ROX Magazine 23/24

DIAMONDS & THRILLS

A BALL IN BATTERSEA ROX ROLLS UP TO LONDON TOWN

SIXTY-MILE HOURS

CARRERA ZOOMS BY ANOTHER WINNING WAYPOINT HISS-TORY BULGARI’S SERPENTINE ICON TURNS 75

THE LONDON ISSUE

GET THE LONDON LOOK AND CELEBRATE ALL THAT’S FABULOUS ABOUT THE CAPITAL OF COOL

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SQUARE BANG UNICO 18K King Gold and black ceramic case.

In-house UNICO chronograph movement.

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T I M E T O R E AC H YO U R S TA R

Z E N I T H - W AT C H E S . C O M

T H E F U T U R E O F S W I S S WATC H M A K I N G S I N C E 18 6 5

DEF Y SK YLINE SKELE TON

MILLE MIGLIA CLASSIC CHRONOGRAPH Since 1988, Chopard has been World Sponsor and Official Timekeeper of the legendary 1000 Miglia, the world’s most beautiful car race. As the ultimate embodiment of our passion for endurance rallies and the competitive spirit, the 40.5 mm-diameter Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph combines a sporty design with chronometer-certified precision. Proudly developed and handcrafted by our Artisans, this exceptional timepiece showcases the finest expertise and innovation cultivated within our Manufacture.

WORLD SPONSOR & OFFICIAL TIMEKEEPER

TAGHEUER.COM

CONTENTS

ROX MAGAZINE

WELCOME Welcome to the ‘London’ issue.

Which we begin with a confession, for despite having the privilege of co-editing ROX magazine for a while now, we’re not from Scotland, nor based anywhere near Scotland or the North in general – we’re Londoners. Which is why we were thrilled when Kyron and Grant told us they were opening a ROX boutique here.

It’s also why we’ve been deliberately cautious, all-too wary of ‘London bias’ accusations. We know not everything has to happen down here to count as relevant, but in typical ROX style (and to our relief) the new boutique is somewhere anyone who knows the brand will know is quintessentially ‘them’.

Most definitely not Bond Street, Battersea’s newly overhauled Power Station is, like ROX, iconic, just the right side of extravagant, yet truly out of the ordinary – and not just because it’s south of the river. For us, it’s been an inspirational springboard away from the usual London stuff you see in glossy magazines. We’ve taken you on a tour of this restless, yet sequestered quarter of

the capital, highlighting what to eat, what to see and even where to stay should you wish to turn your ROX shopping trip into a weekend in the city.

But don’t worry, this isn’t a London takeover. There’s exclusive-use residences for Gatsby-esque parties everywhere from Aberfeldy to North Leigh, drives in the Chilterns, and trips around some of the best factories in the Swiss Jura. We’ve celebrated Chopard’s love of cinema and been tempted by Bulgari’s Serpenti. We’ve also said goodbye to the V12 engine and celebrated Porsche’s new Mission X, a high-performance luxury hypercar the brand hopes will be the fastest production car around the Nürburgring.

We may be biased Londoners, but we think Battersea Power Station is the best addition to the ROX retail universe yet. You’ll just have to come down and find out.

Alex Doak and Laura McCreddie-Doak Editors

EDITORS’ PICKS

HUBLOT Big Bang 55607 | £12,100

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TOM FORD Harrington Jacket

ROX DNA Diamond Bangle 77769 | £8,600

GIVENCHY Antigona Mini Tote

BULGARI Serpenti Seduttori 78876 | £6,850

ROX MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

CONTENTS 25 WATCH ANATOMY Discover the third collaboration in seven years between Hublot and Sang Bleu studio’s founder Maxime Plescia Buchi.

26 WISH LIST This seasons must have fashion, accessories and watches.

30 CULTURAL RADAR All your winter entertainment options sorted.

32 SOUTH LONDON CALLING There’s plenty to entertain at Battersea Power Station. Here’s our picks of what to do, see, and eat.

38 SOUTH LONDON SCENE Battersea Power Station is more than just shops and posh restaurants, it also has a thriving creative community as well.

42 LONDON ZIPPY When treating yourself to a city-break down south allow ROX to suggest two 12-hour multistop escape plans.

48 SU CASA A fabulous, far-flung and exclusive-to-you residence is the perfect way to spend Christmas with extended family – or even better for a decadent birthday with friends.

55 CATWALK AGENDA A season of endless style possibilities.

Here is our round of the standout trends defining the new season.

64 THE LONDON LOOK Get the London look and celebrate all that’s fabulous about the capital of cool.

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CONTENTS

ROX MAGAZINE

CONTENTS 110 BEAUTY OF BESPOKE Creating your perfect jewellery piece is something anyone can do.

118 GET YOUR ROX OFF Mix your metals, stack and layer for maximum style points.

124 ROCKS AND FROCKS Chopard’s Caroline Scheufele took this year’s Cannes by storm with a 76-piece haute joaillerie collection.

128 75 YEARS OF THE SERPENTI The Serpenti turns 75 in typically decadent Bulgari style.

132 THE LUXURY WATCH EDIT Here’s what your wrist needs to be rocking right now.

136 ZENITH HAS CONTROL Captain of ‘Pilot’ as livery adorning any watch dial, Zenith has charted the skies since 1909.

142 NOUGHT TO SIXTY Jack Heuer’s brilliantly legible motorist’s chronograph careers onward, six decades young.

146 THE X-FACTORIES These three ‘manufacture’ watch brands harbour a singular in-house nous not seen anywhere this side of the Jura mountains.

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ROX MAGAZINE

CONTENTS

CONTENTS 150 INTERPLANETARY PERFECTION Gucci is hitting new heavenly heights with its latest haute horlogerie collection.

154 WATCH OUT! Discover the standout timepieces for the new season. From bold gold and cool blue editions to dopamine inducing dials we reveal the must have watches for this year.

168 V12, 11, 10, 9...

The countdown to petrol obsolescence is nigh, but that doesn’t mean the fiercest engine configuration of all time is retiring quietly.

174 X SPARKS THE SPOT Move over Formula E: thanks to the speed demon of Stuttgart electric cars just got properly real-world thrilling.

179 GADGET MAN Here are our top picks of the latest and most exciting gadgets to put you one step ahead of your fellow man.

181 GIFTS FOR HIM You may not need convincing to spend that cash on a flash must have, but just in case, here’s a selection of treats to tempt you.

183 GIFTS FOR HER From glistening diamonds to the latest fashion trends and accessories, we promise this will be your go-to gift guide this season.

184 GUEST LIST Back to what we do best! This year we've hosted some fabulous events, and there's so much more to come...

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ROX MAGAZINE

WATCH ANATOMY

INKED IN, ALL OUT Nyon’s watchmaker extraordinaire triples-down with Dalston’s tattoo artist non-pareil in an OTT reimagination of the Spirit of Big Bang. It’s the third collaboration in seven years between Hublot and Sang Bleu studio’s founder Maxime Plescia Buchi, and the most outrageous yet, projecting his hyper-geometric, anatomically architectural ink creations onto the barrel-chested contours of the chronograph. Words by Alex Doak.

Sang Bleu's geometric take on Da Vinci's 'Vitruvian Man' for Hublot collab' no.1 (2016) switches up several gears for no.3 (2023), plus a whole dimension too, playing with relief and depth through polished, satin finished, engraved, chiselled and bevelled gold facets. A flawless 3D jigsaw.

