul Geddes describes as: “Christmas in a glass”; a vintage Daimler V8 250 from Edinburgh Classic Cars transports guests; Bravo Whisky Golf brand ambassador Clara Young takes a swing; cycling on Ez-Riders electric bicycles.

eddes and Johnson, I quickly learn, aren’t just golf and whisky fanatics. The NATO alphabet code words that form the company’s name are a nod to the duo’s militaryesque logistical and tactical mastery. “We don’t sit around,” Geddes assures me. “There’s always a plan A, B, C and even D.” They are also connoisseurs of the ﬁner things in life (classic cars, champagne, contemporary art, bespoke tweed suits) with the uncanny ability to secure everything from tee times at St Andrews to a private showing of oneof-a-kind tartans by cult textile designer Araminta Campbell. The friends met over 20 years ago while studying at Aberdeen University. Their professional paths veered – Johnson went into property management and ran a catering business with his wife, while Geddes traded commodities – then three years ago, they took a ski trip to Chamonix, France. Deep into their second bottle of wine apres ski, they hatched the idea for a company that would make playing 18 holes as exciting as heli-skiing. Being someone who thrives on adrenaline, I was dubious. But Bravo Whisky Golf is not a conventional golf travel company. It’s a luxury travel company that specialises in golf. A variety of ﬂight plans serve as jumping-off points to build

the trip of your dreams. And if you prefer to mix in some time on the rails, the pair can schedule a break around a charter of the Royal Scotsman, the Belmond luxury train. Given the company’s short season – May through September – and diligent flight organising, which can require weeks to puzzle together followed by six months of fine-tuning, Geddes and Johnson take on only 12 to 16 groups, each ranging from two to eight guests, every year. For golf obsessives, Bravo Whisky Golf can curate journeys such as a 2022 booking set to hit 17 courses in 19 days across five countries. Another plan, which saves 21.5 hours of travel and hops to four off-thebeaten-path Scottish courses via four private flights in three days, serves as a muse for guests like me, who are short on time and like a round of whisky as much as one on the links. Most groups – nearly 90 per cent – are couples who are looking to complement playing time with insider experiences. Geddes or Johnson, a fit 53-year-old who keeps his game sharp by waking at dawn to do qigong, personally escorts every trip. Whoever stays behind runs logistics to ensure everything from the transfer of golf clubs to the backup helicopter flights is executed seamlessly. I was lucky enough to have both gents by my side and got to watch first-hand as they smoothly shifted activities around weather delays and unexpected pandemic restrictions. Geddes’s instincts were correct, and despite the wind and mizzle, a Scottishism for mist and drizzle, we take off, as planned, in a Cessna 208 seaplane over Loch Lomond. The UK’s largest lake spans 37km, and in the eyes of Bravo Whisky Golf, doubles as its longest runway. We could fly direct to Jura, but Ardfin’s team messages to say the weather is wet and blustery – by a Scot’s measure, that’s akin to a hurricane – so we splash down on the banks of Loch Voil for champagne and plump, briny oysters shucked by Tom Lewis, the bald, brazen chef-owner of Monachyle Mhor, a restaurant with rooms where Bravo Whisky Golf sometimes hosts guests. Johnson and Geddes pride themselves on finding unique accommodation. Their portfolio includes classics such as the Balmoral as well as relative newcomers, including Fife Arms, a Highlands inn reimagined by the owners of juggernaut art gallery Hauser & Wirth. But then there is also a retired lighthouse tender turned floating luxury hotel, a 13th-century castle and Laudale Estate, a buy-out property with 10 uniquely designed guest rooms and a toy-filled boathouse located on the shores of the Morvern Peninsula.

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Our plan A had been to arrive at Ardfin by late afternoon for 18 holes. I have no complaints with our backup strategy, which, in addition to the mid-morning oyster snack, includes a potential splashdown on Tiree to surf the long peeling waves of Balevullin beach and visit Welan, the men’s favourite maker of woolly hats in Scotland. But we decide to linger at Monachyle Mhor instead, and when we depart, the ever-changing light up above feels almost biblical. After the veil of mizzle finally lifts, our flight also serves as an aerial tour of the archipelago’s wild beauty. When our pilot gently eases us down near the shore of Ardfin just before dusk, estate manager Willie Macdonald is already waiting with the rib boat to shuttle us to the hotel. Throughout our trip, a drink seems to be the antidote for Scotland’s damp weather, but for once we’re greeted not with whisky, but gin. Macdonald escorts us into the glass-ceilinged Atrium, where Claire Fletcher, one of the three female owners of the island’s six-year-old gin distillery, Lussa, is behind the bar. As she mixes gin and tonics, she schools us on the 15 botanicals – all foraged on Jura – that give Lussa its distinctive aromatics and velvety finish. Savoury house-cured venison salami topped with shaved olives and Parmesan accompany the zesty cocktails almost too well. Luckily, Macdonald gathers us for dinner before a third round is ordered. All stone and wood, decorated with just the right mix of taxidermy and tweed (spun from looms on neighbouring Islay), Ardfin is the quintessential Scottish estate. It’s the type of destination that immediately lulls you into a slower pace with its oversized fireplaces, coddling staff and sprawling grounds. Australian multimillionaire Greg Coffey – nicknamed the Wizard of Oz for his financial brilliance – acquired the 4,856-hectare property in 2010 and hired compatriot and renowned golf architect Bob Harrison to craft what some are calling the greatest course on the planet.

ne look at his creation and its punishing geography, and it’s immediately clear that Harrison designed the 18 holes for a unique breed of golfer – more thrill-seeker than perfectionist. Six years in the making, the course was initially invite-only. But Coffey’s vision for Ardfin grew beyond golf. Last year he debuted five-star accommodation options, including the exclusive-use Jura House, which has nine guest rooms, plus 13 art-filled rooms and two apartments located in the estate’s former farm buildings. Guests have access to his much-hyped golf course, but Coffey hopes they will also come, as he does, to soak in the raw wilderness on deer

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Paddleboarding past Bass Rock, Scotland’s one-time version of Alcatraz (left); the writer heading to Seacliff Beach in North Berwick (below).

stalks with Jura-born gamekeeper Scott Muir or kayak expeditions in the bay and its surrounding skerries. We, however, have one mission: golf. The drying cupboard in my room is the first hint that I’ll be playing in the morning’s sideways downpour. Rain gear supplied by Bravo Whisky Golf is the second. “If you want to golf in Scotland, you can’t be scared of a little weather,” says a giddy Johnson. He has played the course before – one of the many benefits of having an escort who is also a global panellist for Golf Digest International – and I can sense his excitement as we step foot on the first tee box. “This is golf nirvana,” he says with a sigh. We are the sole players out here today. As I take in the wilderness around me – sheep and stags in the distance, crashing waves on the rocks – I know this place is something special.

The distractingly cinematic scenery makes it hard to focus, and this is a course that requires concentration. There is no room for error with the wind and the slope. It’s not uncommon for players to lose ﬁve balls in the Jurassic-sized bracken and thick carpets of heather or off devilish cliffs. The rain subsides, but the wind doesn’t let up as Johnson approaches the back tee of the par-3 10th hole. Precariously perched on a vertigo-inducing cliff jutting out above the ocean, this cliff-to-cliff hero shot spans 178 yards. “This is adventure golf,” Johnson shouts into the howling wind. The extreme environment seems to heighten his competitiveness. He nails the shot and lets loose a simultaneous ﬁst pump-hip shake that Geddes and I later name the Jura jive. As much as we tease, I’d be jiving, too, if I’d made that drive.

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The 11th hole is a challenging par-4 that meanders from the cliff tops across wetlands down to a small boathouse on the shoreline. Music buffs might recognize the site where Scottish band KLF set fire to £1 million in the 1990s in the name of art. Now it’s a cushy comfort station where players can warm up by the fireplace, regain focus and refuel on seafood platters and venison steaks. We battle the elements, lose way more than five balls each and finish the round with weary legs and ruddy faces. It is hands-down the most exhilarating course I’ve ever played. The next day, we hop a five-minute ferry across to Islay. Just 24km from Ardfin, another multimillionaire, former BBC chairman Gavyn Davies, and his wife, Baroness Sue Nye, have

recently reinvented Machrie, one of Scotland’s iconic links courses. Originally laid out in 1891 by famed Scottish golfer Willie Campbell, it weaved in and out of what many describe as the wildest dunes in all of Scotland. Unruly tufts of marram grass resembled the furry heads of Highland cattle, hiding both the ocean view and, infuriatingly to golfers, many a pin. The redesign is equally challenging yet more refined, and even traditionalists will concede the new seascapes are dazzling. While Ardfin’s course aims to intimidate, Machrie encourages progression and fun. The Wee Course, with six par-3s, for example, is the perfect setting for whisky-fuelled sunset putt-putt, which we play with antique hickory clubs one evening. Similarly, the renovated Machrie Hotel is the antithesis of Ardfin’s masculine wilderness estate. Baroness Nye enlisted her friend hotelier Campbell Gray to create a stylish, 47-room country home that celebrates golf heritage with shelves of historic tournament trophies and framed Hermès and

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Gucci golﬁng-themed scarves hung throughout the halls. Whisky is even more acclaimed than golf on this sleepy island, and the hotel’s restaurant and bar, 18, aptly overlooking Machrie’s ﬁnal hole and Laggan Bay, stocks bottles from all nine island distilleries, plus many more. But as a guest of Johnson and Geddes, I visit the cellar doors of lauded producers such as Bowmore, where we tour the No. 1 Vaults, said to be the world’s oldest scotch maturation warehouse, set on the shore of Loch Indaal, and Bruichladdich, where original Victorian-era equipment, including a seven-ton mash tun and six-metre narrow-necked stills, is still in use.

Clockwise from above: Geddes with his Bravo Whisky Golf co-founder Neil Scott Johnson; Johnson, Young and Geddes head to the next hole; dining al fresco; local oysters and scallops served at Monachyle Mhor in Balquhidder; an aircraft from Loch Lomond Seaplanes.

private plane delivers us back to the east coast to play our final holes at North Berwick West Links, Geddes and Johnson’s seaside home course. Blessed with a sunny, blue-sky day, we cut our game short and detour to Ez-Riders, a new e-bike outfitter in nearby East Lothian. Tina O’Rourke, the sporty co-owner, guides us on a ride along the craggy coast, past the ruins of Tantallon Castle and down along the sandy beach of Seacliff. Learning that the ocean would be uncharacteristically calm and knowing my deep love of water activities, Geddes and Johnson called ahead; paddleboards from local operator Ocean Vertical are awaiting us on the shore. I zip into a five-millimetre wetsuit just in case my balance fails me. From the sea, I’m able to fully appreciate the immensity of Bass Rock. Soaring about 107m into the sky, Scotland’s Alcatraz sits just 1.9km offshore and today shelters the world’s largest colony of northern gannets, snowy-white seabirds with blacktipped wings. In true Bravo Whisky Golf fashion, wind-in-my-hair adventure is followed by a formal affair: tea with a lord. Our car turns down a hidden driveway, delivering us to Broomhall House. The 300-year-old home of the family of King Robert the Bruce – father of Scottish independence – is straight out of Downton Abbey and closed to the public. Lord Charles Bruce, heir to the Earldom of Elgin and Kincardine, ushers us inside the library, where shelves of books, including a first edition of Adam Smith’s The Theory of Moral Sentiments, contain some of the greatest ideas of the past three centuries. Charles is just as much historian as host and entertains my inner history nerd by sharing letters exchanged between his great-grandfather, the 9th Earl of Elgin, who served as secretary of state for the colonies, and Winston Churchill, his undersecretary at the time. A neighbouring room has been turned into a museum that currently displays artifacts, such as a compass, musket and handwritten journal, from the travels of explorer James Bruce of Kinnaird, a cousin of the 5th Earl. Charles could indulge me for hours, but Geddes insists we can’t be late for our final appointment. It’s my last evening back in Edinburgh, and the gents don their finest tweeds and wow me with a loaner vintage gown. A driver appears in a midnight-blue Daimler V8 250 to whisk us off to dinner. Bravo, indeed.

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Time To Reset & Rejuvenate Swiss watchmakers reinvent for the future.

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Words: Yeo Suan Futt

IN AN IDEAL world, with life-changing, planetshaping technologies at our disposal, we should have shrugged off a global pandemic like water off a duck’s back. But it has not turned out so; rather, with on-again, off-again lockdowns, mask mandates and travel bans, our efforts have been as heroic as they have been ham-fisted, like turning bolts with a wrong-sized wrench: go too gently, there’s no traction; force it, the bolt is damaged and the masses take to the streets. At its worst, in the first half of 2020, air passenger traffic fell by two-thirds, and global GDP which had tracked between 2.33 and 3.28 per cent in preceding years, flipped the other way to -3.60 per cent. Baselworld was finished when Rolex, Patek Philippe, etc walked out in April, at around the same time that Swiss watch exports fell 62 per cent in value compared to 2019. Thankfully, the rest of 2020 wasn’t so bad and the industry ended the year losing just a bit more than a fifth of its value. Has the world in 2021 been, as the World Bank described it, “poised to stage its most robust postrecession recovery in 80 years”? Just as we were about to do a wheelie, the Omicron variant has got us by the scruff of our necks, with growth forecasts for major countries including the US, Canada, China, India and Australia significantly downgraded, though there seem to be some bright spots in Europe. But as sure as spring follows winter, things will change, and likely for the better after bumping against rock bottom. The Swiss watchmaking industry has done a phenomenal job of keeping an anachronistic, mechanical technology relevant and desirable in a digitalised 21st century.

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Patek Philippe: The Custodian Every watchmaking company is a custodian of sorts, each in its own way preserving the wonderful legacy of watchmakers through the centuries. But there is a distinction in scale and consequence, by which measure Patek Philippe is one of the big boys. Even as innovation is crucial, Patek Philippe is the standard-bearer of so much that is cherished of watchmaking that every little step forward must be considered in the light of deﬁning what must not change. Last year, the manufacture celebrated 20 years of the Patek Philippe Museum, a storehouse of horological treasures with some 2,500 watches, automata, precious objects and portrait miniatures on enamel. It’s a ﬁvecentury tableau of Genevan, Swiss and European horological tradition, and also a chronicle of Patek Philippe’s production since 1839. Patek Philippe is not above letting its hair down on occasion, though. It recently joined the bandwagon of companies releasing watches in cheerier, candied colours; to dispel the gloom of recent times, perhaps. Many of these watches earned a fat chunk of likes on social media; only the minty Tiffany & Co dial Nautilus got auctioned for US$6.5 million.

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Despite its name, the Patek Philippe Museum is not devoted to a single brand. The Antiques Collection (left) presents Genevese, Swiss and European watches and enamels dating from the 16th to the early 19th centuries, while the Patek Philippe Collection (below and facing page, top) showcases watches designed and created by Patek Philippe since its foundation in 1839 up to the present day.

P H O T O G R A P H Y : F A B I E N C R U C H O N / P AT E K P H I L I P P E .

Last year, the manufacture celebrated 20 years of the Patek Philippe Museum, a storehouse of horological treasures with some 2,500 watches, automata, precious objects and portrait miniatures on enamel.

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From art, media and fashion to popular culture including the rap scene and professional basketball, Audemars Piguet commands an enviable presence, to say the least.

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P H O T O G R A P H Y : I W A N B A A N /A U D E M A R S P I G U E T.

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Audemars Piguet: Master Builder

This and facing pages: Manufacture des Saignoles seamlessly integrates the relief of the valley and draws inspiration from the surrounding meadows, boglands and forests.

Audemars Piguet recently took delivery of a new building in Le Locle, and another is being constructed in Le Brassus, expected to be completed in 2025. Both Manufacture des Saignoles (Le Locle) and Arc (Le Brassus) are designed to be modular in accordance to the manufacture’s operating philosophy, integrated by design into the natural environment and built to sustainable ecological principles. Architectural marvels, but Audemars Piguet is not in the buildings business. Rather, it builds great watches. And yet it stands out from its distinguished peers by also being a methodical and effective builder of its own cultural footprint. From art, media and fashion to popular culture including the rap scene and professional basketball, Audemars Piguet commands an enviable presence, to say the least. For all its deep heritage and roots in Swiss watchmaking, Audemars Piguet did not wait for the world to be drawn to its doorstep, but instead stepped boldly beyond the Swiss valleys to understand and participate in contemporary culture.

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Richard Mille: A Donor’s Club for Medical Research Richard Mille thinks far ahead enough that consumers have to play catch up much of the time. Bouncing tourbillons off walls, employing materials birthed in centrifuges, executing gemstone gear trains and creating an aesthetic that is new, bold and evolving: it is for such qualities and being able to convince the watch collector of its vision that Richard Mille watches ride the very crest of the watch price tidal wave. This out-of-the-box drive and philosophy is so ingrained in the brand, it makes its mark in everything Richard Mille touches, and certainly in the area of corporate social responsibility. Created in 2010, the Paris Brain Institute (Institut du Cerveau, ICM) located within Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris brings together some 700 doctors, researchers and entrepreneurs from all over the world to accelerate the development of solutions for brain-related maladies. It is ranked second among the 35 international institutions active in neurological research. Mille has been supporting ICM since 2012, and in 2019 became a member of the institute’s Campaign Committee. In 2021, Mille started a Donors’ Club to serve as a channel for Richard Mille customers to support the efforts of the ICM. Says Mille: “Supporting a structure as advanced and promising as the ICM is a noble cause. Lending our support to this research helps saves lives and improve many existences.” Brain-related diseases, which affect nearly a billion people worldwide, are generally very inclusive. We urgently need as much out-of-the-box thinking in this area as we can spare.

Right: the institute is located at the heart of Europe’s largest hospital in terms of neurology.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: R I C H A R D M I L L E .

Below: (from left) Jean Todt, a close friend of Richard Mille who played a crucial part in the founding of the Paris Brain Institute; the institute’s president Gerard Saillant; and Mille.

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It rains tourbillons at Breguet. And unlike other companies that also create tourbillons, Breguet can say: “Breguet invented that!” That’s its unique privilege that comes from inheriting the mantle of Abraham-Louis Breguet, who has penned a lion’s share of the story of watchmaking with a string of important innovations and inventions, including the tourbillon. But the most exciting news to come out of the manufacture in recent days isn’t about any watch, but rather the appointment of Lionel a Marca as CEO in August 2021. A watchmaker by training, Marca spent 30 years with Swatch Group, moving up the ranks from working on and developing movements to quality management before landing the top job. A good soldier doesn’t always make a good general; tactics and strategy are just different things. But there aren’t that many with Marca’s background heading a storied watchmaking house. That’s sure to stir the waters, at least a little bit.

For nearly 20 years, Lionel a Marca has contributed to the success of Breguet, including implementing the visionary ideas of the brand’s president and CEO, Marc A Hayek.

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P H O T O G R A P H Y : B R E G U E T, R O G E R D U B U I S .

Breguet: Possibly a New Direction

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Roger Dubuis: In the Groove Pushing boundaries often involves sticking a ﬁnger in the eye of convention. White socks with black shoes were an uncomfortable ensemble till Michael Jackson moonwalked into our collective consciousness, and in more recent times, one thinks nothing of going sockless, on the trail blazed by fabulously hip Korean celebrities. Ever pushing forward, Roger Dubuis too has had its odd phases. At one time, it offered a broad collection bearing a diffused appeal over diverse segments, from retro-glam and luxury steampunk to dragon-slaying. Those days are past. In recent years, the Roger Dubuis collection has got its fat trimmed to muscle, and the spirit of its work is now tautly focused, clearly communicated and ready to conquer. Roger Dubuis has hit its groove: making extreme watches for the younger one per cent, imbued with the extreme performance, glamour and design that mirror the want-it-all, live-it-all mindset of go-getting millennial millionaires and youngish tycoons. We see this in the Excalibur range, which now makes up about 90 per cent of Roger Dubuis’ present collection. Like the brand, most of them have shed their dials, are breathtakingly complicated, and seethe with the attitude and conﬁdence of Roger Dubuis’ brand of mechanical wizardry. It’s no gimmick that Roger Dubuis has dropped haute horology for hyper horology.

The spirit of its work is now tautly focused, clearly communicated and ready to conquer.

Roger Dubuis collaborated with street artist Gully to release Excalibur Gully MT, a new watch that mixes the creative territories of the artist and the brand.

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Davide Cerrato wants to push the boundaries of watchmaking by creating timepieces that are creative and fun, have a hybrid time display and are modular to allow for bespoke executions.

HYT: Take Two Bell curves are great at describing myriad phenomena in the world in a way that’s intuitive even for non-mathematicians to understand, that normality is shouldered by extremes at the fringes. In the watchmaking world, HYT was one of those small set-ups that inhabited this fringe, fiercely innovative, insanely creative, eschewing hands for micro-ballasts, capillaries and fluorescent fluids to tell the time in an imaginative way. Skulls are creepy, but HYT made them cheery, cool and fun; memento mori with cheek – if such a thing was possible. Then the lights went out as the brand filed for bankruptcy in March 2021. But as we write this in December, HYT has bounced back under a new company and a new CEO, Davide Cerrato, who formerly headed watches at Montblanc. “Except for the technology, we are starting everything afresh, and working a lot on quality which had been an issue in the past,” said Cerrato. HYT will have much-anticipated announcements in January 2022. In the meantime, we note that Cerrato sees consumers in 2022 as desiring uniqueness, creativity, customisation and personalisation. We can expect HYT to lean heavily on design, not least because besides being CEO, Cerrato – a self-described vintage design Jedi – also serves as creative director.

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HYT has bounced back under a new company and a new CEO, Davide Cerrato, who formerly headed watches at Montblanc.

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Charles Girardier: Reborn

P H O T O G R A P H Y : H Y T, C H A R L E S G I G A R D I E R .

Charles Girardier Tourbillon Signature Mystérieuse Fleur de sel revives the legacy of the 19th-century watchmaker with features such as the dial in grand feu enamel and an automaton at 12 o’clock.

Important Swiss watchmakers never die, in a way; in that particular sense that values and ideas sometimes outlive the individuals who held them. Such is the case for Charles Girardier, named for a 19th-century Swiss watchmaker who was known for creating beautiful timepieces featuring enamelling, miniature hand painting, and the use of automata to create animations on his dials. His company died with him when Girardier passed away in 1839. Zip forward two centuries, and Patrick Ulm was so enamoured by a Girardier pocket watch he saw in 2019 at the Agatha Christie Museum in London, that he founded a new watch company in Girardier’s name. Buying a name to start a company is nothing new in Swiss watchmaking. But how the new company has preserved Girardier’s hallmarks while creating something beautiful, clever and new – layered grand feu enamel and silver leaf on an engraved solid gold dial, customisable signature articulated by oscillating weight, peripheral rotor, luscious frosted ﬁnish, among a list of horological delights – was rightly validated when the Charles Girardier Tourbillon Signature Mystérieuse Fleur de sel won the Ladies’ Complication Watch Prize at the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève 2020. An old name has been recast anew, no less noteworthy than before, ready to bequeath its ancient magic to the modern world.

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BEST IN SHOWS The most interesting debuts from yachting’s top autumn events: Cannes, Monaco and Fort Lauderdale. Words: Howard Walker, Julia Zaltzman, Michael Verdon and Richard Alban

Turkey’s largest build, Victorious, is an explorer yacht with a Formula 1 pedigree.

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Driven To Win VICTORIOUS

The largest new yacht to come out of Turkey is an explorer billed for world circumnavigation that also includes the usual jacuzzis, gym, steam room and cinema. But it’s the more unusual features on 279ft Victorious that made it stand out among 2021’s launches at Monaco. Victorious began life in Northern Chile in 2007 as a 253ft build that was never completed. New Zealand businessman Graeme Hart eventually took on the project, shipping the yacht to Auckland before deciding two years later to build the 351ft Ulysses instead. In 2016, Victorious was rediscovered by serial yachtsman Vural Ak. An automotive enthusiast with many classic and supercars in his private collection, Ak established Turkish shipyard Akyacht in order to complete the build, as well as other superyachts going forward. His previous boats

include the 164ft Dr No No by CRN and several performance vessels, including a 118-footer he still owns, so Ak knew precisely what he wanted. Delivered just ahead of the Monaco show, Victorious is a highly personalised yacht that’s also designed for the charter market. Boasting an immense 2,291 gross tons of interior volume, the motor yacht includes 11 guest suites and designated family areas. Twenty-six feet were added to the stern for a swimming pool, while a kids’ playroom takes up significant real estate on the main deck. The commercial galley, rarely seen on a yacht of this size, is as unusual as the full-beam VIP stateroom. UK-based H2 Yacht created the interior, filling what amounted to empty spaces throughout the yacht with the owner’s specific requests. White oak and teak are used with darker Macassar accents, silver travertine defines the corridors and stairways and Calacatta marble is used in other wet areas to maximum effect. Back-lit onyx has been implemented in several areas to enhance the design.

It’s impossible to miss the automotive references sprinkled throughout the interior. Each of the 11 cabins is named after a Formula 1 racetrack, for example, including the aft-facing owner’s suite on the upper deck, Intercity Istanbul Park – also owned by Ak – that features a jacuzzi and private terrace. The other stateroom on the bridge deck is designated as a hospital room (a COVID-era necessity) with medical equipment and an independent ventilation system. But the real treat is the club room on the sundeck, with a large wood ﬁreplace ﬂanked by a pair of giant mahogany-covered speakers, curved sofas, a humidor and a wine cellar. The sundeck’s aft dining table remains under cover, complete with heaters for colder climates. “The boat will be used in summer, but the sundeck is primed for winter – that makes it a yearround boat,” says Kivanç Nart, project manager at Akyacht. Fourteen years in the making, Victorious’s debut on the yacht circuit is certainly worthy of its name.

P H O T O G R A P H Y : A K YA C H T, A Z I M U T, B E N E T T I , W A L LY, B U R G E S S .

The interior’s oak, teak and dark Macassar combine for a muted, contemporary look.

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Ch-Ch-Changes BENETTI MOTOPANFILO 37M

Benetti’s new 121ft fibreglass Motopanfilo 37M premiered at the Cannes Yachting Festival before making its way across the Atlantic to the Fort Lauderdale show. The design brief for this modern interpretation of the 1960s classic motor yacht was clear: Get back to the roots of the series and instill the Italian elegance then favoured by owners like Monaco’s Prince Rainier and David Bowie. We toured the 2021 Motopanfilo at Cannes with Claudio Lazzarini, one half of Rome-based Lazzarini Pickering Architetti, responsible for the interior design. “Benetti insisted this shouldn’t become a nostalgic exercise that just reproduced past concepts,” Lazzarini said. “Instead, we were tasked with reinventing the genre by breathing new life into old designs.” The veteran architectural firm created a sense of airiness and volume typically found on larger yachts, with dominant elements including curved, bone-white beams that extend from the floor and across the ceilings. These are most prominent in the salon, where Lazzarini likened them to the ribs of a

The new Motopanﬁlo is a modern interpretation of the 1960s Benetti classic, minus any retro cliches.

whale. When combined with mirrored surfaces and expansive windows, they evoke an instant connection to the sea. Wood, a traditional motif, is used in an unexpected way, cladding not only the ﬂoor in teak but the ceilings as well. The soft furnishings continue the subdued palette of materials and colours. The team offset Loro Piana fabrics, with names like Connemara and Papeete, in warm white Biancore tones against blue-and-malachite accents to conjure up a 1960s nautical sensibility. Alcoves in the walls between the ribs are shaped like portholes and display decorative artwork. The owner’s suite

is situated on the main deck in front of the salon and the four guest staterooms are on the lower deck. On the upper deck is a smaller salon and pilothouse with an open skydeck; on the top level is the observation deck, a glassed-in nook with a sunbed providing crow’snest views. Even with its retro elements, Francesco Struglia’s soft-lined exterior feels contemporary, with a vertical bow and slanted transom featuring a folddown beach club with what the designer describes as a “clamshell silhouette”, a dramatic ﬂourish of which Bowie, we feel, would surely have approved.

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Clockwise from top left: all that volume means a more-than-seaworthy ride; the glass-enclosed salon; an expandable stern; the main suite comes with 270-degree views.

Rule Breaker WALLY WHY200

At the dock, the Wally WHY200 looks like a middle-aged version of the typically tight and angular Wallys. Yes, it has the same arrowhead shape, but as a long-time fan of the brand, I prepare for disappointment. But the moment I see the 25ft-wide stern and huge cockpit, I understand: this is a waterborne SUV, where the ride and experience are the priorities. Supersizing interior volume is a current trend among yacht builders, especially those trying to stay below the 78ft hull load-line length. (In Europe, boats over that ﬁgure are designated as ships and must adhere to different regulations.) The WHY200 hull is just under the class divide, even though its

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superstructure is closer to 89ft. But its biggest differentiator is volume. Even the name is a reference to volume – 200 gross tons or 2,150 sq ft – rather than length. The exterior adds another 1,550 sq ft. Essentially, it’s a 150ft superyacht in a much smaller hull. Features like the full-beam main suite in the bow, a central glassenclosed staircase that serves as structural support and architectural detail and the gourmet kitchen (which includes induction hobs, oven, sinks, counters and a wine refrigerator) are among the notable breakthroughs. The interior by Wally founder Luca Bassani and A Vallicelli & C Yacht Design is simple and elegant instead of showy, dressed with teak ﬂoors with black inlays (matching the outer decks) as well as teak walls with ovangkol accents. The forward main suite shows some welcome rule-breaking – 270 degrees of windows give panoramic sea

views, including through the bow – as does the main deck cockpit’s unusually large protected area. It all adds up to a fresh experience of what a yacht can be. Bassani, along with Laurent Giles Naval Architects, designed the highriding hull for a notably dry ride. At a windy event in Monaco, the WHY200 was the only boat that left Port Hercules for open water, where seas were running four to six feet. “We wanted it to run smoothly in most conditions,” says Bassani. “This hull rises only two degrees as it accelerates, with minimal pitching in big seas.” Four Volvo Penta D13-IPS drives, rated 900hp each, deliver a top speed of 21 knots, while the upgraded 1,000hp IPS quads bump that up to 23 knots. The IPS conﬁguration allows for more spacious crew quarters, while providing a choice of three or four staterooms on the lower deck. All in all, my favourite debut at Monaco.