The 42 mm-diameter case comes in a choice of three materials: titanium (200 units), All Black ceramic (200 units) or King Gold (100 units), as well as two models set with 180 diamonds weighing approximately 2.4 carats, in titanium and King Gold.

It was 2014 when Spirit of Big Bang evolved Hublot’s eponymous 'porthole' design – 6 H-shaped screws battening down a sandwich of bezel and hull – from octagon to oblong. Maxime Plescia Buchi has revisited every facet of this barrel or 'tonneau' architecture, even enhancing ergonomics despite the cyborg-like transformation, by arching both caseback and sapphire dome.

In terms of dial legibility, the structure of the Spirit of Big Bang hands has been enhanced and the hour and minute markers have been refined. A sapphire dial displays the openworked ‘HUB4700’ automatic chronograph movement through disc hands.

The HUB4700 calibre is a skeletonised update of Zenith's legendary El Primero: the movement that integrated stopwatch functionality within self-winding timetelling mechanics for the first time ever, back in 1969 (while ramping-up its 'tick' from the usual 4Hz to 5Hz, for extra precision). The two brands are stablemates under the umbrella of Paris's LVMH group.

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WISH LIST

ROX MAGAZINE

WISH LIST Our top must-have picks this season.

TUDOR Black Bay £3,790 (80958), Maharishi Fire Phoenix Hooded Sweat, HUBLOT Square Bang £22,600 (80921), ROX Silver Chain £90 (72860), ROX Adore Diamond Ring £3,095 (76800), HUBLOT Classic Fusion £8,100 (81998), Celine Homme Triomphe Weekend Bag, ZENITH Defy Skyline Skeleton £9,700 (80469)

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ROX MAGAZINE

WISH LIST

TAG HEUER Carrera X Porsche Orange Racing £6,150 (80413), GUCCI Tag Necklace £325 (81987), Prada Eyewear Acetate Sunglasses, ETTINGER Sterling Billfold Wallet £190 (74260), Loro Piana Suede Overshirt, BULGARI Octo Roma £6,800 (80938), Mizuno’s Wave Rider 10 Premium Sneakers, CHOPARD Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph £9,660 (80973), WOLF Cub Watch Winder £349 (73277)

www.rox.co.uk

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WISH LIST

ROX MAGAZINE

Rowen Rose Denim Bomber Jacket, HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang £19,000 (81031), ROX DNA Diamond Bangle £7,500 (77768), ROX Cosmic Diamond Earrings £2,250 (77864), Bottega Veneta Knot Leather Ankle Boots, Miss ROX Diamond ROX Necklace 0.15cts £695 (81773), ROX Honour Pear Cut Diamond Ring from £2,650 (75767), Chloé Honore Oversized Aviatorstyle Sunglasses, BULGARI Serpenti Seduttori £13,300 (77980)

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ROX MAGAZINE

WISH LIST

Isabel Marant Tyron Wool-felt Baseball Cap, ROX Cascade Diamond Necklace £2,600 (79358), ZENITH Defy Skyline £10,600 (80471), Miss ROX Diamond Hoop Earrings £1,195 (81689), ROX Love Diamond Ring £3,495 (77860), Salomon ACS Pro Trainers, Bottega Veneta Andiamo Handbag, TAG HEUER Aquaracer £4,450 (79543), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet from £2,795 (80602)

www.rox.co.uk

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CULTURAL RADAR

ROX MAGAZINE

CULTURAL RADAR Crypto-crime, Donald Glover (aka Childish Gambino) and his latest screen outing, plus a poltergeist podcast chiller that’s set just around the corner from ROX’s new London home. Here’s all your entertainment options sorted. Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak.

THE SCREEN

THE NIGHTSTAND

THE STREAM

Wonka

Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon

November, Amazon Prime

Release Date: December 15

Mr and Mrs Smith

Michael Lewis, Penguin, £25

After November’s release of Dune: Part Two, it’s time for a second round of Tim. Timothee Chalamet that is who stars in this Willy Wonka origin story. Helmed by the director of Paddington and Paddington 2, Paul King, the film deals with how Willie Wonka came to be a chocolate-making genius. From what details we can glean from the trailer there will be chocolate, a devious chocolate cartel intent on destroying Wonka, a hopeful orphan sidekick, and Rowan Atkinson as a member of the clergy.

And Hugh Grant as the Oompa Loompa.

Chalamet plays Wonka with child-like naivete rather than with the creepiness Gene Wilder originally brought to the role with lots of Dahl-esque wordplay. And it’s also a musical. This film could be the sugarcoated treat we all want at Christmas.

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Big Pharma had Theranos’s Elizabeth Holmes, the co-working space had Adam Neumann, and now comes the story of Sam Bankman-Fried, the enigmatic figure at the heart of one of the 21st century’s most spectacular financial collapses. Before November 11 2022 Bankman-Fried founder of crypto-currency trading platform FTX, was riding high. His company was allegedly worth $32bn, and then it all fell apart and Bankman-Fried was arrested on criminal charges of fraud and conspiracy. Michael Lewis, best-selling author of The Big Short, who got to know Bankman-Fried during his epic rise takes you into the mind of one of the most speculated about characters of the last decade. Both psychological portrait, and wild financial roller-coaster ride, this is a 21st-century epic of highfrequency trading and crypto mania.

It was the film that spawned a slew of “Team Aniston” and “Team Jolie” t-shirts, and now it’s back as a series with none other than Donald Glover aka Childish Gambino in Brad Pitt role. Teaming up with him as his wife and fellow assassin is Maya Erskine who made middle-school cringe-comedy Pen15. Also joining the cast is I May Destroy You and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s Michaela Coel, and The Batman’s Paul Dano and John Turturro.

Precise details about the series are thin on the ground but considering this is coming from the man who wrote Atlanta, a show that on the surface was a rags-to-riches narrative playing out in the Atlanta rap scene, but which shone a light on the lived Black experience in America for those in the margins, all bets are off and all guesses welcome. Expect to be surprised.

ROX MAGAZINE

CULTURAL RADAR

THE COFFEE TABLE BOOK Norman Foster: Famous First Edition TASCHEN, £350

His career spans six decades and he has designed everything from the Apple Building in Cupertino to the enclosed court of the British Museum to the Millau Viaduct in Paris. Through his practice Foster + Partners he has pioneered what he refers to as “a sustainable approach to the design of the built environment” and now, for the first time, his complete body of work has been published in one edition, offering a rare insight into the inner workings of his creative practice. Featuring previously unpublished images and sketches, handpicked by Foster, paired with nearly 1,000 illustrations, and a second book of eight essays explaining his sources of inspiration, this is a rare opportunity to see inside one of the great design minds of the 20th century.

THE PODCAST

THE EXHIBITION

THE ALBUM

The Battersea Poltergeist

Marina Abramović, Royal Academy

DJ Shadow, Action Adventure

23 September 2023 – January 1 2024

Late October, early November

Art world icon and performance-art provocateur stages an innovative retrospective of her 50-year career. She is famous for such pieces as such pieces as Rhythm 0, which allowed the audience to interact with her in any way they chose, famously resulting in her having a loaded gun held to her head, and The House with the Ocean View, in which she lived in a house contrasted in the art gallery for 12 days. This retrospective will revisit key moments in Abramović’s career through live reperformance, video, installations, and sculpture. Staging the live reperformances will be individuals cast and trained by the Marina Abramović Institute rather than the artist herself. Different reperformances will take place throughout the exhibition’s run meaning no two visits will be the same. It promises to be a challenging and transformative experience.

Tickets £25.50 – £27.50

Early this year, DJ Shadow (aka Joshua Paul Davis) confirmed that he had been working on a new album throughout 2022 and that he would be releasing it late 2023.

According to the man himself, he is making a return to the instrumental-led vibes of his seminal 1996 debut album Endtroducing… and its follow-up The Private Press.

Davis was keen to stress that this sound would be an evolution rather than a throwback, marking a move away from the collaboration-heavy recent releases such as the 2019 double-album Our Pathetic Age, which wasn’t a favourite among critics due in part to its mixed mood. Davis has said that the arrangements on Action Adventure are “sophisticated but efficient”, which should please fans of his first album with its crate-digger, 100%-sampled collage of hip hop and breaks.

BBC Sounds

Writer, journalist, and 2:22 A Ghost Story playwright Danny Robins fronts this docudrama podcast that re-examines the evidence around one of the most intriguing and famous hauntings in British history. In January 1956, the Hitchings family of 63 Wycliffe Road started to experience strange phenomena – banging on the walls and ceilings, pots and pans hurling themselves across the room, a teenage girl levitating above her bed. This podcast, scripted by Robins (an east, rather than south Londoner), takes another look at this case going over newspaper reports, examining the notes of the paranormal investigator Harold Chibbett, who was involved in the case from the beginning, and he even talks to Shirley the girl who was haunted by the poltergeist and now an 82-year-old woman.

www.rox.co.uk

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SOUTH LONDON CALLING There’s plenty to entertain at Battersea Power Station.

Here’s our picks of what to do, see, and eat.

Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak

ROX MAGAZINE

FEATURE

LIFT 109 Promising a panoramic view like no other, this is a chance to get inside one of the Power Station’s famous chimneys.

The experience starts in the Art Deco Turbine Hall A where the history of the Power Station is told through dynamic animations, interactive tables, immersive media, and soundscapes. Your boring school history trip this is not. The centre piece is a whirling light installation that glows as the visitors interact with a multiplayer touch screen. The countdown to “lift off” happens in the Infinity Room where virtual energy particles swirl around you in response to your touch. A first lift takes you to the base of the north-west tower then it’s onwards and upwards, 109m to the viewing platform, as a constellation of lights swirl around you. The tower is a little lower than the likes of the London Eye, or the Sky Garden in 20 Fenchurch Street (otherwise known as the Walkie Talkie) however its 360º view of London is a unique perspective thanks to the Station’s location. Keep an eagle eye on the weather, this is not a rainy-day attraction.

Adults, £15.90, children, £11.90, groups from £14.40 Lift109.co.uk

CHRISTMAS Glide is back. This beautiful riverside ice rink will be running from November 10 – January 7. Three interconnecting rinks are surrounded by twinkling fairy lights and a spectacular 30ft Christmas tree. Off the rink there’s vintage-style fairground rides, live entertainment, and, a photo booth, because it if doesn’t go on the Grid did it really happen? The fabulous Glass House Bar will also be returning. More than just a pre-skate drink spot, it also offers its own programme of entertainment, including pub quizzes, themed music nights, DJs, and live bands. Sponsor Jo Malone will have an onsite immersive experience, where you will be able to browse the latest festive colognes and home scents. There will even be the opportunity to personalise your gifts with bottle engraving or gift-box embossing.

Tickets from glidebatterseapowerstation.co.uk

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FEATURE

ROX MAGAZINE

CINNAMON KITCHEN Definitely not your local ruby, this is the latest opening from one of the UK’s most successful and respected modern Indian chefs, Vivek Singh. Originally from Asansol in West Bengal, Singh’s cuisine combines seasonal British ingredients with a mix of traditional Indian flavours alongside more contemporary inspiration as well. To quote the man himself “we create menus and dishes that are mindful of Indian tradition but are always evolving, adapting, changing to keep in step with the times.” That means jackfruit and lotus root koftas, crisp fried aubergine steaks with a Bengali-style mustard sauce or a roganjosh but done with a Kashmiri lamb shank. The restaurant is open from noon and you can pop by for brunch, a full meal, or just snacks and cocktails. We’d recommend the Saturday Bhangra Brunch where, for £59pp for the bottomless champagne option, you can enjoy such delights as Masala scrambled eggs and tandoori chicken while a DJ spins Punjab’s finest beats. info@cinnamon-kitchenbattersea.com 020 3995 5075

JOIA ROOFTOP BAR If you prefer to go all’aperto (as any Italian will tell you, al fresco actually means “in prison” ie indoors) the 16th floor of the art'otel is the place to be. Bringing the spirit, and flavours, of Lisbon to London, the menu is designed by twice-Michelin starred Henrique Sá Pessoa who owns Alma where he reinvents Portuguese classics. The same mix of tradition and irreverence is in evidence at Joia. Think Ibercio croquetas, octopus salad, and patatas bravas with wines and cocktails specially chosen to complement.

It’s walk-ins only so get there early to secure your spot. info@joiabattersea.co.uk

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ROX MAGAZINE

FEATURE

BIRDIES CRAZY GOLF This promises to be a nine-hole golf course like no other.

Forget scratchy AstroTurf that’s seen better days and random rundown castles, this is dopamine deliverance for the Instagram generation. Put around some massive liquorice allsorts, try and keep your ball on the straight while surrounded by strobe lights, and maybe pose for a moment under an enormous Anglepoise lamp. Then, when you’ve filled your grid, stuck up a few Stories, and maybe scored a hole in one, celebrate with a Cherry Woo Woo and a stack of beef, cheese and chipotle mayo from resident kitchen Cheeky Burger. Crazy golf will never be the same again.

Adults, £13, children £8.

Playbirdies.com / 020 3011 1188

DNA VR If you fancy escaping reality, then DNA VR is the place to go. The venue offers 50 virtual experiences ranging from surviving a zombie apocalypse to fighting dragons or having a mooch around the Pyramids. With the Escape Room options you can prevent a nuclear disaster, discover the evil secrets of an ancient temple or indulge in whimsy and save Alice’s Wonderland. There’s even a no wires Premium Free Roaming involving stopping a runaway train, terrifying yourself in the Hospital of Horror or trying to escape a creepy manor where a mad scientist has been experimenting on dangerous creatures. You can go it alone but why not get a group together? Escape Rooms are for a maximum of six people, while the Arcade experience, which gives you access to numerous multiplayer games from zero-gravity laser tag in Skyfront to ocean exploration with theBlu, accommodates up to 10 players. Turn up, tune in, and leave the real world behind. If only for an hour or so.

Starting at £24pp for six people doing a VR Escape Room at super-off peak times.