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Fast Learner AZIMUT VERVE 42

Azimut is on a roll. Last year’s launch of its Verve 47 created a new template for dayboat design, with a potent and ﬁnely tuned combination of high performance and high luxury. This year, at Fort Lauderdale, its Verve 42 immediately inherited our mantle of Coolest New Dayboat. “This is a boat for lounging in the sun, swimming off the back,” says Federico Ferrante, president of AzimutBenetti USA. And, he adds with a bit of understatement, “going fast”. Powered by a trio of 450hp Mercury Racing V8 outboards, the sleek 42-footer tops out at 45 knots, with a stepped hull designed by Michael Peters, a Florida-based naval architect known for fast running surfaces. The

patented two-step design channels air underneath, to add lift and reduce drag, while the hull’s architecture enhances stability at speed. During a tour at the Fort Lauderdale show, the Verve was clearly the outlier among Azimut’s larger, more traditional motor yachts. But what an outlier. New owners had already ordered 14 boats by show’s end, with 25 production slots sold out for a year. Starting at US$1.1 million, what sets this boat apart from the booming sports-weekender market is Francesco Struglia’s design. With its swept-back windshield, carbon superstructure and windows set into the amidships hull sides to allow the driver and passengers to watch the ocean rushing by, the Verve looks

The second in Azimut’s inventive dayboat series.

different from anything else on the water. Adding to the effect, its rear deck folds out to double the cockpit space. There is no shortage of lounging areas across the topside, from the large, C-shaped bow sofa and tilting sun pad – made possible because there’s only a single side passage, which creates a nook up front – to the L-shaped sofa in the cockpit. Below decks, the weekender cabin has a double-bed aft, a convertible forward V-berth, a sizeable galley and a head with separate shower. Dayboats are currently enjoying a renaissance, but the Verve 42, powered by plenty of Mercury Racing vim, is a fresh and notably fast take on the traditional design.

LIFE ON WALL STREET An ancient art deco bank tower becomes a luxury residential city within the city of dreams. Words: Hannah Choo Photography: Giovanni Malgarini

ew York is the city of dreams, so I’ve been told. “I don’t know what it is, but there’s something about it that makes anything possible,” a friend said the day before I hopped on the plane. It would be my third trip there. Granted, I had not been impressed on my previous visits, but this time, things were different. Not because it was my ﬁrst getaway in two long years and not because it’s my job to write this story. Maybe the third time’s the charm. While it might seem difficult to appreciate a city with streets packed with the loud honks of impatience and hustle and bustle, I learnt that with beauty, perspective is everything. I saw beauty in the ice skaters at Central Park and the lovebirds by the iconic Christmas tree at Rockefeller Centre. I saw the same in the early winter sunset from the top of One World Observatory, and even from within the 9/11 Museum, despite its bottomless grief. I suppose love grows each time you unearth a story and ﬁgure lost to history. But let’s not forget the built environment of its inhabitants, constructed by society, culture, values and economic dominance. People come and go, but architecture lives on. There is beauty, too, in a concrete jungle jam-packed with buildings of all shapes and sizes: large and small, ugly and beautiful, ambitious and silly. Few cities are as comfortable with architectural variety as New York, but it wasn’t until the 1960s when people started to become more aware of the city’s architectural richness. Check out Marcel Breuer’s former Whitney Museum on Madison Avenue in all its brutalist glory. Stroll around SoHo-Cast Iron Historic District, home to the densest concentration of cast-iron architecture in the world. Discover neoclassicism through Federal Hall and how the Gothic Revival took hold of Trinity Church, a major landowner in the city. It’s all very impressive, but perhaps the city’s most iconic style is art deco, an exuberant combination of geometric motifs, dramatic historical allusions and industrial craft.

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One Wall Street “For a long time, American architecture (New York architecture in particular) didn’t get its due. As New York grew to be the de facto economic capital of this country, people thought that the city cared so much about making a buck that it couldn’t possibly be an inhabitable work of art,” says Thomas Mellins, an architectural historian with a passion for the city. “This room that we are in now – why create a room this big? Why create a room this beautiful? It is precisely the genius of New York architecture that it marries the practical with art. You’ve got to make the land pay, and this room is, in my opinion, one of the great rooms of New York.” What Mellins is referring to is The Red Room, an astonishing lobby soaring 10m high with an exotic red and gold mosaic (836sqm from top to bottom), which was executed by the oftenoverlooked muralist Hildreth Meière. It sits at the foot of the old Irving Trust bank, a 1931 art deco edifice clad in a ribbed and undulating limestone exterior, sky-high windows and faceted walls of black and white marble from the Pyrenees, found at its other lobby that faces Broadway. It neighbours the New York Stock Exchange and Trinity Church, while Brooklyn Bridge, which was decisive in the growth of the city, is just a 10-minute walk away. In spite of all its skyscraper rivals, it’s been winning hearts over for its originality and opulence, courtesy of the creative genius of Ralph Walker, the same architect behind the New York Telephone Building, the city’s first major art deco skyscraper. As Walker’s final skyscraper, the 51-storey bank is now the 56-storey One Wall Street, the largest office-to-residential conversion project in the

Below and left: an entrance to One Wall Street, past and present.

Previous spread, left: a close-up of the mosaic at The Red Room.

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“It is precisely the genius of New York architecture that it marries the practical with art.”

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city’s history. Taken over by Macklowe Properties in 2014 and with Lilla Smith, the firm’s director of architecture and design driving the design force, new life will be breathed into the building, but with the endeavour of maintaining Walker’s architectural integrity. The scalloped limestone facade will be left untouched, and so will The Red Room, which underwent a US$1 million restoration for 16 months. A glassy addition, inspired by Macklowe’s Apple Store on 5th Avenue, has been added to the 36-storey annex that was built in 1965. And because office spaces are typically too practical for comfort, the inside will be completely overhauled. Elevators that were previously on the perimeter of the wall will be centralised, and where those elevators used to be, you’d find the lobby. There’ll be better flow for residents, who will get a lot more windows and views. Of course, nothing is done without art deco sensibilities. The new entrance on Broadway will feature an undulating canopy based on the facade and an unrealised design by Walker, and the ceiling above the 23m indoor lap pool will be lined with mosaic, just like The Red Room. Even the original elevator doors, mailbox and vaults will be worked into the condo. There will be 566 units in all, comprising studios, four-bedroom apartments and one triplex penthouse. A one-bedroom unit on the sixth floor could offer a good look into the stock exchange action, while those higher up would

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enjoy unobstructed views of the harbour and Statue of Liberty. Only 47 apartments will enjoy a private terrace, but make the penthouse your home and you’ll get your very own ‘mountaintop’ or rather, a rooftop void of phone reception. Every buyer will be given the liberty to pick a layout (out of 181), which will be given equal treatment throughout One Wall Street – think French oak finishes, Calacatta-honed marble tops, Miele kitchen appliances, Bauhaus-designed hardware, openness and sensible configuration, unlike most apartments in the area. Trimmings are all in art deco, and residents will have a blast decorating theirhomes. “I like the simplicity of art deco. It’s classic modern sensibility, like you can put an older piece of furniture with it or something brand new, and it all fits,” explains Kirk Rundhaug, the sales director at Compass Real Estate. “It’s to be able to have that sense of history. It’s timeless.” Residents will also enjoy over 51,000sqm of luxury retail and Downtown’s largest Whole Foods Market, easily accessed across the building’s lower levels, including The Red Room and the annex. Apart from a private gym, there is also the massive Life Time Fitness that’s over 22,000sqm set across three levels, where a vault used to be. Residents will enjoy free membership and exclusive access to 660 classes a month, treatment rooms and a recovery zone, where there will be a couple reflexologists and a chiropractor on call. “It’s more of a country club than anything else,” continues Rundhaug. “They have a wonderful kids programme with art and dance as well as daycare. If you’re working out, you could leave your kids there with a nanny.” And in the era of remote work, the 1,829sqm coworking space will come in just as handy. Simply reserve an office and a team will be at your beck and call. It will be all part of The One Club, a private social club centred around the lounge and outdoor terraces on the 39th floor. Apart from the office, there will be an exclusive full-service restaurant and bar, the pool, steam rooms, gaming room and a concierge that does it all – access to coveted restaurants, event planning, in-home salon services, access to awards shows, dog walking and plenty more. It is a city within a city, and Rundhaug jokes that they want to make it so that you will never have to leave. “I think that’s what we’re gearing towards now, to make life easier for people. The One Wall Street lifestyle is all about convenience, luxury and space, which a lot of people don’t have.”

Below: what a living room could look like.

Bottom: the exterior of One Wall Street, an art deco ediﬁce that has endured since 1931.

Facing page: the 23m indoor lap pool and its mosaic-lined ceiling (top); a terrace that’s part of The One Club (bottom).

Why live on Wall Street? One of the reasons people travel to Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa is because the layers of history are visible: the medieval past, the

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Renaissance past and the contemporary era. By and large, that’s unlike corporate America in the 1950s, especially in New York, when buildings were ruthlessly demolished and replaced with something bigger. Consequently, the layers of history were erased. The biggest exception to that is Lower Manhattan, which more than anywhere else in the city, has those visible layers. “Why would you want to live in this part of the city? It’s that idea of the genius of American architecture that’s evident right here. The skyscraper is arguably the country’s biggest contribution to world architecture,” Mellins explains. “New York is also a waterfront city, which is sometimes easy to forget as you walk through the streets or when you’re on the subway. It was also a manufacturing city, full of working rivers and waterways, so unlike many of the great cities of the world, where the most soughtafter residences are on some major body of water, in New York, it was to get as far from the water as possible. “But in the last 30 years, there has been a remarkable transformation of the city’s industrial waterways. The rivers are now appreciated for their beauty and recreational resources, so there’s now a whole process of reclamation of the waterfront, transforming it into parks. Along with the nature of American architecture, its artistry and the layers of history, you end up rediscovering the area, and if one were to live here, you can now access the waterfront in a way that you simply couldn’t decades ago. There’s a major explosion of the number of people who now call Lower Manhattan home.” The district is a far cry from the one-dimensional business community that it used to be, not since 9/11 happened. It has become a destination in its own right, and it has also become an enjoyable place to live in. Financial workers have become outnumbered by parents with kids, and unlike most business districts, there is life even after office hours. Along its narrow, winding streets, there are great bars and restaurants (Nobu and facing the East River, The Fulton and Momofuku Ssam Bar), high-end boutiques and museums, and if you ever crave a quick getaway, Governors Island is just a ferry ride away. It’s as Frank O’Hara wrote in Meditations in an Emergency: “One need never leave the conﬁnes of New York to get all the greenery one wishes. I can’t even enjoy a blade of grass unless I know there’s a subway handy, or a record store, or some other sign that people do not totally regret life.” Life’s good on Wall Street, and chances are, it’s going to get even better.

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Below: a One Wall Street bedroom and the view that it enjoys.

Bottom: the elaborate mosaic created by the artist Hildreth Meière in The Red Room.

P H O T O G R A P H Y : J E A N - D A N I E L M E Y E R / P AT E K P H I L I P P E .

For its out-of-the-box limited-edition Ref 5750 Advanced Research Minute Repeater, Patek Philippe also chose an unconventional, look-atme dial that’s all about craftsmanship.

The Goods Grooming

Style

Time

GENIUS AT WORK

Softly, Softly The heritage English weaver secretly behind top designer scarves. Words: Aleks Cvetkovic Photography: Christopher Werrett

IN THE LUXURY stakes, Italian and Scottish cashmere tend to garner all the glory. And not necessarily fairly: Joshua Ellis is an under-the-radar producer in northern England that has quietly supplied premium textiles to high-proﬁle brands including Burberry, Ralph Lauren and Chanel. The mill was founded in Batley in 1767 by the namesake Ellis, who chose the small Yorkshire town for its proximity to soft spring water (which is still used to treat textiles today) and got his business off the ground by making hardy materials at affordable prices. Early customers included armies,

which needed a steady supply of sturdy woollen serge for uniforms. But Ellis also understood that to succeed long-term he had to exploit a gap in the market. In the 18th century, Yorkshire was a global textile hub, filled with similar mills weaving hardwearing tweeds and worsted wools for export. His solution was to rise above the competition and specialise in luxurious fibres such as cashmere. His tactic worked. At its peak, Joshua Ellis was the largest employer in Batley, with a workforce of around 300 people. Today the firm has 65 staff under the stewardship of managing director

Oliver Platts, who has worked to contemporise the brand and improve the mill’s sustainability credentials while maintaining its old-school, smalltown spirit. Alongside weaving luxury fabrics in both cashmere and Escorial (an expensive wool that’s sourced from Australia and New Zealand) for fashion brands, Joshua Ellis produces its own accessories. Its oversized cashmere scarves – the brand calls them stoles – are exceptional, indulgently soft and warming. Here’s how they’re made, following a process that’s barely changed during the past century.

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1. Source Material A stole will start life as raw cashmere ﬁbre, which the mill procures from independent goat farmers in China and Mongolia. “By going direct to source, we can more closely monitor animal welfare and the sustainability of the grasslands the goats feed on,” says Platts.

2. To Dye For 2

Joshua Ellis colours the raw cashmere to the mill’s own speciﬁcations. Once dyed, the individual cashmere ﬁbres are blended in giant metal bins to ensure that once they’re spun into yarn, they will be true to hue. Then the cashmere is spun and collected on sizeable yarn cones, ready for warping.

3. Warp Speed Workers weave huge lengths of cloth that are later cut down to size. This process starts with warping, when the stole’s lengthwise yarns are drawn out and held in place by one of two giant warping machines, ready for the widthwise yarns to be woven across them. Cloths can be warped between 60m and 1,000m in length.

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4. Slow Fashion

The mill’s 17 looms vary in character. Platts’s favourites are the “good old chuggers” installed in the 1980s. Cashmere yarns are delicate, so the machines operate at a gentle pace and are often restricted to weaving a single length of cloth each day.

5. Hand and Eye The fabric then goes to the mending department for its ﬁrst quality inspection. Every centimetre of the cloth is reviewed, and minute faults, breaks or knots in the weave are repaired by hand.

6. Softening Them Up

When cloth comes off a loom, it feels more like sandpaper than cashmere. “You have to burst the ﬁbres to get the softness out,” Platts explains, “so we scour and rinse out the oils it picks up on its way through the looms and soften it up.”

7. Ripple Effect True to tradition, Joshua Ellis then uses teasels (thistle-like plants with small spikes) to gently brush and ‘tease’ at the milled cloth. This process lends all the company’s pieces their famous rippled ﬁnish – the subtle iridescent sheen that you’ll ﬁnd on the very best cashmere.

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8. Brushing Up When almost finished, the fabric goes through a final brush, steam and press. This raises and then sets the cashmere fibres in their softest, most luxurious state. After that, another quality inspection beckons.

9. Making the Cut Only once the material is ﬁnished is it then cut into shapes resembling scarves or stoles by a machine called a slitter, “a little like making spaghetti”, says Platts. The slitter’s blades are guided by specialists who judge by eye when to cut the cloth.

10. Seal of Approval Finally, each Joshua Ellis label is sewn on by hand – a last act of care that also includes an inspection to ensure there are no marks or pulls across the surface of the stole before it’s shipped out.

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P H O T O G R A P H Y : P AT E K P H I L I P P E .

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One Small Step Patek Philippe’s new Advanced Research minute repeater reinvents the striking mechanism for a single purpose – volume. Words: Wei-Yu Wang Photography: Jean-Daniel Meyer

Above and right: calibre R 27 PS has a patented fortissimo ‘ff’ system for sound ampliﬁcation and propagation. Facing page: the ﬁve-part elaborately constructed dial features a pierced motif inspired by the spoked wheels of vintage automobiles.