Dnavr.co.uk / 020 4503 9805

www.rox.co.uk

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FEATURE

ROX MAGAZINE

BUY Sky Villas, from £7,000,000 The jewel in the residential crown of Battersea Power Station is a unique collection of 18 'Sky Villas' – now ready to view on Boiler House Square, marking the final piece of the Grade II-listed building's puzzle to be rejuvenated, reinvented and unveiled. Offering a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live atop one of London’s most recognisable landmarks, in one of a handful of residences positioned between the building’s iconic chimneys, the exceptional duplex, dual aspect apartments feature private gardens, balconies and roof terraces, offering 360-degree views of London. Framed by a new communal garden, residents have their own slice of tranquillity in the sky, inspired by the traditional London square.

Follow @BatterseaPwrStn to keep up with the latest news and events at Battersea Power Station and visit www.batterseapowerstation.co.uk or call +44 (0)20 4586 2742 for sales enquiries

STAY art'otel, from £201pn Art, style and five-star hospitality in one iconic setting, the Radisson group's latest 'art’otel' destination hotel at London Battersea Power Station bursts into life with colourful interiors created by award-winning Spanish artist Jaime Hayon – earthy tones juxtaposed with primaries and metallics, all set against a stunning backdrop of unique art installations. There's a choice of 164 unique and chic rooms, plus a breathtaking rooftop pool, in-house art gallery, and top-rated dining options like JOIA and TOZI Grand Cafe, meaning everything is just a few buoyantly coloured steps away. artotellondonbattersea.com

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MASERATI GRECALE EVERYDAY EXCEPTIONAL

BREATHE BEAUTY. EMBRACE INNOVATION. FEEL THE POWER OF NETTUNO ENGINE. THE ALL- NEW MASERATI GRECALE HAS COME TO MAKE YOUR EVERYDAY EXCEPTIONAL.

PAR K ' S M A S E R A T I

143/159 Almada Street, Hamilton, Lanarkshire, ML3 0ET - 01698 303828 parks.uk.com/maserati

Fuel economy and CO2 results for the Maserati Grecale Trofeo in mpg (l/100km) combined: 25.2 (11.2). CO2 emissions: 254 g/km. Figures shown are for comparability purposes; only compare fuel consumption and CO2 figures with other cars tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect real life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors including the accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load.

FEATURE

ROX MAGAZINE

SOUTH LONDON SCENE ROX’s new home is more than just power stations and posh restaurants, it also has a thriving creative community as well. We meet some of its players.

Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak

THE DIRECTOR / Raine Allen Miller Imagine if one of Richard Curtis’s films had been transposed to south London, now add a sprinkling of Linklater’s walking and talking and limited time frame from the Before trilogy, and a touch of Amelie-esque surrealism and you have Raine Allen Miller’s summer hit Rye Lane. Allen Miller has lived in south London since she was 12 and her love of this particular part of London is evident in her films. Her first, Jerk, was a short about an elderly Jamaican man with depression.

It premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, this brought her to the attention of BBC Film who approached her to direct an untitled rom-com that would become Rye Lane. Allen Miller definitely put her stamp on the script. She relocated the action from Camden to Peckham and Brixton, made the woman the funny one, and brought a heightened palette and lens to everyday London. Allen Miller is currently developing her own screenplay with BBC Films and is working on a comedy-drama series, but in the meantime you can watch Rye Lane on repeat on Disney+.

Raineallenmiller.com

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ROX MAGAZINE

FEATURE

THE CHEF / Tom Sellers Once the enfant terrible of the London food scene, Tom Sellers is now part of the establishment. His story (pun intended) is legendary – left school at 15, went to work for René Redzepi at Noma then Thomas Keller at both Per Se in New York and The French Laundry in the Napa Valley. Her returned to London and, at 26, opened Restaurant Story on Tooley Street near London Bridge. Just five months after opening, his 10-course tasting menu with a narrative thread inspired by his life and family, and using seasonal British ingredients, earned him his first Michelin star, with the second following in 2021. He now has two other restaurants. The first is Story Cellar, which opened in April 2023 in Neal’s Yard, is a Parisian-style brasserie with the rotisserie chicken being the star of the show, alongside other French classics such as steak with Bernaise sauce, and crème bruleé.

The most recent opening is Dovetale, located within 1 Hotel Mayfair, an enterprise that fuses luxury with sustainability opposite The Ritz and The Wolseley. Again, British seasonal ingredients and the finest UK suppliers dictate the menu. The Raw bar boasts Orkney scallops, Cornish crab and Carlingford oysters from the Republic of Ireland. The starters feature a tomato tart made with tomatoes from the Isle of Wight and English burrata, while mains bring Herdwick lamb from the Lake District and salmon from Loch Duart, a small, independent Scottish salmon farming company in Scourie, Sutherland in northwest. There is also an impressive “From the Grill” selection of meat and fish. And if all that wasn’t enough he is also an ambassador for Audemars Piguet.

Tomsellers.co.uk

THE ARTIST / Dulcie Davy Anyone who watched the second glorious season of White Lotus set in the Sicilian town of Taormina will be familiar with Graste – the Moor’s head statues that silently watch as the debauchery unfolds. Now transpose those to South London and give them an afrofuturistic twist and you have something close to the sculptures produced by south London visual artist Dulcie Davy. Drawing inspiration from the beauty and diversity within the female black community, her heads, which also double as incense holders, are bold and dramatic. Rather than emphasising the difficult side of the black experience, Davy, in her own words, “aims to encapsulate the elegance and beauty of blackness as opposed to reducing it to trauma and hardship”. She also creates large-scale paintings that celebrate the essence of the divine feminine. Dulcie has showcased her works in various solo exhibitions at a number of Soho House Studios produced sold out "Paint & Sip" events at Battersea Arts Centre, featured her art in an Oxford Street pop-up, collaborated with music artists and brands such as Apple Battersea and Tommy Jeans. Through the Battersea Arts Centre, Davy holds free creative workshops for teenage girls in London. Aimed at black and minority ethnic groups, Davy set these up to provide young girls of colour with an opportunity to engage with the art world and find their creativity.

Dulciedavy.com

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FEATURE

ROX MAGAZINE

THE MUSICIAN / Charlotte Plank Described by the NME as “the underground star rewriting the rules of UK drum ‘n’ bass” Charlotte Plank is doing well for a 21-year-old.

Her music which fuses indie with drum ‘n’ bass beats, as well as grunge and pop – think Billie Eilish with a banging donk on it – is a product of her upbringing. Her parents met in Australia on the ’90s rave scene where her father was a DJ and a friend of DJ-ing legend (and Zenith ambassador and friend of ROX) Carl Cox. Her mother’s musical tastes was more indie with Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged and The Cure being staples on camping trips. Plank herself discovered the likes of Grime and Four Tet growing up and all this is in the mix. She is also a member of Loud LDN, an all-female, non-binary group working towards making the world of drum ‘n’ bass more inclusive. Two of its members – Willow Kayne and Venbee – have won an Ivor Novello Rising Star awards and broke into the UK Top Five respectively. This year Plank has being touring the festival circuit, playing the likes of Reading on the BBC Introducing stage, Glastonbury, and Secret Garden. Her EP should be out in October with an album planned for 2024. @charlotteplankmusic

THE COLLECTIVE / Assemble Set up in 2009 after some of its members graduated from the University of Cambridge, this 22-strong multidisciplinary architectural collective brings together creators, researchers, designers and artists. They first made headlines when they turned an old petrol station in Clerkenwell into a pop-up cinema, then by winning the Turner Prize in 2015 for its work regenerating the Granby Four Streets, an area in Toxteth, Liverpool, comprising four streets at the tip of a triangle near Princes Park that had been largely abandoned during the 1990s. After its rather tongue-in-cheek start, Assemble has matured and is now in the business of changing for the better the way people live in a place. That could mean devising creative play spaces for children, making skateable works of art, devising workspaces as it did in Walthamstow with the Blackhorse Workshop – an open-access community workshop in London, which specialises in wood and metal processes, with affordable access to tools, space, and on-site technical expertise. It’s most recent project called Pitch for a Pitch is an initiative to improve the provision for girls football in the UK by either finding land to build new pitches on or finding spaces and building that can be adapted. They are currently looking for investors, landowners, councils with existing underused spaces that could be converted, so if you’re interested head to assemblestudio.co.uk, click on “Pitch for a Pitch” in Projects and download a proposal.