THE MOST INTRIGUING thing about Patek Philippe’s Ref 5750P is not that it revolutionises chiming mechanisms, or even that it is an entirely new aesthetic proposition from the luxury watch manufacturer. It is that, by its own admission, the 5750P is an imperfect product. At its digital launch, CEO and fourth-generation brand leader Thierry Stern outlined the two main aspects by which a minute repeater is judged: volume and sound character. The 5750P is a concerted effort at the former and almost entirely the latter. It represented a challenge tackled by Patek Philippe’s Advanced Research division, which has been pushing the envelope with various innovations since 2005. Thus the 5750P, which involved three years of development and four patents, is christened Advanced Research Fortissimo. ‘Fortissimo’ is Italian for ‘very loud’ and is often seen as the abbreviation ff in musical notation. The 5750P builds on the extant Ref 5178, a refined but conventional cathedral gong minute repeater. It is based on the same self-winding calibre R 27 PS, with the all-new striking module on the back, isolated with a polymer layer to prevent unwanted vibrational crosstalk. As is often the case with these innovations, it is conceptually quite simple. It is, in fact, the same principle as that of the phonograph, which mechanically amplifies sound by transmitting vibrations to a membrane via a lever. In the 5750P, the hammers and gongs are anchored to the side of the case, attached with a pivot to an arm that acts as a tuning fork. This arm is the lever; it extends into the centre of the case, on which is mounted a sapphire wafer that acts like a loudspeaker. Sapphire was chosen for its rigidity and lightness, with transparency as a welcome – some would say essential – consequence that allows full movement visibility. The lever’s length is a key quality that amplifies the sound, transmitting it to the sapphire wafer, which vibrates up and down within the space between movement and caseback. A considerable amount of air is moved in the process, which translates to volume. Said volume is directed out of the case through four ports, allowing the sound to travel outwards in a focused manner – a bit like the iconic flared horn of a phonograph. These ports are hidden from the outside in a gap between caseback and caseband. They are also filtered to prevent dust ingress, but the watch is not water resistant. Despite the new system, the 5750P is only about half a millimetre thicker than the 5178, for a total thickness of just 11.1mm.

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Below: this limited special edition is worn on a shiny orange alligator strap with black contrast seams and a platinum fold-over clasp.

Bottom: the 950 platinum case is set with a diamond at six o’clock.

Aesthetically, the 5750P has a 40mm platinum case and sports a radical new dial design – so radical, in fact, that Stern says his father would never have given it the go-ahead.

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Traditional minute repeaters use the case as a fundamental part of sound projection; in the 5750P it is completely independent. The case is therefore made of platinum, which is considered a suboptimal material for sound transmission due to the muted tones it tends to produce, just to make a point. The hammers themselves are also made from platinum, which imparts a softer, more rounded sound, and this must be one of the rare times in history that such a quality is desired – or practical – in a minute repeater. The results are quantifiably impressive. According to Patek Philippe, the striking of something like its standard-bearer 5178 is audible up to about 10m. The 5750P can be heard at up to 60m. The sound also lingers for longer, and the duration of the maximum 32 strikes at 12:59 is 20 to 21 seconds, up from 17 to 18 on the 5178. Aesthetically, the 5750P has a 40mm platinum case and sports a radical new dial design – radical for Patek Philippe, that is. So radical, in fact, that Stern says his father would never have given it the go-ahead, mainly because the small seconds indicator – which is a rotating disc with an understated arrow – is not traditionally legible. The two-layer dial overlays a satin-finished upper with cut-outs inspired by 1960s car wheels on top of a black spiral base. The ruthenium-blackened markers are a polished contrast. The result is also striking all on its own, and Patek Philippe’s traditional idiosyncrasies aside, it looks every inch the finely finished, mid-century-inspired grand complication timepiece. In another daring move – again, daring for Patek Philippe, specifically – the platinum rotor on the back is decorated with laser texturing with a design to match the front. As for the sound character – well, it is subjective. The science says that it has a stronger attack and a bass-heavy resonance. It could be said that it has an insistent, strident quality that is at odds with the rounded tones expected of tuned striking timepieces. Stern is not satisfied, saying that in terms of sound character, the 5750P is “about 50 per cent” to where he would want it to be. He is also adamant that it should be heard while on the wrist, which improves the harmony. But of course, volume was the goal, and to this end the 5750P is unarguably exceptional. Only 15 pieces will be produced, sure to be snapped up by collectors. After all, they are not buying an imperfect timepiece – they are buying a concrete record of the stepwise innovations of one of the world’s foremost horological manufacturers as it continues to reach new heights.

©D' ' g DH H Hga <g' #H<H Zέ Brytehall is a premium NFT marketplace for next-generation collectors

CURATE

COLLECT

COLLABORATE

PATEK PHILIPPE Perpetual Calendar Ref 5327G in 18-carat white gold. Boglioli wool ﬂannel jacket and camel-hair blend sweater.

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Watch The old rules about how and when to wear timepieces are – ﬁnally – gone. Embrace the freedom and wear them your way. Here are some suggestions.

Learn Photography: Peter Rosa

Watch editor: Paige Reddinger

Styling: Alex Badia

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BREGUET Tradition 7097 in 18-carat rose gold. Celine by Hedi Slimane wool-andcotton trench coat; Dior Men wool-andmohair sweater.

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Left: VACHERON CONSTANTIN Historiques American 1921 in 18-carat white gold. Sid Mashburn cotton-corduroy jacket; Rhude cotton-andcashmere sweater; Tod’s wool trousers.

Right: IWC Big Pilot Top Gun Edition Mojave Desert in ceramic. Tod’s wool sweater.

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CARTIER Tank Louis Cartier in 18-carat yellow gold. Herno eco-nylon vest; Celine by Hedi Slimane cotton hoodie; Z Zegna cotton pants.

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GRAND SEIKO US Limited Edition SBGW275 in stainless steel. Sid Mashburn cotton-denim jeans; Brunello Cucinelli suede boots.

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AUDEMARS PIGUET Royal Oak Offshore Self-winding Chronograph in 18-carat pink gold. Belstaff suede jacket; Brunello Cucinelli alpacaand-yak sweater.

BLANCPAIN Fifty Fathoms Bathyscaphe Blue in Sedna gold. Ofﬁcine Générale wool ﬂannel jacket and cotton-denim shirt.

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ZENITH Chronomaster Original E-commerce Edition in stainless steel. Paul Smith lambskin shearling jacket.

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8LI +SSHWŴ`ŴTIME Left: BELL & ROSS BR 05 GMT in stainless steel. Ralph Lauren cottonvelvet jacket, cottonpoplin shirt and silk bow tie; Scully & Scully onyxand-sterling-silver studs.

Below: ULYSSE NARDIN Lemon Shark in DLCcoated stainless steel, limited to 300.

S T Y L E E D I T O R : K A R E E M R A S H E D . M E N ’ S F A S H I O N M A R K E T: L U I S C A M P U Z A N O .

J Mueser wool-andsilk tuxedo.

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HERMÈS H08 in graphene composite. Ralph Lauren cottonpoplin shirt, silk vest and cashmere-andwool trousers; Scully & Scully onyx-andsterling-silver cufﬂinks.

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Regional Reserve Grand Seiko releases two limited editions speciﬁcally for collectors in Asia.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: S E I KO, S H U T T E R S TO C K .

Words: Wei-Yu Wang

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2022

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GRAND SEIKO SEEMS to have no end to its ideas for its nature-inspired, coloured and textured – and highly collectible – watch dials. What sets these two apart, however, is that they are dedicated to clients in this region. The SBGJ253 is released only in Asia, Oceania and the Middle East. The SBGH287 is even more exclusive; it is reserved for Thong Sia, the brand’s sole distributor in Brunei, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore. The GMT-equipped SBGJ253 Hi-Beat 36000 Asia Limited Edition 2021 is inspired by the twilight skies over Mount Iwate, which overlooks the watchmaker’s studio in Shizukuishi. The radiating ridged pattern is an oft-used Grand Seiko motif, presented here in a deep grey that

The SBGH287 is even more exclusive; it is reserved for Thong Sia, the brand’s sole distributor in Brunei, Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia and Singapore.

communicates the interplay of light and shadow. Gold highlights in the chapter ring and GMT hand hint at the fading sun. At 40mm in diameter, it is housed in a modern interpretation of the classic, angular 44GS case, and is mounted on a matching steel bracelet. It is limited to 600 pieces. SBGH287 Snow on the Blue Lake takes its cue from the renowned wintry landscape of the Hachimandai area in Iwate prefecture, which is also not far from the Shizukuishi studio. Its dial is hence a grain-textured light blue that imparts a serene presence to the watch. It is otherwise a classic Grand Seiko package: a 40mm steel case, date window at three o’clock and a crocodile leather strap. It is limited to 140 pieces.

Bottom, left and right: SBGH287 Snow on the Blue Lake features a beautiful light blue dial that captures the intense azure sky and glittering snow of the Hachimandai area. Left: SBGJ253 is powered by Calibre 9S86, which gives an accuracy range of +5/-3 seconds per day and a power reserve of 55 hours.

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Size Matters Panerai treads new ground with the smaller-sized Luminor Marina Quaranta. Words: Wei-Yu Wang

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in three new references: a white dial, a black dial and a sunray blue dial, all with stainless steel cases and leather straps. The Luminor Marina Quaranta also features a quick-change strap system. Options promised for the near future include lightweight rubber in a spectrum of colours. It is equipped with the workhorse P.900 self-winding calibre, which boasts a three-day power reserve and the brand’s customary shock resistance. Panerai has gone as small as 38mm in the past, in the form of the Luminor

Due. That, however, is a decidedly different and dressier collection. The Quaranta, as part of the Luminor Marina line-up, is more robust with 100m of water resistance. While the iconic 44mm Luminor is not going anywhere, the Luminor Marina Quaranta is set to replace the existing 42mm references. The increased wearability and versatility that it affords bring the Luminor to a wider audience while embodying all the key essences of Luminor, making it a true Panerai.

This and facing pages: the Luminor reinterprets classic proportions in a contemporary manner, preserving all the characteristics that over the years have made this watch an icon of luxury sports watchmaking.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: PA N E R A I.

PANERAI’S LUMINOR MARINA QUARANTA (S$10,100) has a diameter of 40mm, which would be considered midsized by today’s standards – for most brands, that is. For the Italian luxury watch manufacturer, however, it sits on one end of the spectrum due to its unique heritage. After all, large has always been a key part of its DNA. When making watches for the Italian navy, as the brand did in the 1930s, legibility was paramount. The archetypal Panerai is something between 44mm and 47mm in diameter. The hefty sizing, along with the muscular proﬁle of its signature cushion-shaped case and prominent crown guard, served the brand well through the turn of the 21st century as statement-making watches came into fashion, attracting adherents such as Sylvester Stallone and a whole generation of Ferraristis. But things appear to be changing. It could be due to a resurgent interest in vintage styling and its corresponding sizing. It could also be because of a widening audience in Asia or a growing female customer base. In any case, the Quaranta has it covered. The key Luminor styling elements are undisturbed, though the reduction makes them balance a little differently. The crown guard is more prominent, for example, while the dial has less negative space and the date window hence more signiﬁcant. It is available

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Scents,

Solids

Henry Jacques’ Clic-Clac reinvigorates a century-old tradition of personalised ﬂair. Words: Wei-Yu Wang

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P H OTO G R A P H Y: H E N RY J AC Q U E S .

And Splendour

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HENRY JACQUES’ CLIC-CLAC is, at first, an enigma. At rest, it is a rectangle that fits in the palm. It is largely monolithic, but fineness is evident. Its faces are either lustrous titanium (S$44,475), sleek carbon fibre (S$53,370) or warm rose gold (S$185,015). The metal versions have a brushed finish, but with gleaming, polished chamfered edges. In the hand, it has some weight and there is a reassuring, inviting solidity. It opens from the middle and this must be how it got its name – a soft click with unmistakable feedback. It shuts somewhat more energetically and even more satisfyingly – clack. Opening Clic-Clac reveals a coin-sized metal tray that holds a waxy, balm-like solid perfume. This can be swapped out for any of the 50 Les Classiques scents that are a signature of Henry Jacques. These solid capsules join the existing Brumes (spray) and Essences (liquid) offerings. “Each one of these variations is rich in nuances and very interesting to high perfumery lovers,” describes Anne-Lise Cremona, the CEO of Henry Jacques Perfume. Her father, Henry Cremona, founded the brand in 1975. “Brumes brings forward the opening notes and has a delicate, refreshing feeling. Essences and Solids are more skin perfumes. Their evolution through time

The expertise of watchmaker extraordinaire Richard Mille is evident in the technical ﬁnesse of Clic-Clac, which is available in three materials including rose gold (below) and titanium (facing page).

will be particularly marked and will also change (depending on one’s) skin. They are more sensual, very refined, warm and delicate. “We had been working with these incredible balms in the past for private clients. Every time we would rediscover them, the pleasure and the astonishment were complete. They have been worked in line with Henry Jacques’ perfume tradition, using complex and delicate processes. Their base is entirely natural. These exceptional skin perfumes are ecological, authentic and respectful of our body.” A new line of solid perfumes is noteworthy enough for an haute parfumerie maison, but Henry Jacques is aiming higher with the development of Clic-Clac. Its benefits are clear enough – it is eminently suited to pocket or purse, and solid perfumes are much less finicky to carry, making it easier to touch up one’s fragrance in a bathroom, car or airport lounge. But it is so much more than a perfume container. The monolithic sides hide it completely, but ClicClac is a mechanical undertaking unlike anything the brand has attempted. Indeed, it took nearly four years of development. The precise, consistent nature of its mechanics is not one that the user will think about much, but would immediately miss if it was not there. It required an extraordinary level of

“These exceptional skin perfumes are ecological, authentic and respectful of our body.”

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engineering and testing which ran into repetitions of over 200,000 times of opening and shutting to achieve the durability required for everyday use. “Christophe Tollemer (our creative director) had, since the beginning, a very precise idea of what the object was going to be. Its size, shape, its material, the way we would hold it, the gesture linked with it. Within that size we needed to integrate interchangeable capsules of solid perfumes. This seemed at first impossible to realise,” Cremona relates. “After several disappointments, we directed ourselves toward high watchmaking techniques. I was convinced that it was the only option to answer our different technical needs: a craft that would be precise enough to be able to create a completely new mechanism.” It is no surprise also that the materials – titanium, carbon fibre and rose gold – are common to watchmaking. “It was about creating a stunning daily life object, with a small factor, that would contain perfume and last for generations,” she says, adding that this is the first time that perfumery and high horology have crossed paths.

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Below: Anne-Lise Cremona is continuing the olfactory legacy of her father, which includes using only the highest-quality essential oils and naturally reconstituted ingredients with no carrier, a component that affects the purity of the recipe and causes the fragrance to age poorly.

Cremona also consulted with her uncle, a certain Richard Mille, who happens to know a thing or two about high watchmaking. “I have to say that he has been, since the beginning, the greatest fan of the object. This has been truly encouraging for us as you can imagine!” she says. Her uncle’s critical eye and the resulting feedback shaped the results of Clic-Clac’s finishing. The care in its design and its understated audacity is a bold move from Henry Jacques, which is exploring new ways to express the finer points of connoisseurship and a sense of beholding a treasured objet d’art. “I am convinced that, more than ever, luxury needs to offer a sense of identity, a reference point,” explains Cremona. “I think that true luxury becomes extremely rare and tends to disappear. We need to fight for it to remain in a world that goes way too fast. Young generations are aware of this. I fight every day to preserve knowhow, pure creation. As a brand, we need to offer more than collections. We need to offer a place of sharing, a cultural place with a deep identity. It is particularly crucial for perfume, which is for me, the ultimate luxury.”