To request a copy the old-fashioned way, call 020 7237 0000.

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LONDON ZIPPY When treating yourself to a city-break down south (Battersea a must, of course) allow ROX to suggest two 12-hour multistop escape plans, heading west or east out of town, complete with tucked-away watering holes, petrolhead hotspots and thrilling B-roads. Words by Alex Doak.

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EPPING EAST A leisurely potter through London’s teeming heart of hip then a verdant blast through Henry VIII’s favourite hunting ground.

Morning Park at Sclater Street and set off by foot

through buzzy Brick Lane Market, historic Arnold Circus and Columbia Road Flower Market. Drive down Bethnal Green Road, park in Globe Road and visit the Young V&A.

Afternoon Head down Old Ford Road, turn left at

Grove Road, park on Gore Road for a potter round Victoria Park Village. Take the A12, off at the A106 to Walthamstow, then round the A406 to the A104 up to Epping Forest.

Evening Either head back home or push on to outer Essex via B172 and A113, picking up the B184 to Saffron Walden.

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East London’s Shoreditch, Bethnal Green and Hackney have become ground zero for hip in the capital, and a wander through shabby-chic Brick Lane and Columbia Road on a Sunday quickly reveals why. The market and flower market respectively are teeming with cool creatives in tight jeans and beards. Go via picture-postcard Arnold Circus to soak up some local heritage, then the V&A’s newly renovated Young V&A née Museum of Childhood. Things become positively chi-chi at Victoria Park Village, where you’re spoilt for gastrobpubs (the Empress for roasts, the Hemingway for Scotch eggs), cafés, a deli, and of course the glorious expanse of the Park itself, which recently benefitted from an Olympic £12 million investment. Right next to the Olympic Park is Crate Brewery – prime exponent of east London’s craftbeer explosion and a mean pizza joint to boot – but if you can’t be bothered figuring out the one-way streets and circuitous exit ramps intertwined with the similarly tortuous A12, probably best coming off the A12 early and heading through Leyton up to Walthamstow, where breathless rejuvenation has seen the emergence of the Blackhorse Lane ‘Beer Mile’. But it’s not just craft-brewery taprooms, you’ll also find the UK’s finest denim atelier (named after the road) and even a winery (Renegade, also home to revolving dining pop-ups). Carry on round to the North Circular (A406) and off at South Woodford, to arrive at three exhilarating stretches of tree-lined road all intersecting on the famous Robin Hood pub, just east of which is Bert’s Tea Hut – a legendary hangout for bikers on Sundays, where there’s a mean cuppa with your name on it. After that, it’s a potter through High Beech, perhaps a tongue-in-cheek visit to The Only Way Is Essex favourite, the King’s Oak then either home, or an adventurous stride out to Chipping Ongar and towards Saffron Walden via the legendary, undulating, winding B184 – perfect for taking your roadster (and driving skills) to task. columbiaroad.info | vam.ac.uk/young | thehemingway.co.uk | blackhorselane.com | renegadelondonwine.com

WHICH CAR? FERRARI ROMA SPIDER Buses and hipsters on ‘fixie’ bikes are a far more common sight on the streets of Hackney than supercars, so the Ferrari Roma Spider is probably the most bohemian option to go for if you’re worried about disapproving looks from the new-age locals – a contemporary take on the chic, pleasure-seeking Italian lifestyle of the 1950s and 60s, 54 years after the launch of 1969’s iconic coupé spider ‘bow-out’, the 365 GTS. And if the weather’s good, the ragtop will retract in seconds for maximum V8-powered, wind-in-the-hair exuberance through Epping Forest.

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WYCOMBE WEST Leaving the clogged streets of central London on the A40, head northwest into beautiful Buckinghamshire, taking to the skies over the Chiltern Hills.

Morning To reach the aerodrome, leave the aptly

named Hangar Lane Gyratory on the A40 towards Oxford. Continue past RAF Northolt, keeping off the motorway on the old road at the Denham roundabout.

Follow signs to Denham Green, turning left onto Tilehouse Lane.

Afternoon Leaving the airfield, either cross the valley

towards Harefield, calling at the Old Orchard or go back towards Denham Green for a meal at the Swan Inn. To reach the Hand & Flowers pub, turn right onto the Ago towards Marlow, crossing the M40 at Hotspur.

The delightfully genuine Denham Aerodrome Pilot Centre, located just inside the M25, offers a range of flying lessons to suit all abilities, including the scenic Thames flypast. This hour-and-a-half route by Cessna 152 takes in the Chiltern Hills, returning over the River Thames past Henley and Marlow. For budding pilots keen to take the next step in gaining their Private Pilot's Licence, the longer three-hour discovery course is the ideal introduction to learning to fly.

Once safely back on terra firma, the picturesque Swan Inn in the nearby village of Denham will provide a cosy retreat and an excellent slap-up meal.

Alternatively, cross the valley and call in at the scenic Old Orchard pub to watch the planes come into land. If it's fine dining you're after, the excellent Sunday lunch on offer at Tom Kerridge's two Michelin-starred Hand & Flowers pub in Marlow is just a short but sweet blast up the old A40 – just be sure to book well in advance. thepilotcentre.co.uk swaninndenham.co.uk thehandandflowers.co.uk brunningandprice.co.uk/oldorchard

WHICH CAR? RANGE ROVER VELAR HST Jaguar Land Rover’s newly updated mid-size luxury SUV sits between the bijoux Evoque and growly Sport in the Range Rover family, offering an ideal balance of comfort, technology, performance and – let’s face it – all-out panache. The new 3.0-litre 400hp straight-six petrol engine offers a smooth and refined drive, with an impressive 0–60mph in 6 seconds.

Another Gerry McGovern-styled stroke of grown-up futurism that tweaks the underpinnings of its Jaguar F-Pace Sport stablemate, mostly in lightweight aluminium.

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SU CASA A fabulous, far-flung and exclusive-to-you residence is the perfect way to spend Christmas with extended family – or even better for a decadent birthday with friends (getting away from said family in the process, if you catch our drift). ROX has done the research so you don’t have to, with three fantastically appointed boltholes up its sleeve. Book sharpish, then stun your nearest and dearest with a party invite to trump all party invites. Words by Alex Doak.

INNER HEBRIDES HAVEN You’ll find Ardfin sculpted into the southern shores of the Isle of Jura; a 12,000 acre estate, restored with sympathy for the environs, but also pure class. It combines 5-star luxury with a Bob Harrisondesigned golf course, already as one of the best in the world, despite the resort’s youth.