P H OTO G R A P H Y: B O M B A R D I E R.

Bombardier’s new Challenger 3500 jet comes with ‘zero-gravity’ seating.

Dream Machines Technology

Wheels

Wings

A colossal television and a radical turntable explore the respective outer limits of digital and analogue playback. Words: Robert Ross Photography: Cynthia Vanelk

LG DVLED Home Cinema Display LG’s new 325-inch DVLED Home Cinema Display represents a giant leap in television advancement with a brilliant, ultrahigh-deﬁnition model unmatched in its combination of size and picture quality. While most modern TVs use lightemitting diodes on or behind a liquid-crystal

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P H OTO G R A P H Y: O S WA L D S M I L L A U D I O. LG.

Something Old, Something New

SKIP THAT TRIP into space and spend your ticket money on experiencing otherworldly video and audio journeys that will never require you to leave the couch. Approaching from opposite ends of the playback spectrum, these new digital and analogue releases, representing stratospheric levels of both cost and technological achievement, are on a mission to present the most precise simulacrum of a theatrical experience or live musical event from the comfort of home.

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display (LEDs in an LCD, for short), here a directview LED screen employs more than 99.5 million individual diodes – one red, green and blue per pixel – to render an image on a screen that runs 27ft diagonally. The impressive proportions are matched by 8K resolution that’s touted to deliver incredibly accurate contrast and colours, all without burn-in artifacts that can plague typical ﬂat screens. And unlike projector-based systems that perform only in darkened rooms, the DVLED reproduces an intense picture even in a brightly lit interior. Previously available to commercial clients exclusively, LG’s 1,008kg display is now offered to the home market for an equally hefty US$1.7 million.

the high-mass platter. The tonearm, designed by Frank Schröder of Berlin, is the first to use selective laser melting, an additive 3D printing technology that allows for the manufacture of designs previously impossible to fabricate. Cartridges can be fine-tuned for optimal tracking force and alignment, while its low-mass counterweight reduces resonance. And the outboard, Xenon tuberectified power supply can be concealed within a dedicated turntable stand designed expressly for the K3 system.

OMA K3 Turntable + Schröder tonearm Pennsylvania-based Oswalds Mill Audio (OMA), known for its artisanal music systems employing horn loudspeakers and vacuum-tube electronics, has introduced a state-of-the-art assault on oldschool vinyl playback. In development for seven years, OMA’s over 90kg, US$363,000 K3 turntable is an analogue rig that suggests a construction crane atop a Bauhaus ediﬁce. The cast- and machined-iron base ensures the type of microdetail and articulation that the ﬁnest phono cartridges are capable of when uncompromised. The direct-drive motor is more powerful than any ever employed on a turntable and is accurate to arc seconds, with stability further enhanced by

This page: OMA’s K3 turntable features a Frank Schröder– designed tonearm, the ﬁrst to use selective laser melting in its fabrication. Facing page: more than 99.5 million diodes are used in LG’s 325-inch DVLED Home Cinema Display.

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Role Model The Tesla Model 3 is way cooler than it looks. Words: Hannah Choo

The car comes alive with steering that ﬂows from bend to bend, and is kept in check by performance brakes that grab beautifully.

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while some planning is required (like leaving it to charge overnight so you’ll wake up to a full battery in the morning), you could always plug it into one of the superchargers on the island – that will get the job done in 15 to 25 minutes. Equally impressive is the inside, which eschews traditional design tropes, colour and warmth for stark minimalism. In other words, a strip of wood, black or white vegan interior (no leather, sorry) and a 15-inch touchscreen that will seamlessly integrate all your car needs, from music and navigation to cabin control and communications. With it, you can adjust your steering weight or regenerative braking, see through fog or see the surrounding traffic and pedestrians in real time. Your smartphone, which functions as your car key, can also be used to access the touchscreen, just because.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: T E S L A .

THE BEST KIND of cool is understated and the Tesla Model 3 (S$155,283, excluding COE) is every man’s subtle way to exude class and wealth – even if it looks like a Prius at a glance. But it’s cooler than it looks. It operates with finesse while drunk on power and control, and it will live up to promises of keeping you safe. It can take you from zero to 100 km/h in 3.3 seconds and hit a high of 261 km/h. If you attempt to place two fully grown African elephants atop its all-glass roof, you won’t achieve much, except for two puzzled mammals stranded atop a Tesla. Like all Teslas, the Model 3 is powered by a slab of batteries positioned in the floor, effectively making it mid-engined. You’ll get your centre of gravity, and with a dual motor all-wheel drive and uberturbine wheels, you can have all sorts of fun in all sorts of weather conditions for as far as 567km; the car comes alive with steering that flows from bend to bend, and is kept in check by performance brakes that grab beautifully. It is fully electric, and

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Above: the Tesla Model 3 can be supercharged in 15 minutes. Right: it seats ﬁve adults with enough legroom to spare. Facing page: charge your phone wirelessly on the go.

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A Triumph Of Form And Function The 812 Competizione’s 6.5-litre V12 is the most powerful naturally aspirated road-going mill in Ferrari history. Words: Basem Wasef

DESPITE THE INVASION of hybrid power trains, all-wheel drive and a first-ever V6-powered road car, the soul of Ferrari’s 73-year-old line-up rests on a timeless formula: power delivered to the rear wheels by a sonorous V12 engine under the hood. Enzo Ferrari famously resisted switching to midengine racecars for years, a decision that hurt his motorsport efforts but endeared Ferrari loyalists to the front-engine layout. Loyalists, rejoice: Ferrari’s new, limited-edition 812 Competizione keeps a flag planted firmly in tradition, a race-inspired special that follows the front-engine, 12-cylinder paradigm while introducing a slew of innovative workarounds for added speed. The Competizione’s 6.5-litre V12 is the most powerful naturally aspirated roadgoing mill in Ferrari history, sending a whopping 818hp to the back tyres. Press the red Engine Start button on the steering wheel and you’re treated to that unmistakable V12 snarl, like a jungle cat poked with a hot iron. Laps at Ferrari’s Fiorano test track reveal a remarkably charismatic package that combines the marque’s traditional high-revving heart with a disarming amount of manoeuvrability. Clad with the optional sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 R tyres, the Competizione turns corners with instantaneous bite. Giant carbon-fibre paddle shifters instigate rapid-fire gear changes, and the engine’s 9,500rpm powerband is a smooth, punchy playground of visceral and aural delights. Much of the Competizione’s aero prowess is owed to ingenuity. Ferrari engineers rarely

position large wings at the back of street-legal cars, and the challenge of avoiding an enormous appendage on the 812’s rump inspired a novel solution: replacing the rear window with carbonfibre vortex generators attached to a solid piece of painted aluminium. The hockey stick–shaped flicks divert airflow toward an enlarged rear lip, increasing downforce without resorting to a boy-racer wing. (For those wondering about minor details such as visibility, the rearview mirror is actually a digital display fed by a video camera embedded into a dorsal fin.) A series of complex diffusers, slots and airflow-management techniques also boost downforce and keep drag to a minimum, all while subtly rebuking Enzo’s famous maxim that “aerodynamics are for people who can’t build engines”. The engineers also added a clever feature to the rearwheel-steering system. In addition to turning the back rubber in or out of phase with the fronts, it can now toe the rear wheels outward under hard braking to keep the tail in check. The test for any Ferrari is how well it honours the Prancing Horse legacy while still managing to embrace the future. The 812 Competizione adheres to arguably the most fundamental aspects of its heady lineage – though not the most performanceoriented – while absolutely devouring a racetrack, lagging behind the high-tech, all-wheel-drive hybrid SF90 flagship at Fiorano by just a single second. Consider it a remarkable triumph for both formula and function.

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P H OTO G R A P H Y: F E R R A R I.

Press the red Engine Start button on the steering wheel and you’re treated to that unmistakable V12 snarl, like a jungle cat poked with a hot iron.

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Aimed at Ferrari’s most passionate collectors and connoisseurs, the 812 Competizione features numerous uncompromising engineering solutions to guarantee peerless driving pleasure.

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Is This Business Aviation’s Frustrating New Normal? Clients are paying US$5,000 to US$25,000 per hour for private jets, and in return they’re getting delays and downgrades. What gives? Words: Michael Verdon Illustration: Rami Niemi

A CHIEF EXECUTIVE recently shared an email about a jet charter his company had arranged for important clients. Scheduled for an on-time departure from Austin, the pilots noticed a blinking light in the cockpit and called in the mechanics. Several hours later, the issue was resolved, but the crew, which by then had exceeded FAA-mandated hours for the day, was grounded. Unable to secure a replacement aircraft, the clients didn’t complete the ﬂight to Phoenix until the following day. The CEO, an experienced private ﬂyer, was incensed

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that such an expensive trip had been delayed because the provider couldn’t ﬁnd another jet. “One of the most incredible s*** shows ever by a charter company,” he wrote. For an industry that prides itself on clockwork white-glove service, dealing with the massive, COVID-era inﬂux of newcomers from the commercial airlines has been a struggle. “We’re seeing 25 to 40 per cent more volume than previous years,” says Michael Silvestro, CEO of Flexjet, a fractional-ownership and jet-card provider. “Our

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companies are all trying to get supply up to these levels of demand. We’re in the ultimate famine-tofeast moment.” NetJets, the largest fractional provider, suspended all jet-card sales to ensure it could keep its fractional owners flying on time. “NetJets’ flight demand is currently exceeding all other highs in our 57-year history,” wrote company president Patrick Gallagher, last July, by way of acknowledging that some owners had experienced delays. “The vast number of flights,” he continued, “is taxing the air-travel infrastructure in ways we haven’t seen in years.” Jay Mesinger, CEO of Mesinger Jet Sales, says he’s even seeing some companies change the terms of service in mid-contract by lengthening the amount of lead time clients must give them, and echoes Gallagher’s sentiments: “We haven’t come to grips with this yet.I think there will be a lot of disappointment.” Delays and aircraft downgrades are the two main complaints. A scarcity of pre-owned aircraft for sale, air-traffic-control delays, higher fleet-utilisation rates – which means both more maintenance issues and fewer replacement jets – and parts, fuel and labour shortages are all hitting simultaneously, creating a perfect storm of frustration for the private flyer. “Passengers are also scheduling flights in a much shorter window,” says Anthony Tivnan, president of Magellan Jets, which logged a 240 per cent year-over-year increase in jet-card sales from January through August. “Every weekend last summer was comparable to peak periods such as Christmas and July Fourth.” Tivnan says Magellan is spending “significantly more” on customer outreach in an attempt to educate clients on how to minimise delays: book earlier, avoid flying from Thursday to Sunday and during peak travel periods – in other words, exactly the hoops a coach passenger jumps through to snag a seat on a commercial flight. And yet despite all the gritted teeth, nobody sees a mass exodus back to commercial. “People are willing to deal with delays to a certain extent and may bounce from company to company,” says Peder von Harten, vice president of sales and marketing for Mississippi-based Nicholas Air, who says his company has added four new airplanes and plans to have two more by year’s end. “But they won’t all leave the market.” Doug Gollan, editor and founder of Private Jet Card Comparisons, puts it more bluntly. Referencing a recent 300-member survey where 100 per cent said they would continue to fly privately, he insists that “whatever delays and kinks are out there, these new flyers are not going back to the airlines”.

The New King In late august, the Gulfstream G700 took the equivalent of a royal tour when it flew from its Savannah, Georgia, headquarters straight to the Doha hangar of its launch customer, Qatar Executive. The flagship plane then travelled to Paris to give European clients a preview of the finished product. The G700 set speed records on all three legs, carrying a full payload and with 10 people on board, clocking in at Mach .90 (1,111km/h) on the return to Savannah. “These were our longest flights to date and the first outside the US,” says Scott Evans, Gulfstream’s director of demonstration and corporate flight operations, who piloted the G700. “Operationally, it was flawless, and the 27.5 hours of flight time gave us the opportunity to maximise our test capabilities.” Evans has seen the ultra-long-range jet evolve across five previous test aircraft, with this sixth boasting a finished interior. “We’re not required to build interiors for certification, but it lets us show customers we can provide a mature airplane from serial number one,” Evans says. Certainly, the delegation in Doha – including Qatar Airways Group executives, media and top clients – were excited to see the gleaming G700 up close. “It will be used as a charter aircraft in our fleet of long-range and ultra-long-range aircraft,” says captain Husam Khalil, vice president of operations for Qatar Executive, adding that its order of 10 G700s will supplement an earlier contract for 14 G650s. When the G700, with an estimated price of US$75 million, enters into service this year, it will mean an air war with Bombardier’s Global 7500, the plane currently sitting at the pinnacle of business aviation. (Dassault has also announced its Falcon 10X, but that ultra-long-range jet won’t enter service until 2025.) “It’s suddenly very competitive at the top,” says aviation-industry analyst Rollie Vincent. “Gulfstream has made smart choices in the next-gen development of its 650 platform,” he adds, noting the G700’s use of the new Rolls-Royce Pearl engines, larger cabin and Symmetry Flight Deck. He calls the plane “a significant advance”. Gulfstream’s Evans highlighted the flight deck’s performance, courtesy of its 10 touchscreen monitors, advanced head-up displays (like those found on fighter jets) and sidestick controls. “It’s a holistic design that drives simplicity, ease of operation and situational awareness,” he says. “That interplay of features is the biggest thing we accomplished in the cockpit.” With the largest-in-class interior and features such as circadian lighting, 20 large windows and a rear bedroom suite, it’s safe to say the G700 now rules the private aviation realm – until 2025, at least.

The G700’s recent 23,175km transatlantic ﬂight set three speed records.

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Command + Control Thanks to its advanced autopilot, the ACH160 combines sumptuous creature comforts with peace of mind.

P H O T O G R A P H Y : A D R I E N D A S T E /A I R B U S .

Words: Michael Verdon

YOU’LL FORGET THE generous cabin space, low decibel levels and the spine-coddling comfort of the supple leather seats. You’ll definitely forget the 68 patents that helped transform helicopter design. Because even in the ACH160, the world’s most luxurious helicopter, niceties go out the window when you’re in free fall over the ocean, blue water rushing up to meet you. But in that moment, one of those 68 patents will not forget you. The autopilot, in recovery mode, arrests the plummet, bringing the helicopter back to a stable flight. It is a stunning show of technology for Airbus’s most advanced corporate helicopter, which will be delivered to a US client this year. Airbus will also complete the interior on this first ACH160, which I had a chance to experience in Monaco. “This is the latest of a new generation designed from the passenger’s point of view,” says our test pilot, Olivier Gensse, who has been with the H160, the standard version of the ACH160, since the programme’s inception. Between the sleek body, Fenestron tail rotor, spacious four-foot-four-inch cabin headroom, oversized windows and low vibration levels, it’s clear what he means. During the simulated vortex-ring-state free fall, a condition where the helicopter’s rate of descent rapidly increases, Gensse pushed a button on the control stick twice that causes the machine’s automatic recovery mode to take over. Gensse also simulated an out-of-control flight in brownout conditions, resembling limited pilot visibility. “Helicopter accidents often involve human error, especially if avionics are complicated,” Gensse says. “We designed the Helionix 3 system to be intuitive and simple, displaying critical information as needed. It’s about reducing the workload for the pilot without a hundred buttons

on the display.” The ACH160 also has automated take-off and a collision-avoidance system, both of which signify “a lot of new technology” incorporated into the design, according to Frédéric Lemos, chief executive of ACH. “We’ve had three prototypes ﬂying, so many test hours have gone into the development.” I also experienced the ACH160’s more civilised side, ﬂying around Monte Carlo’s harbour, with the Monaco Yacht Show in full swing. I imagined landing on one of the largest superyachts. Vibration and decibel levels were indeed low, especially after comparing it to an A125 in Las Vegas a few weeks later, and the bigger chopper’s executive cabin offered an entirely different experience – more town car than cramped clown car. And while the ACH160’s new owner chose the clean, corporate look of the ACH Line interior, other customised versions are also available.

This and facing pages: the spacious interior, low vibration levels and next-generation avionics make the ACH160 the ultimate corporate helicopter.

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Zero Sum COVID-inﬂuenced design elements abound in Bombardier’s new Challenger 3500 jet. Words: J George Gorant

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“It makes a great ﬂeet aircraft; just ﬁll up the tanks and off you go.”

and a largest-in-class 24-inch 4K video display. The sound system can be adjusted to create an audio sweet spot in the cabin. As part of an overall focus on passenger wellness, this new business jet provides a reduced cabin altitude of 4,850ft when cruising at 41,000ft, representing a 31 per cent improvement compared to its predecessor. COVID-inﬂuenced design elements are also apparent. All cabin buttons have been replaced with one-touch haptic-glass controls, which are not only sleeker but easier to clean. The design team also left ample space around the furnishings, eliminated the gaps between galley accessories

and used larger latches on the doors and drawers, which facilitate easier cleaning and disinfecting. The 350 has been the best-selling super-midsized jet for the past seven years, a distinction Vincent attributes to its reliability and good operating economics. First deliveries of the 3500 are expected in the second half of 2022, and Vincent says it promises to retain its predecessor’s appeal. “It makes a great ﬂeet aircraft for charter and fractional; just ﬁll up the tanks and off you go.” Plus, with the same listing of US$26.7 million as the 350, the most notable change Bombardier didn’t make was to the price tag.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: B O M B A R D I E R .

BOMBARDIER’S REDESIGN OF its Challenger 350 extended even to the name, with the new plane now known as the Challenger 3500, though the overhaul itself wasn’t a surprise to industry watchers. “We’ve expected the upgrade for a while, since the supermidsized segment is so competitive,” says business-aviation analyst Rollie Vincent, who notes that the 3500 will go head-to-head with the Embraer Praetor 500 and 600 models, Citation Longitude and Gulfstream G280. “Bombardier needed to do something to keep it fresh,” he says. As we saw during a recent tour of a full-scale interior mockup, the Challenger’s makeover includes luxurious features found on Bombardier’s ultra-long-range Global 7500 ﬂagship, including that jet’s Nuage seats, which Bombardier calls the ﬁrst new business-aircraft seat design in 30 years and which can tilt into a zero-gravity position to reduce pressure on the lower back. “We carved out space behind your feet, so you can tuck them under your centre of gravity while working,” says Bombardier designer Alexandre Curthelet. Other enhancements include standard wireless phone chargers, a voice-command system (for the lights, temperature, entertainment and more)

P H O T O G R A P H Y : F A R E A S T O R C H A R D , A L C H E M I G R O U P.

Singapore’s Far East Orchard is one of the masterminds behind the restoration of Westminster Fire Station, a Grade II listed building in London that now houses 18 residential apartments and a restaurant run by twice Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar.

The Resource Art & Design

Money

Savour

Cover Story

Second Life

Dom Pérignon invites you to a multi-sensorial wine-pairing experience at its Plénitude Suite.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: D O M P É R I G N O N.

Words: Ben Chin and Sara L Schneider

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Cover Story

ART AND HAUTE gastronomy collide in a multi-sensorial dining experience at the Dom Pérignon Plénitude Suite. AISA, an acronym for Art Invokes Senses (and) Appetite, is a residency programme conceptualised by chef Ace Tan, where he collaborates with Singapore’s foremost artists, musicians, ceramicists and more. After the success of the inaugural event in May 2021 with established contemporary artist Justin Lee, there is now an Episode 2 at 1-Altitude with new collaborator Andy Yang, a multi-disciplinary artist known for his abstract visual and sound experimentations.

To create the menu, chef Tan looked to the ancient Chinese philosophy of the Five Elements Theory, which describes the balancing relationships of the basic elements – wood, fire, earth, metal and water – to the four seasons. A harmony with the elements, the Chinese believe, is crucial in food preparation, which is expressed in five colours and flavours. The Singaporean chef looks upon his ingredients as the beautiful colours on an artist’s palette. The ninecourse menu (S$158++ per person) starts with the trio of green amusebouche of Spring X Wood, comprising a gamtae spring roll, pickled daikon and mung bean pajeon, which bring forth refreshingly light yet prominent flavours that represent new beginnings after winter. Under Summer X Fire, the red hue of the burnt carabinero and smoked akami represents the first part of summer; topped with a layer of translucent fermented plum jelly mash, giving a sweet and sour touch of umami. Another menu item to look forward to is the A4 Yamaguchi Wagyu under Autumn X Metal, with slices of binchotan-grilled Wagyu beef, drizzled with a golden translucent ginger scallion jus and decorated with tempura ginger slices. This dish represents gold, along with the various shades of falling autumn leaves. Champagne connoisseurs are in for an additional treat. Episode 2 is a partnership with Dom Pérignon Society, an exclusive global community of renowned chefs, sommeliers and restaurateurs, as part of a new worldwide programme to inspire chefs. The six- and nine-course menus are accompanied by a bottle of Dom Pérignon Plénitude 2 Vintage 2003, while the wine pairing menu comes with a glass of Vintage 2010.

Dom Pérignon released the 2003 vintage on the belief that there’s a moment years later when the wine can enter a second life (not all vintages do), when it speaks more loudly and expressively – when it’s longer, deeper, more intense, and has even more vitality and energy – this is Plénitude 2 in the life of a Dom Pérignon vintage. It might be more than a little counterintuitive to think of a wine – especially sparkling – picking up energy as it ages, but the 2003 vintage is marvellously fresh and tense. Expected minerality and dried fruit give way to a lemongrass character. The palate is powerful, deep and structured. It was a vintage, in fact, that almost didn’t happen. Early frost and a brutal late heatwave led to low yields and challenging fruit concentration. Dom Pérignon was one of the few houses to

declare the vintage, but it had to change everything it did that year to ﬁnd balance in the face of serious tannins and overwrought phenolic elements. Its risk is our reward, as this singular, 18-year-old champagne represents the house’s aptitude for risk-taking as well as its deep intuition and artistry in wine-making. Rounding off the experience is Yang’s artwork, specially created for the collaboration, which is his interpretation of the seasons, elements and colours. Presented in correspondence with each course, the artwork takes on a second life through augmented reality via the Artivive app. The revolutionary tool allows diners to experience physical artwork in new dimensions by linking classical and digital art. Guests will get to keep an original Yang piece on their phone.

This and facing pages: AISA Episode 2 is a feast for the eyes and the taste buds, thanks to its innovative take on an ancient Chinese philosophy that melds Dom Pérignon’s storied legacy with an exquisite menu and exclusive artwork.

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Working Order The ofﬁce is the star of a seven-storey home in Notting Hill. Words: Helena Madden

WHEN HIGHLY SOUGHT-AFTER interior designer Katharine Pooley revamped the Notting Hill home of an international client, the office became a priority. It’s not only one of the ﬁrst rooms seen upon entering the house but also where the owner, a car and guitar collector, spends eight to 12 hours a day. The space lives within a whitestucco, seven-storey mansion that’s hundreds of years old. Pooley’s thoughtful, contemporary approach juxtaposes the building’s heritage with the owner’s particular passions.

Carpet Gold lurex fabric has been woven with dark blue for the custom silk rug. The metallic accents are meant to evoke the drift marks made by a racing car – a subtle nod to the owner’s automotive collection. The palette extends beyond the ebonised wood doors of the study, where the same hue is used in the living room for continuity.

Desk Pooley worked with the joiners at Halstock to create a bespoke wooden desk, which has a blue veneer paired with antique brass inlays. Drawers built into both of the wide legs help keep the client’s technology organised. The team left the central section of the piece open to show off the thin, statuesque legs of the chair – also accented with antique brass – just behind. The desk faces the doors, positioned for a grand reception when business partners drop by for a meeting.

Shelves The dark walnut shelves have brass and suede inlays in the back of each nook. Pooley sourced many of the objects on them herself, including the petriﬁed-wood bookends, the tiger’s eye sculptures and the antique books. The owner displays his guitars on the shelving that runs along the side of the room opposite the window. Automotive design served as some of the inspiration here, too: the lower cabinet handles reference the shape of a McLaren’s headlights.

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8LI 6IWSYVGIŴ`ŴART & DESIGN

P H O T O G R A P H Y : J A M E S M A C D O N A L D , B L A C K B U R N A R C H I T E C T S , R I Z Z O L I , TA S C H E N . S I D E B A R T E X T: H E L E N A M A D D E N A N D J A N I C E O ’ L E A R Y.

Tabletop Tomes

American Equestrian Design, US$55 It’s one thing to create a gorgeous barn, but if its equine occupants don’t appreciate it as much as you do, the point has been missed. Blackburn Architects has become known for engineering breezy stables that keep horses cool in summer and warm in winter. Strategic siting moves air through the spaces and allows for natural light to infuse what might otherwise be dark corners. The ﬁrm has also become expert at creating stylish, cosy spaces for the humans, as well as grooming and veterinarian stations within the structures. This tour de force of stunning stables takes you through New England and horse country in the South to projects in the West and Midwest.

Workstead: Interiors of Beauty and Necessity, US$65 Interior-design ﬁrm Workstead’s projects combine Danish minimalism with the leather-and-wood accents of American design traditions. As a result, its homes and condos feel both contemporary and practical, balancing light-ﬁlled rooms with tranquil-yet-functional layouts. For one project, a Victorian-style mansion in upstate New York, the team added a modern pavilion structure; for an apartment

on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Workstead redesigned virtually everything, adding oak cabinets to the kitchen and new furniture to the living areas. The studio’s lighting collection, such as the otherworldly Orbit chandelier and the geometric Hieroglyph pendant, pepper the pages. Those who want a small piece of the design practice’s look can purchase these ﬁxtures separately online.

Gilles & Boissier, US$65 Interior-design duo Patrick Gilles and Dorothée Boissier met while working at Liaigre. The couple founded their own practice in 2004; commissions from Moncler CEO Remo Rufﬁni helped get the ball rolling from there (they’ve since worked on many of the skiwear brand’s retail stores). The Paris-based duo’s work, like much of the interior design found in France, feels incredibly sumptuous and incorporates both ornate furnishings and dynamic artworks. Their book chronicles a wide range of projects, from the opulent Baccarat Hotel in New York to a palatial residence on Lake Como. It’s a great gift for museum-goers looking to integrate their own collection into a home, as Gilles & Boissier deftly balance art and design in their work.

Koichi Takada: Architecture, Nature and Design, US$75 Of all of Takada’s designs,

perhaps the best known is the undulating wooden gift shop he created for the National Museum of Qatar, which graces his monograph’s cover. Inspired by the crystal-ﬁlled Cave of Light nearby, it’s indicative of Takada’s larger oeuvre, which always considers a building’s responsibility to the environment. Because the Sydney–based architect uses only natural materials, there’s a sense of comfort and ease to his work that’s a welcome antithesis to the glass-and-metal boxes of most contemporary architecture. He’s looking to the future, too. One of his most signiﬁcant in-the-works projects is a residential high-rise that will incorporate more than 1,000 trees and 20,000 plants. Should it pan out as planned, it just may set a new standard for sustainable living.

Kuma. Complete Works 1988—Today, US$200 There’s no question that Kengo Kuma has signiﬁcantly changed the shape of contemporary architecture – in particular, his preference for natural materials over manmade ones. Like works from peers Shigeru Ban and Tadao Ando, Kuma’s projects are wide-ranging and take stylistic risks. While he’s now most celebrated for his design of the monolithic, cedar-panelled Japan National Stadium – the centrepiece of the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics – he began his career with small-scale projects in rural regions such as Tohoku and Shikoku. In the mid-1990s, he worked on a villa in coastal Shizuoka, where a layer of water covers the terrace, connecting the bay views to the home itself. This retrospective includes 500 photographs and sketches depicting every facet of the proliﬁc Japanese designer’s creative process.

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REALTY CHECK | REJUVENATION Presenting this month’s hottest properties for another place to call home.

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WESTMINSTER FIRE STATION LO ND O N , EN G L A ND

This handsome red-brick building in Victoria, SW1, is a Grade II listed Edwardian fire station from the early 1900s and is being restored as a mixed-use boutique development. Located on Greycoat Place, it will house 18 apartments and a restaurant called Mathura. Six apartments and Mathura are in the restored station, with the remaining residences housed in a new building that sits behind the station. A private landscaped courtyard separates the two buildings. Apartment sizes range from 421 sq ft to 1,707 sq ft and are available as studios and one- to three-bedroom units. In addition to the private courtyard and Mathura, which is helmed by two-Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar, residents will also have a dedicated concierge, underfloor heating and Zipcar membership. The project is the first collaboration between Singapore’s Far East Orchard and London-based Alchemi Group.

W O R D S : J A C Q U E L I N E D A N A M . P H O T O G R A P H Y : F A R E A S T O R C H A R D , A L C H E M I G R O U P.

Price: from £895,000 via CBRE

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THE REEF AT KING’S DOCK S IN G A P O RE

King’s Dock was the second largest in the world when it opened in 1913 and, while it no longer performs its original role, it now plays one that is just as important. Mapletree and Keppel Land, the developers behind The Reef at King’s Dock, engaged environmental consulting firm and marine ecology specialist DHI to design the submerged surface of a concrete floating deck – Singapore’s first in a residential development – to enhance the dock’s marine biodiversity. The 180m-long deck will include a marine viewing area to promote environmental awareness and conservation among residents and visitors. As for the residences, there are 429 of them, all leveraging the latest technology to offer perks such as home controls (for door locks, for example) and community management (such as visitor invitations with QR codes). Kitchens are fitted with appliances from Miele and Whirlpool, while bathrooms are equipped with Dornbracht fittings and Geberit bathwares.

A RT I S T ’ S I M P R E S S I O N: M A P L E T R E E A N D K E P P E L L A N D.

Price: from S$2.2 million for a two-bedroom unit via Mapletree or Keppel Land

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SANTA ELENA LUJÁ N , A R G EN T IN A

Country living doesn’t get better than this. With 877 hectares at its owner’s disposal, Santa Elena offers investment prospects that go beyond just acquiring yet another residence as its rich and varied productive activity involves livestock, agriculture and forestry. The main house was built in 1943 by Dutch architect Van Brant. Set on a small hill, it resembles an Anglo-Norman castle and has 17 bedrooms, a wine cellar and a 392sqm veranda with direct access to a deer park. The estate is also home to a chapel, stable and warehouse, as well as 14 hectares of gardens planted with ﬂora brought in from all over the world. For recreation, there is a clay tennis court, a 25m swimming pool, and the Luján River which meanders through the estate.