Whether you’re there ‘to golf’ on the links or not, there are two ways to experience Ardfin as a guest, each special in their own way. The Quads operates as a luxury hotel. Originally one of Ardfin's agricultural buildings, the Quadrangle has been transformed into 13 luxury bedrooms with spacious public spaces that include The Atrium, the main bar and dining area, with its glass ceiling and abundant natural light, and the Ceilidh Barn, which offers more space to relax, play billiards and taste whiskies.

But what we’re interested in here is Jura House – available on an exclusive-use basis, for minimum three-night stays for up to a positively bacchanalian party of twenty guests.

Ardfin was originally the seat of Scotland’s noble clans, the McDonalds and then the Campbells for hundreds of years. But it has taken longer to restore and rejuvenate Jura House to beyond its original splendour than it took to build the original house. With 10 beautiful bedrooms, grand reception and dining rooms, a billiard room and large indoor pool, Jura House is the perfect venue for extra-special re-unions and festivities. ardfin.com

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ESCAPE TO THE HIGHLANDS Still within arm’s reach of civilisation should you run out of milk (it’s the house in the middle of the pic, perched on a hill) Dun Aluinn is an exclusive-use home-from-home situated in rolling, wild and heartrending Perthshire. The main house at Dun Aluinn sleeps up to 18 guests in 9 sumptuous individually designed bedrooms, each with a private en-suite bathroom. But in addition, the separate ‘Lodge’ on the other side of its 5.5 acres of grounds sleeps an additional 8 guests (4 bedrooms, all en-suite).

Situated on an elevated site overlooking the town of Aberfeldy and the River Tay that winds through it, Dun Aluinn boasts an extensive terrace with stunning views down the Tay Valley to Schiehallion. Views that can be breathed in from a wood-fired natural cedar hot tub, nestled in the woods beside the house, large enough for 10-12 guests (should they be close-enough friends in the first place). Or wrapped-up, cosied-up around a fire pit with a hot toddy to hand.

Aforementioned milk shortages are actually unlikely, since catering is provided by nearby Ballintaggart Farm, with full housekeeping, butler and concierge services. But if you’d rather selfcater one evening, there’s always salmon fishing on the Tay. dunaluinn.com

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COSY IN THE COTSWOLDS Well, perched on the Cotswolds’ doorstep, if we’re honest. But Oxfordshire nonetheless and no less gorgeous a setting, for this hosted home and countryside companion to private members’ club Maison Estelle in Mayfair, London.

Billing itself as “a new school club with old school values”, this sprawling community, hotel, hangout, whatever you need, follows in the footsteps of hipster boltholes like Birch in Hertfordshire.

Ultimately, somewhere you and your friends can come for personalised service and discretion, but ensconced by a similarly minded, unstuffy and fun community.

A Grade-II listed landmark manor house sits at the heart of Estelle’s 60-acre estate, surrounded by over 3,000 acres of beautiful parkland and gardens. There are four restaurants (a lively Brasserie, a traditional Chinese restaurant, the billiards room and a sun-drenched lush Glasshouse) and coming soon are the quite frankly, ridiculously extravagant ‘Eynsham Baths’: 3,000 square metres of Roman-inspired spa, encompassing a vast ‘tepidarium’ (the Latin scholars among you will know), five pools, a lounge, ten treatment rooms…

And then, the private houses.

At the time of writing, Hollyhock Cottage, The Farriers and Bluebell House were still to open their books, for six, ten and twelve guests respectively. But if you get in there fast, Woodland Cottage is the perfect intimate escape for you and another couple, or the kids.

An eclectically, bohemian-styled haven with two bedrooms each furnished with super king-size beds and en-suite bathrooms. A vaulted living room space is complete with a wood-burning fireplace and dining room table. Cosy but cool, Woodland’s décor is an Anglo nod to Scandi cabins, with wood-slat ceilings, shearing throws and fabric lanterns – all rendered in cosy Cotswold pastels.

If you cherish memories of reading Brambley Hedge as a kid, this is where you live them out. estellemanor.com

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VICTORIA BECKHAM

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DOLCE&GABBANA LUISA SPAGNOLI

ISABEL MARANT

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CATWALK AGENDA A season of endless style possibilities. Here is our round up of the standout trends defining the new season.

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If you are still under the impression that loungewear for the office is acceptable, this season’s take on workwear will make you think again. We're embracing all things suiting and tailoring and paying homage to the oh so flattering suit. From needle sharp shoulders and sculpted skirt suits it’s definitely time to start dressing to impress again. Power up the impact with wow factors diamonds and a statement watch.

MAX MARA

BUSINESS CLASS

ROX Cascade Diamond Ring 75449 | £3,200

ROX Cascade Diamond Earrings 75423 | £1,350

CHLOÉ EYEWEAR

ROX Cascade Diamond Bangle 81704 | £3,600

TUDOR Black Bay 36 80985 | £3,970

ROX Diffusion Bracelet 74302 | £235

ROX Diffusion Necklace 74305 | £485

GIANVITO ROSSI

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THE GREAT BLACK COAT The AW23 mood was all about an appreciation of well-constructed everyday pieces, and nothing says timeless style staple like a classic black coat. Some may say it's a sensible option but think again. The key here is all about the execution. Luxe design details, beautiful tailoring and impeccable fabrics this coat will be a guaranteed scene stealer.

BULGARI Serpenti Tubogas 76454 | £8,900

VALENTINO GARAVANI

ROX Code Diamond Necklace 79803 | £8,900

ROX Love Diamond Bangle 71325 | £4,950

ROX Code Diamond Ring 79894 | £6,200

ROX Code Diamond Bracelet 79797 | £4,800

ROX Code Diamond Earrings 79805 | £2,900

MANOLO BLAHNIK

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Go hell for leather and give your wardrobe a luxe makeover with an undeniably rebellious edge. Our style tip…leave the full-on head to toe leather for the catwalk and embrace versatile pieces that cream luxury. Invest wisely and give your wardrobe enduring appeal season after season with butter soft pencil skirts, oversized biker jackets and trench coats top of our wish list.

LOEWE

HIDE & SEEK

LOEWE

HUBLOT Classic Fusion 78967 | £8,500

ROX Adore Diamond Ring 77738 | £5,800

ROX Adore Diamond Earrings 76893 | £980

ROX Adore Diamond Bangle 77840 | £7,800

SEE BY CHLOÉ

ROX Adore Diamond Earrings 74027 | £2,200

ROX Adore Diamond Necklace 76900 | £2,495

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Join the gleam team and embrace the metallic of the moment. Embracing silver feels very now after seasons of rainbow brights. From disco ball bold sequins to more subtle lame, there is a silver for everyone.

16ARLINGTON

LAQUAN SMITH

CELIA KRITHARIOTI

SILVER LINING

GUCCI G-Timeless 79693 | £1,040

ROX Honour Diamond Earrings 78198 | from £950

ROX Miss ROX Diamond Necklace 81695 | £1,475

JUDITH LEIBER COUTURE

GUCCI

ROX Cosmic Diamond Bangle 79651 | £5,400

ROX Cosmic Diamond Ring 77700 | £1,650

ROX Cosmic Diamond Ring 80023 | £11,800

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We've been spotting tights making a comeback on the catwalk for seasons now but now they are making a major impact on the legs of our favourite celebrities and fashion insiders too. This fall the trend is here to stay with high fashion hosiery being worn in place of trousers creating super sexy silhouettes. Purists can keep things simple and chic with opaque and those who dare to bare can embrace textures such as lace, shimmer and fishnet.