P H O T O G R A P H Y : C H R I S T I E ’ S I N T E R N AT I O N A L R E A L E S TAT E .

Price: upon request via Christie’s International Real Estate

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“May I Help You?” Why a ﬁrst-class concierge service is the essence of luxury residences. Words: Leong Boon Hoe

walking as well as yacht and private jet chartering. Hence a luxury residential project becomes more than just about its design and ﬁnishes, offering a variable menu of services that includes the warmth of a friendly greeting when tenants and owners return home. The origins of the concierge may be traced to the medieval Latin word conservus, meaning ‘fellow servant’. Others claim that it means ‘keeper of the keys’, as the Middle Ages saw concierges chieﬂy

P H OTO G R A P H Y: G R EG LOT U S .

WITH THE PROLIFERATION of concierge services at condominium projects, dwellers of these high-rise residences have come to expect services that make their lives easier and elevate their lifestyles. However, in the luxury residential sphere, the role of the concierge elevates the idea of service to the nth degree. Services range from making housekeeping arrangements, transportation, reservations and watering of house plants, to pet feeding, dog

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responsible for said keys, as well as being the comte des cierges (count of candles) – maintaining the lighting and cleanliness of estates (as well as ensuring the candles – being the only source of illumination – didn’t present a ﬁre risk). In time, this mastery of the domain bestowed them with a keen sense of navigation and deep reservoir of the home’s secrets. As society came out of the Middle Ages, the concierge’s role moved beyond homes – becoming as important in varied settings, from government offices to even prisons, where they performed wide-ranging duties such as supervising domestic staff to overseeing inmate records. In Paris, particularly, the concierge kept a small apartment on the building’s ground ﬂoor and was the point of contact for receiving deliveries and mail, keeping communal areas clean and supervising the comings and goings of its inhabitants and guests. As leisure tourism became more common

This level of sophistication in the discharge of a concierge’s duties also makes them the glue that binds stylish lifestyles together at luxury residences. In an ideal world, the concierge exudes authority, excellent people skills and is able to resolve issues with professionalism and efficiency, improving resident satisfaction and, in turn, property desirability. In an interview with SC Global, which has developed its reputation as one of the ﬁnest developers of luxury accommodation in the region across 25 years, I found that it has successfully imbued a top-level concierge into all its projects. This makes perfect sense for the affluent clientele it serves, who recognise that they are buying into a community as the premium, instead of considering the home as a mere commodity. SC Global’s inhouse concierge and property management ﬁrm, Seven Palms Resorts Management, continues to maintain the standards, image and quality

Services range from making housekeeping arrangements, transportation, reservations and watering of house plants, to pet feeding, dog walking as well as yacht and private jet chartering.

by the late 19th century, the hotel concierge became the all-purpose multilingual personal attendant, greeting guests and recommending local attractions. But what truly contributed to the rise and global adoption of this profession was the creation of Les Clefs d’Or (known also as The Golden Keys) in 1929. The ﬁrst such concierge association was formed on 26 October 1929 when Pierre Quentin, concierge at Hôtel Ambassador in Paris and 10 other concierges from the other grand hotels of Paris realised they could operate more effectively as a team rather than individually. By joining forces, they could make their services more useful and indispensable. Today the society’s name is Les Clefs d’Or – Union Internationale des Concierges d’Hôtels. The word ‘concierge’ appears in the name to strengthen the brand recognition of Les Clefs d’Or International as a society of professional hotel concierges. In the present, this association boasts 44 member sections represented in over 50 countries and with close to 4,000 members.

of all its properties. Its concierge teams offer a comprehensive suite of services, taking cues from the British Butler Institute in the UK, which has been engaged by the group in the past decade to provide training. As the concierge profession matures in Singapore, we can expect more and more property developers to adopt a serious approach to providing quality concierge services in their buildings as a means of product differentiation. Every developer can build with brick and mortar. But the truly outstanding buildings often come with soul in the form of ﬁrst-class service. I look forward to the day when I step into a luxury development and am greeted by an eloquent “What can I help you with today?” instead of a mere “May I help you?”. Leong Boon Hoe is the founder of Arcadia Consulting, a boutique real estate advisory and brokerage ﬁrm which has managed and marketed luxury residential projects for over 20 years in Singapore as well as key cities in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam.

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The Condo Crush Pied-a-terre sales are surging as international travel resumes. Words: Rachel Ng

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Inside one of the new residences at Waldorf Astoria New York.

branded residence could check all the boxes. Since Waldorf Astoria New York announced the sale of its apartments within Waldorf Towers just before the start of the pandemic, the property has received more than 8,000 enquiries from around the world. “One buyer from Australia purchased a residence sight unseen to use as a pied-a-terre for his travels,” says Dan Tubb, senior director of sales there. The new Waldorf residences provide the “ultimate ‘lock and leave’ purchase for a buyer”, he says, “with every hotel service they could imagine, as well as management services to take care of the residence when they’re away”. According to April 2021 housingmarket data from Redfin, urban condominium sales were up nearly 30 per cent, a bigger increase than any other home category. Miami, with its many condominium towers, has felt the flush. South Florida’s real-estate market has been on a hot streak since the start of the year with buyers from around the US flocking to purchase their pieda-terre in the Magic City, according to Eduardo Pruna, regional sales director

at One Sotheby’s International Realty. “The pandemic has spurred buyers to set up more permanent roots, either following the half-a-year-and-a-day rule to claim residency or making more frequent trips, including in the offseason.” Even smaller cities such as Charleston are seeing a jump in parttime condominium deals. Between 2020 and 2021, the MLS (a multiple listing service for real estate agents in the US) shows that condominium sales there rose 23 per cent. Globally, the demand for pieds-aterre rose to 19 per cent in 2021 from 12 per cent in 2020. “This is likely to reﬂect demand for larger, more spacious apartments in city centres to use as mid-week bases,” according to Knight Frank’s 2021 Global Buyer Survey. In London, brokers are seeing a marked increase in overseas clients wanting to purchase. Camilla Dell, managing partner at Black Brick Property Solutions, says: “With prices having fallen some 20 per cent since the end of 2014, a weaker pound and record low interest rates, the timing for many international buyers is perfect.”

P H OTO G R A P H Y: WA L D O R F A S TO R I A .

IT’S NOT NEWS that during the pandemic many urbanites moved out of Manhattan and other major cities, trading floor-through flats for country estates and suburbia. But as the lights in offices begin to turn on again, the old battle of convenience versus commute is being waged once more. And as international travel resumes, some executives prefer to stay in a space of their own, rather than in a hotel, perceiving it as safer. The solution? A pied-a-terre. According to Centurion Real Estate Partners, some who migrated away from the city are realising they want to be back in the action – or closer to work – but maybe not full time. Literally translated as ‘foot on the ground’, a pied-a-terre is a centrally located apartment or condominium that serves as a home away from home. The term evolved in the 1700s from the French phrase mettre pied a terre (to dismount), when members of the French cavalry alighted from their horses and rested in temporary abodes. With the increasing popularity of hybrid workplaces, this classic realestate option is enjoying a resurgence in the 2020s. In addition to a proximity to the C-suite and entertainment, an ideal pied-a-terre sits within a building that offers amenities such as housekeeping, laundry services, spa and fitness centres and a concierge, so the few days spent there each week or month are as seamless as possible. A hotel-

C O N N O I S S EU R S H I P F O R T H E U LT R A-A F F LU EN T

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W W W.RO B B R E P O R T.C O M.S G

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Bolgheri, Italy’s Other B A CERTAIN FACTION of wine drinkers like to state (often emphatically) that they drink only oldworld wine. It is widely accepted that they mean bottles from France, Italy and Spain made with native grapes and speciﬁed growing and ageing requirements. In Italy, this statement refers to Barolo and Brunello, two standouts among many excellent Italian regions. Some of those snobs will not taint their palates with products from Bolgheri, claiming that Italian wine made with French grapes lacks character and provenance. But they’re wrong. For a tiny region, Bolgheri has a surprisingly aristocratic provenance and a unique microclimate that brings out the best of the fruit. But Italians have long memories and strong regional prejudices. About the size of two city blocks and lacking any hilltop views (or even a hilltop), the

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Why this unsung region deserves some respect. Words: Jeff Jenssen and Mike DeSimone Illustration: Celyn

walled medieval village would be unremarkable were it not for the 4.8km stretch of cypress trees lining its entry road or for the surrounding countryside, which is awash with vines bearing Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah and Cabernet Franc. Once the centre of a mosquito-ridden malarial swamp, Bolgheri owes its provenance, however brief (by Italian standards), to Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta, who had Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc vines planted on Tenuta San Guido in the 1940s. He made wine only for family and friends, calling it Sassicaia, which is a reference to the region’s stony soil, similar to the gravel found in Bordeaux vineyards. At that time, planting Cabernet Sauvignon and other Bordeaux varieties in Tuscany, even ﬂat, coastal Tuscany, was considered heresy. But the marchese, like any good Italian, wasn’t

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one to adhere to the rules. He knew what he had was delicious. In the late 1960s, at the urging of his nephew Piero Antinori, he agreed to sell Sassicaia commercially. The first vintage to be offered, 1968, was released in 1972. Because it was not made with Sangiovese, the dominant red grape of Tuscany, it bore the humiliating moniker vino da tavola, or table wine. Despite this, his Sassicaia developed an excellent reputation, and other winemakers from elsewhere in Italy followed suit, planting vineyards here with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Other early adopters in Bolgheri include Piermario Cavallari, who founded Podere Grattamacco in 1977; Marchese Lodovico Antinori, who established Ornellaia; and his brother, Piero, who founded Guado al Tasso. It is said the only Bolgheri native who started a winery here was Eugenio Campolmi at Le Macchiole. In time the wines were called Super Tuscans because bottles of such high quality deserved a much better designation than table wine. While the name Super Tuscan is now used to describe red wine from anywhere within Tuscany made with grapes other than Sangiovese, only vintages made by the 65 wineries in the specified region around Bolgheri may be labelled Bolgheri e Bolgheri Sassicaia Consorzio di Tutela DOC. (The vineyards of Sassicaia are their own official subzone.) But the name Bolgheri may soon be more important than the Super Tuscan moniker, if it isn’t already to those who know. The area surrounding Bolgheri is low-lying, like Bordeaux, and fine gravel is found throughout the region’s sandy soils. It’s the long days of sunshine and proximity to the cooling effects of the Mediterranean that have the strongest impact on the grapes grown here. Wine from Bolgheri is noted for its combination of power and elegance. While most viticulturists and winemakers in the area consider the region too hot for Sangiovese, the widely varied microclimates within Bolgheri DOC appear to be perfect for growing grapes that came from elsewhere but are now clearly at home here. The major testament to Bolgheri’s importance as a winemaking region is the number of prominent oenophile families from other areas in Italy who established an additional winery here, such as Piedmont’s Angelo Gaja with Ca’ Marcanda, Veneto’s Allegrini family with Poggio al Tesoro and the Frescobaldi family’s purchase of Ornellaia in 2005. And while most Italian consumers are not going to spend US$800 on a bottle of Masseto, Ornellaia’s 100 per cent Merlot-based big sibling that is now produced at its own winery, there is growing national (as well as international) enthusiasm for the more accessible offerings from Bolgheri. “Interest is increasing, and people are generally interested in the Bordeaux (style)

produced in the area. In short, there is interest and there is curiosity,” Jacopo Cossater, an Italian wine journalist who also works with e-commerce, tells us. Tannic structure and acidity add long cellar life to Bolgheri wines, which retain their value and fetch high prices at auction. Along with Tenuta San Guido and Ornellaia, Le Macchiole is considered one of Bolgheri’s crown jewels. Le Macchiole Messorio, made with 100 per cent Merlot, was one of the first single-variety wines produced in the region. The 2013 shows arresting intensity of dark fruit with anise and black olive notes; it clearly has another 12 to 15 years of drinkability ahead. The opulent 2015 has flavours of black cherry, cassis and coffee bean, while the 2016 shows refinement and restraint. Each vintage at Ornellaia is given a name that represents the qualities of the growing season and finished wine. Ornellaia 2018 La Grazia Bolgheri Superiore is named for the “balance of symmetry, proportion and harmony” of the vintage. A blend of mostly Cabernet (40 per cent) and Merlot (51 per cent), it’s intense in the mouth, with flavours of dark plums, anise and hillside herbs.

Bolgheri is home to outstanding wines that testify to its position in the pantheon of revered wine regions.

Tenuta San Guido Sassicaia remains a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. While Sassicaia 2011 is drinking wonderfully right now, the 2016 vintage is considered one for the record books, and its ﬂavours of ripe cherry, blackcurrant and clove will remain in full force for years to come. The 2018 is also one to lay down; it will be another four years before its tannins begin to mellow and let notes of blackcurrant, cedar and violet shine through. Despite its relatively recent emergence on the wine scene, Bolgheri is home to outstanding wines that testify to its position in the pantheon of revered wine regions not just in Italy but in the world at large. Get a case or two now, if you can. When they are not at home in New York City or southern Spain, Mike DeSimone and Jeff Jenssen, aka the World Wine Guys, devote their time to chasing the grape harvest around the globe.

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The Great Escapes This new members-only club takes you around the world to blend your own wine.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: T H E V I N E S .

Words: Sara L Schneider Photography: Michael Evans

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FOR SOME, WINE is the lens through which they view the world. Such oenophiles spend vacations in the great producing regions around the globe, hunting for both rare bottles and enlightening conversations with top winemakers, discerning a land’s culture via its vines and grapes and soil. Now there’s a community of people who not only share that vinous worldview but take it a step further. Vines, an exclusive new membership club, offers enthusiasts ‘blending escapes’ to some of the world’s ﬁnest wine regions where, over the course of three or four days, you’ll work with leading local winemakers and producers, learning about their processes and traditions and tasting base wines in order to create a barrel of your own – 25 cases of a uniquely personal blend, bottled and shipped to your cellar when the time is right. (While the wine matures, you’ll collaborate with a designer to create your custom label.) During your trip, Vines will also facilitate a deep dive into the local culinary, entertainment and art scenes. “It’s a bit like the Explorers Club meets the Sierra Club meets the James Beard society,” says Vines CEO and founder Michael Evans. “We get to know our regions intimately by cooking with world-renowned chefs, learning from world-class musicians and artists and engaging with local

authors”, as well as connecting travellers with “the people, restaurants and activities that our local winemakers, members and friends return to over and over – the hidden trattoria on a back street of Montalcino, the fishmonger in Barcelona or even attending the Ordre des Coteaux de Champagne black-tie gala”. Recent itineraries have also included going backstage with Foo Fighters and cooking with Argentina’s legendary open-fire virtuoso, Francis Mallmann. Membership comes by way of an application questionnaire on the website, with an initial joining fee of US$100,000 and annual dues ranging from US$1,500 to US$3,000 per quarter, which include a US$2,000 credit toward the wine you produce, the cost of which can range from US$6,000 to US$37,000, depending on the region. It also comes with access to your own private wine concierge to track down hard-to-find bottles or curate a wine list for a special occasion, plus cases of ‘discovery wine’ sent to you throughout the year so the team can learn what you like and where you might like to travel next. With eight partner producers now – including Germany’s Ernst Loosen and France’s Michel Drappier – and more coming on board, the world is just waiting for its next great winemaker: you.

Like-minded oenophiles connect and blend in the world’s best wine regions, including Priorat, Spain (below) and Mendoza, Argentina (facing page).

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IN THE NAME OF MOTHER NATURE

P L E A S E D R I N K R E S P O N S I B LY.

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Beyond The Ordinary Telmont’s Blanc de Blancs 2012 and Blanc de Blancs Vinothèque 2006 vintages are a great way to kick off the new year. Words: Justin Choo

P H O T O G R A P H Y : C H A M P A G N E T E L M O N T.

FOR MANY, THE brut is often what defines a champagne house. The weight of expectation lies squarely on its rounded shoulders; the acid test to determine if one should mark the label as worth revisiting. But when it comes to the esoteric and the whatifs, the true marker of elegance lies in the Blanc de Blancs, the purest expression of Chardonnay. The Réserve Brut is perhaps the definitive Telmont: an exuberant effervescence that is rounded off by a moderate body and minerality with perfectly balanced acidity. It’s a profile that you can never tire of. The Réserve Rosé and the Vinothèque are counterpoints that show off a different side of Telmont. But to get to the heart of Telmont, the Blanc de Blancs is the key to understanding its allure. Hence, among the offerings that are available through Rémy Cointreau in Singapore, the Blanc de Blancs 2012 (S$118) is an exceptional representative of the Telmont style. For the benefit of the non-oenophiles, 2012 was a significant year of interest. It was a difficult one for vineyards, marked by an extreme climate. However, the particularly harsh winter, wet spring and battles with mildew combined with an unexpected hot summer, resulting in an exceptional harvest marked by unusual levels of acidity and sweetness. To no one’s surprise, the critics enjoyed Telmont’s Blanc de Blancs 2012: 89 points from La Revue des Vins de France (2021), a gold medal from Mundus Vini (2021) and fifth place in Tastingbook’s Top 10 Vintage Blanc de Blancs (2021).

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Our own positive experience was somewhat similar, and the 2012 vintage stood out from an already impressive line-up of albeit limited Telmont offerings that are available locally. Its distinct buttery character is what strikes you first, followed by a faint, sweet, fruity nectar and a hint of nuttiness. With Blanc de Blancs, haste is waste – take your time to let the champagne open up. The richness of its body is accentuated by delicate floral notes as well as peaches and citrus fruits. The minerality and salinity add a savoury dimension to the champagne. I cannot forget Telmont CEO Ludovic du Plessis’s passionate effusiveness when he spoke about the ethereal nature of his champagne, and at times I wonder if I had been moved by the power of his conviction more so than an olfactory assault when I tasted the Brut and the Rosé. But with the Blanc de Blancs swirling around my tongue, I doubted no longer. Truth be told, I’d loathe to even consider a pairing for this and I should be so inclined to enjoy and appreciate it as it is. The prospect of an oyster pairing is faultless, and yet it bores me. Put on rockabilly-era Imelda May, leave me alone and leave the bottle behind. If the 2012 Blanc de Blancs sounds divine to you, then there is another vintage to look forward to this year – the Blanc de Blancs Vinothèque 2006 (S$315), which arrived in Singapore this January. The Blanc de Blancs Vinothèque is the creme de la creme of the pure Chardonnays, where only the best crop from the Côte des Blancs make the cut. Only the first press fraction – the cuvee – is used as it represents the purest juice from the fruit. Rich in sugar and acids, the cuvee is notable for its ability to transcend into wines with finesse and excellent ageing potential. Cellar-aged to perfection for 14 years, the Blanc de Blancs Vinothèque bottles are still, as per tradition, riddled by the hands of an expert cellar master before they are disgorged. The result is a delightful Blanc de Blancs characterised by its elegance and underscored by a freshness and complex vanilla.

Tasting notes for Blanc de Blancs Vinothèque 2006 from Telmont Nose The first nose gives way to fleshy peach with a hint of white tobacco, followed by a burst of vanilla and toasted toffee. Palate The first mouth is a vivacious palate of exotic fruit, pineapple, mango and pear, with a lifted acidity and lychee finish. Recommended pairing Elegantly aged Parmesan.

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A King’s Dram GlenDronach’s latest tie-in with the Kingsman franchise is a powerful 29-year-old sherried single malt whisky.

THE ACTION-SPY FILM franchise Kingsman is all about the best of traditional British practices, and this would of course include Scotch whisky. GlenDronach has once again stepped up to provide it, in the form of a limited-edition release aged nearly 30 years. Revealed late 2020, it celebrates the third ﬁlm of the series, The King’s Man, a prequel set during World War I. Originally set for release in early 2021, its debut was instead pushed to 22 December after several pandemic-induced delays. GlenDronach came to be involved with this big-budget Hollywood production somewhat by chance. A major setting for the second ﬁlm, Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), was an American bourbon distillery. For this, the producers worked with drinks conglomerate Brown-Forman, which owns Jack Daniels and Old Forester, among other labels. As it happened, that same year, Brown-Forman acquired a trio of Scottish distilleries, GlenDronach among them. As it also happened, Kingsman director, writer and producer Matthew Vaughn is a big fan of GlenDronach. The Kingsman Edition 1991 Vintage was thus released as a tie-in with The Golden Circle.

This and facing pages: the GlenDronach Kingsman Edition 1989 Vintage will be highly collectible for whisky connoisseurs and Kingsman ﬁlm fans worldwide.

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“It was one of these things where the stars align and things come together,” explains Stewart Buchanan, global brand ambassador for GlenDronach. “It was something that we, as a company, as a distillery, didn’t pursue. It was actually the director coming to us. So, very unusual in that respect, that it just so happened that GlenDronach was his favourite whisky, and he reached out and we were able to very quickly turn over the first one.” Vaughn knows his spirits, Buchanan says. “He likes to enjoy his whisky. He likes to sit back with friends,and just sip and savour, as we say. So I think he’s definitely more into that sherry, rich style that GlenDronach is famed for,” he muses of the London-born film-maker. “GlenDronach, you can’t rush it, especially when you get into vintage GlenDronach. You want to just sit there with that glass and take half an hour, one hour, getting the full, big flavour profile and aroma from that.” The tie-in with the new film is the Kingsman Edition 1989 Vintage, a 29-year-old single malt aged in oloroso sherry casks with a secondary maturation in Pedro Ximinez casks. It was crafted by GlenDronach master blender Rachel Barrie, with input from Vaughn. GlenDronach’s traditional, robust Highland style of spirit is married to the big, rich, dark fruit nature of the oloroso cask, picking up a hint of oaky spice in the process. “You’re looking at that balance of the lovely oldschool nature of the oloroso: tannins, big spice, dried fruits,” Buchanan elaborates. “But then making sure you’re bringing in the Pedro Ximinez, you’re keeping the vibrancy and fruit, and that little bit of sweetness.” ‘GlenDronach’ means ‘valley of the brambles’, he reminds us. “It’s the Pedro Ximinez that accentuates that bramble blackberry note. So, beautiful combination of the two.” The final bottling, of which only 3,052 examples were created, is offered at 50.1 per cent ABV and is an exemplar of the full-bodied sherried whisky experience. The whisky’s 29-year-old age was decided in part as a tribute to the oldest bottle of GlenDronach in the distillery’s possession. That is also 29 years old and was bottled in 1913, just before the start of World War I. It carries with it a poignant story: a group of friends each bought a bottle of GlenDronach before being sent out to fight in what was, at the time, the war to end all wars. Only one returned. His bottle was later gifted to the distillery, unopened. It stays unopened, a tribute to the friends and lives lost during the conflict.

P H OTO G R A P H Y: G L E N D R O N AC H.

Words: Wei-Yu Wang Photography: Peter Dibdin

Robb Reader

RETUNING TO THE BELLE EPOQUE Obsidian gallery’s Harry Fane on collecting, buyer’s regret (or lack thereof) and running (not walking) around Hyde Park. Words: Paige Reddinger Photography: Dylan Thomas

OVER THE PAST four decades, Harry Fane has become the go-to source for vintage Cartier watches and jewellery, which he sells out of his private gallery, Obsidian, in London’s Mayfair. He began his career at Sotheby’s London, Los Angeles and New York, before venturing off on his own to sell American art, eventually homing in on smaller collectibles. Looking for a coveted Cartier Crash timepiece? Fane sold the last of 20 to be made in the ultra-rare London series, but is known for hunting down equally rare models. Need the delicate mechanism of a Cartier Mystery Clock repaired? His team has restored plenty over the years. In fact, he has had a long working relationship with the Cartier Museum and a little while ago was involved in discussions with its executives on the reintroduction of a past model. “When they reintroduced the Cintrée,” says Fane, “I was very much a part of that process.” I probably use all the auction and antiques apps, like Christie’s and Sotheby’s. If you’re lucky enough that you have relationships with some people at the auction houses, then you’re looked after well, but if you’re a nameless person calling up to get information, it’s a bloody jungle. ‘Buyer beware’ has never been truer. There are a lot of shenanigans going on. In my world, you buy what you can and there’s no point in regretting what you don’t buy. There are things I look back at over my career and think, “My God, I must have been mad!” But I don’t think there’s any point in being sentimental. I work with quite a few dealers. There’s no point in naming them because it would be the ones who I don’t name that would be upset. But there are three things that everyone should look for with dealers: knowledge, a good eye and

honesty. Today, so much of the art world has been polluted by money. People know more about the monetary aspect than they do about the work of art. And that is sad. The most recent thing I added to my collection is a diamond-set bangle made by Cartier, London, in the 1930s. This bangle is studded with diamonds of different shapes and cuts and is an incredible example of the sophistication of the Cartier, London, designers and craftsmen. Likewise, I have recently acquired a multi-gem, ﬂower brooch also made by Cartier, London, but in the 1950s. It is so vibrant and luscious; it’s hard to tear one’s eyes away from it. I still read books. The last ones I read were The House of Fragile Things by James McAuley and the Henry ‘Chips’ Channon diaries. Channon was an American who lived in England in the 1920s and 1930s. He was a tremendous diarist and this book is aristocrat soup. It’s just pages and pages and pages of the goings-on of the British aristocracy. Before that, I read When Paris Sizzled by Mary McAuliffe, which is very much up my street because it’s all about Paris in the 1920s. In London, my favourite tables are in the Robin Birley stable, like Oswald’s and Hertford Street. The best tailor in London is a man named John Pearse on Meard Street. He makes clothes for everybody, including Sir Paul McCartney. Every age brings different advantages. One always wishes they could go back to being 21, but I wouldn’t want to repeat the agonies of being 21. I’m equally content where I am now, but some of the attributes I had at 21 I wouldn’t mind having now. I used to think that I ran like a gazelle around Hyde Park every morning. But the other day a woman came into my office and said, “Oh, I know you. I see you walking in Hyde Park.”

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Seiko #B1-36 Takashimaya Shopping Centre 6235 1983 www.grand-seiko.com

Louis Vuitton #B2-36 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands 6788 3888 ap.louisvuitton.com

Tesla Hong Seh Motors #01-06 Alexandra Rd 6378 2626 www.tesla.com

Panerai #01-18 Ion Orchard 1800 429 8361 www.panerai.com Patek Philippe Cortina Watch #B2-239 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands 6688 7008 www.patek.com Paul Smith #B1-10 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands 6304 1383 www.paulsmith.com Ralph Lauren #02-44 Paragon 6694 4689 www.ralphlauren.asia Richard Mille #01-08 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands 6336 1313 www.richardmille.com Roger Dubuis #B2M-241 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands 6636 9522 www.rogerdubuis.com

Tiffany & Co #B2-68 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands 6688 7728 www.international. tiffany.com Tod’s #B1-108 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands 6688 7787 www.tods.com Ulysse Nardin Malmaison by The Hour Glass #01-01 270 Orchard Road 6884 8484 www.ulysse-nardin.com Vacheron Constantin #02-07 Ion Orchard 6509 8800 www.vacheronconstantin.com Zenith #B2M-205 The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands 6688 7757 www.zenith-watches.com

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The Duel

SHOPPING, A LA MODE Stumped by what to get friends and family for the holidays? There’s a Robb Report Ultimate Gift Guide for that (see our December issue), but perusing the shelves of a major luxury retailer can help, too, we suppose. In Harrods and Neiman Marcus, you have two of the ﬁnest stores that have long histories of pulling out all the stops for the festive season. Which is more worthy of your big annual splurge?

FOUNDED BY Henry Charles Harrod in 1849. It was originally a grocery store, which goes a long way in explaining the ﬁrst ﬂoor’s culinary Disneyland.

MOTTO Omnia, Omnibus, Ubique, or ‘All Things, for All People, Everywhere’. A better version might be Omnia, Divitibus, Ubique, or ‘All Things, for the Afﬂuent, Everywhere’.

CREATURE FEATURE An Egyptian cobra guarded a pair of US$120,000 Rene Caovilla diamond-encrusted shoes in 2007. (Snake not included with purchase.)

DID IT FIRST Installation of an escalator, or moving staircase as it was referred to then, in England. The year was 1898; traumatised customers were offered brandy and smelling salts to calm their nerves once they reached the top.

WEIRDEST THING SOLD A ‘Welcome Present for Friends at the Front’ during World War I. The kit contained cocaine, morphine and syringes.

PIVOT Shuttered its pet department in 2014 to make way for a women’s fashion ﬂoor, trading a pet spa, diamond-studded collars and live animals for skirts and dresses.

GOOD EATS The sprawling food hall includes selections of chocolate wine, sushi and plenty of caviar. A bell rings every half hour to signal the arrival of fresh bread.

ALSO KNOWN AS Londonist referred to the store as a “louche palace for the bolshy” in 2015.

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Neiman Marcus FOUNDED BY Herbert Marcus, his sister Carrie Marcus Neiman and her husband, AL Neiman, in 1907. They passed on an opportunity to invest in the barely-on-the-radar Coca-Cola brand to make it happen. Whoops.

MOTTO Its most notable slogan is its holiday one, which changes every year. For 2021, it was ‘Celebrate Big, Love Even Bigger’, which is corporate-speak for’All Things, for the Afﬂuent, Everywhere’.

CREATURE FEATURE One of the brand’s ﬁrst Christmas-catalogue offerings was a live Black Angus steer with, erm, an accompanying roast-beef cart.

DID IT FIRST In 1984, Neiman’s became the ﬁrst luxury retailer to have a customer-loyalty programme. Spend US$10,000 a year and a concierge will book dinners and arrange travel for you.

WEIRDEST THING SOLD His-and-hers mummy cases in its 1971 Christmas catalogue. When they arrived at the Florida store, the manager found a genuine corpse inside one.

PIVOT Shuttered its New York City store in Hudson Yards after just 16 months there, despite having signed a 50-year lease. Turns out, plans change. (Read: Chapter 11.)

GOOD EATS In keeping with its carnivore theme, you can buy whole turkeys at Neiman’s online store.

ALSO KNOWN AS Foes and fans alike call it Needless Markup.

PHOTOGRAPHY: SHUTTERSTOCK.

Harrods

Curated to be exceptional

Limited seasonal offerings exclusively on the Atelier

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Articles inside

A King’s Dram

Beyond The Ordinary

Bolgheri, Italy’s Other B

The Great Escapes

The Condo Crush

Realty Check

Second Life

Zero Sum

Working Order

“May I Help You?”

Command + Control

Something Old, Something New

One Small Step

Regional Reserve

Is This Business Aviation’s Frustrating New Normal?

A Triumph Of Form And Function

Size Matters

Genius At Work: Softly, Softly

Role Model