CELIA KRITHARIOTI

TIGHT SPOT

ROX Diamond Moon Necklace 81663 | £695

ROX Diamond Ring 69171 | £1,380

BENEDETTA BRUZZICHES

ZENITH Defy Skyline 80474 | £10,600

ROX Diamond Line Bracelet 80724 | £1,295

VALENTINO GARAVANI

ROX Honour Lab Grown Diamond Ring 81452 | £2295

ROX Love Diamond Bangle 71322 | £2,750

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Fiery red saffron is as warm as it is cool! One of the colours of the season will never go out of style and this season it's all about embracing it head to toe. Take the bold hue beyond the classic red dress and think of fresh silhouettes, oversized tailoring and layers of tonal shades.

JASON WU

DAVID KOMA

ALEXANDER MCQUEEN

PINCH OF SAFFRON

CHOPARD Happy Sport 74920 | £7,360

ROX Diamond Bracelet 77758 | £1,080

BOTTEGA VENETA

ROX Cosmic Diamond Ring 77862 | £1,785

GIANVITO ROSSI

ROX Diamond Earrings 77779 | £880

ROX Cosmic Diamond Earrings 77863 | £1,475

ROX Cosmic Diamond Necklace 78209 | £1,250

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First comes the catwalk then comes the A list set. And if recent celeb sightings are anything to go by, the thigh high boot is the shoe du jour. Inherently sexy and instantly edgy, the thigh skimming boot adds interest to any look styled correctly. One thing's for sure you need to up your boot game.

ISABEL MARANT

ABOVE & BEYOND

TAG HEUER Carrera Date 80427 | £2,750

BRUNELLO CUCINELLI

ROX Diamond Joy Necklace 81770 | £795

ROX Diamond Stacking Ring 81687 | £1,495

ROX Miss ROX Diamond Bracelet 80727 | £1,295

ROX Initial Diamond Necklace 76365 | from £780

KHAITE

ROX Lab Grown Diamond Ring 81530 | from £2,295

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S T AY

DA KO TA STYLE

EUROCENTRAL

EDINBURGH

GLASGOW dakotahotels.co.uk

LEEDS

MANCHESTER

ROX Cascade Diamond Collar 5.11cts £16,500 (79649), ROX Cascade Stacking Ring 1.68cts £7,500 (79643), ROX Cascade Stacking Sapphire Ring £6,995 (79706), ROX Cascade Stacking Ring 1.10cts £5,995 (79642), ROX Cascade Ring 1.54cts £4,700 (79644), ROX Cascade Earrings 0.28cts £960 (79360), ROX Cascade Earrings 1.23cts £3,200 (79362), ROX Cascade Bracelet 2.93cts £8,600 (79648), ROX Cascade Diamond Bangle 0.78cts £3,600 (77613), ROX Cascade Diamond Bangle 2.59cts £10,500 (79712)

PARTY LINE Seek attention and stand out from the crowd in wow factor gowns paired to perfection with daring diamonds.

Photographer: Ian Lim Stylist: Danielle Timperley Model: Malaika Firth Make-up: Aaliya Diaz Hair: Jack Luckhurt Location: Sky Villa, Battersea Power Station

A GREAT BRITISH LOVE AFFAIR A quintessential London pub serves as the perfect backdrop to this season most dramatic jewellery looks.

ROX Diamond Cocktail Ring 1.87cts £4,995 (61903), ROX Honour Diamond Ring 2.01cts £22,000 (78589), ROX Honour Diamond Earrings from £3,995 (75904), ROX Honour Diamond Collar 3.70cts £7,800 (79713), ROX Honour Diamond Collar 3.00cts £5,950 (77000), ROX Honour Diamond Collar 7.00cts £12,950 (71490), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelets from £2,795 (80602), Zenith Defy Skyline £7,500 (80480)

ROX Code Diamond Collar 8.01cts £24,500 (79795), ROX Code Earrings 1.59cts £7,400 (79804), ROX Code Diamond Bracelet 5.82ct £22,950 (79799), ROX Code Diamond Bangle 4.55cts £13,800 (79807), ROX Honour Lab Grown Diamond Engagement Ring 4.57cts £8,950 (81669)

PRETTY IN PINK Live out your 'dress up' dreams in the most decadent diamonds. ROX Code takes a cue from bold and geometric patterns, creating an eternally stylish collection designed to be worn to excess.

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LONDON CALLING Cause a commotion in the colour of the season with ROX Cosmic. Create wow factor moments inspired by the spirit of London.

ROX Cosmic Diamond Collar 9.52cts £29,000 (71788), ROX Cosmic Diamond Bangle 1.24cts £7,900 (79762), ROX Cosmic Diamond Bangle 2.60cts £9,800 (79682), ROX Cosmic Diamond Ring 0.39cts £1,650 (77700), ROX Cosmic Diamond Earrings 0.90cts £2,800 (71784), ROX Cosmic Diamond Starburst Ring 1.40cts £4,500 (74149), ROX Cosmic Emerald Diamond Ring 1.37cts £11,800 (80023)

POWER UP Show your sparkle. Shine bright like a diamond in ROX Code which adds instant drama with its bold and geometric designs.

ROX Code Diamond Mismatched Earrings 3.55cts £14,950 (79800), ROX Code Diamond Earrings 0.29cts £850 (77782), ROX Code Diamond Collar 6.67cts £22,000 (79796), ROX Code Diamond Necklace 0.84ct £2,750 (77790), ROX Code Diamond Bracelet 3.57ct £14,950 (79798), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 2.50cts £6,500 (77676), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 5.00cts £8,900 (77775), ROX Love Emerald Cut Diamond Ring from £3,295 (77920), ROX Adore Diamond Ring 1.83cts £6,400 (77739)

LUXE LIFE Live out a life of luxury on your own terms. Layers of stackable diamonds and a whimsical timepiece are all you need to dazzle from say to night.

ROX Yellow Gold DNA Bangle £5,200 (79371), Hublot Big Bang £20,800 (58110), Toi Et Moi Lab Grown Diamond Ring £5,950 (82007), ROX Honour Diamond Earrings from £3,995 (75904), ROX Honour Oval Cut Diamond Ring from £2,495 (75766), ROX Love Diamond Bangle 2.00cts £4,950 (75563), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet from £2,795 (81199), ROX Honour Diamond Collar 3.79cts £7,800 (79933)

HAPPY DIAMONDS Handcrafted in Ethical Gold

BIG BANG ONE CLICK 18K King Gold case set with diamonds.

Self-winding movement. Interchangeable strap using patented One-Click system.

T I M E T O R E AC H YO U R S TA R

Z E N I T H - W AT C H E S . C O M

T H E F U T U R E O F S W I S S WATC H M A K I N G S I N C E 18 6 5

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THE BEAUTY OF BESPOKE Opting to have jewellery made to your exact specifications used to be the preserve of the privileged, however having your perfect piece made, whether it’s something to which you hope someone will say, “I do”, to a precious way of saying “thank you” is something anyone can do.

Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak.

T

he idea of bespoke jewellery for most people probably inhabited the same space as having a couture gown – something that happens to other people, probably with double barrelled surnames and definitely with some serious zeroes on their bank balance. However, in the past decade that has started to shift. “Interest in bespoke design has definitely built over the past few years,” explains Alan Street, Retail Director at ROX. “People want statement pieces, something unique. Social media has added to this; people’s pieces are no longer just seen by those at the event but can be seen by anyone in the world.”

It started with people becoming comfortable with the idea of repurposing.

It’s bespoke but less open ended. The metal and stones are already there, you just have to decide what to do with them. The growing comfort with bespoke is also related to the way in which people interact luxury retail spaces. Historically, stores where you went to buy jewellery, in particular,

were places where you probably went a handful of times in your life. They were for engagements, weddings, notable anniversaries and births. They were traditional, untroubled by such things as trends, or differing tastes. Then came the 1990s, the rock ‘n’ roll jeweller was born and suddenly these luxury items were less about marking occasions as signifiers of personality. Most importantly, people didn’t want what everyone else was wearing, they wanted something original. That being said, it can still be rather daunting to conjure a piece of jewellery out of the ether. Do you start with the stone or the personality of who you’re designing it for? Which metal? What gemstones? Traditional cuts or contemporary? To misquote the Chemical Brothers, when you have an infinite number of noises, it’s harder to make the right decisions. This is where ROX’s in-house team comes in very handy. If you’re thinking about dipping your toe in jewellery-design waters, here’s what you need to know.

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STEP 1: The consultation. For some people this can be the most daunting part of the process, however it’s more like a first date. You’re not expected to make life decisions, it’s just a chat (with a glass of champagne, should you be amenable) to find out more. Why are you having this piece designed? If it’s for you what are your likes and dislikes, same applies if it’s for someone else. Even if you have no idea of exactly what you want the finished piece to look like this chat will help you, and the ROX team to formulate ideas. Of course, you can also be super-prepared and have already Pinterested the whole thing. That works too. ROX also has an online ring builder (rox.co.uk/ringbuilder) if what you’re looking is an engagement ring and want keep the design process super simple. Choose your stone, select your style, and we’ll bring it to life.

STEP 2: This is when our in-house design team take your ideas, feelings, thoughts, and turn them into a pen-and-paper reality.

Being a designer is the ultimate multi-hyphenate. They have to be mind-readers, interpreters, but also engineers and mathematicians. There’s no point in them providing you with a sketch that looks great on paper but has no chance of a structural reality. And, just as importantly, they are there to work within your budget; to know which metals and stones in which configurations are going to deliver the most beautiful design for whatever you can spend.

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STEP 3: Once you’ve said “yes” on paper, the modelmaker steps in to ensure the fantasy matches the reality.

Through drawings and 3D animated computer design, a wax model of the piece will be created to make sure it looks right, and more importantly, feels right.

STEP 4: This is when the gemmologists get involved. These trained specialists, who can grade stones as well as ascertain if any coloured gems have been treated, choose the highest quality stones that suit your design. Selecting them to maximise brilliance and ensuring uniformity in colour and clarity.

Obviously you’ll be consulted to check you approve of their choices.

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STEP 5: Stones chosen, metal decided upon, design approved, it’s now time for our in-house manufacturing team to get to work. We have expert setters and polishers who will bring your design to life. Knowing how to set stones to maximise the amount of light that can enter them is a mixture of creativity and skill. You have to understand the stone’s facets to be able to choose the right type of setting; something that can only happen after years at the bench. Once the piece has been made, it’s time to present it over another glass of champagne.

USING LAB-GROWN STONES Lab-grown stones – ones that are structurally and chemically identical to natural ones but grown in a laboratory rather than dug out of the ground – have been growing in popularity in recent years. The only difference with lab-grown stones is that the intense heat and pressure required to form them doesn’t happen naturally but is simulated via two chemical processes. Both start with a flat slither of another diamond, known as the seed, then the first option is high pressure high temperature (HPHT) and the other is chemical vapour deposition (CVD). The former places the seed in among pure graphite carbon and then exposes it to extreme heat – around 1,500ºC – and extreme pressure of approximately 1.5 million pounds per square inch. The other option involves placing the seed in a chamber filled with gas enriched with carbon and heating it, which forces the carbon atoms in the gas to stick to the seed; the build-up of which grows the diamond. After this, you get your labgrown stone. You can select natural diamonds or labgrown diamonds for any bespoke pieces. You can even mix and match!

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STYLE COUNSEL Want to go bespoke, but still confused by the possibilities?

Let these wonderful creations be your guide.

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ROX Diamond Earrings from £1,695 (80361), Miss ROX Diamond Earrings 0.33cts £1,125 (81688), ROX Diamond Moon Necklace 0.13cts £695 (81662), Miss ROX Diamond Necklace 0.47 £1,195 (81692), ROX Diamond Initial Necklace from £675 (76365), ROX Diamond Bracelets: £995 (80729), £1,295 (80727), £1,295 (80725), £1,150 (74843), Miss ROX Stacking Rings: £1,495 (81687), £1,380 (74841), £1,350 (81686), £1,295 (81683)

GET YOUR ROX OFF Miss ROX is all about pushing the boundaries of how to wear diamonds with stackable designs that can be worn everyday. Featuring fun and playful jewellery, mix your metals, stack and layer for maximum style points.

Photographer: Ian Lim Stylist: Danielle Timperley Model: Malaika Firth Make-up: Aaliya Diaz Hair: Jack Luckhurt Location: Sky Villa, Battersea Power Station www.rox.co.uk

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ROX Diamond Earrings from £1,695 (80361), Miss ROX Diamond Earrings 0.33cts £1,125 (81688), ROX Diamond Moon Necklace 0.13cts £695 (81662), Miss ROX Diamond Necklace 0.47 £1,195 (81692), ROX Diamond Initial Necklace from £675 (76365)

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ROX Diamond Earrings from £1,695 (80361) Miss ROX Diamond Earrings 0.33cts £1,125 (81688)

JEWELLERY EDIT

Miss ROX Stacking Ring 0.60cts £1,495 (81687) ROX Diamond Ring 0.56cts £1,380 (74841)

ROX Diamond Necklace 81659 | £680

ROX Diamond Earrings 81654 | £195

ROX Diamond Bracelet 80729 | £995

ROX Diamond Ring 81793 | £595

ROX Diamond Earrings 81648 | £950

ROX Diamond Love Necklace 81772 | £950

ROX Diamond Ring 81684 | £995

ROX Diamond Initial Bracelet 77064 | £395

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ROX Diamond Bracelet 0.22cts £995 (80729), ROX Diamond Bracelet 0.32cts £1,295 (80727), ROX Diamond Bracelet 0.35cts £1,295 (80725), ROX Diamond Bangle 0.33cts £1,150 (74843), Miss ROX Stacking Ring 0.48cts £1,350 (81686), Miss ROX Stacking Ring 0.47cts £1,295 (81683)

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ROCKS AND FROCKS Chopard’s Caroline Scheufele took this year’s Cannes by storm with a 76-piece haute joaillerie collection and her first foray into couture.

Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak

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hen it comes to collections, Chopard’s annual Red Carpet launch at Cannes is the very definition of opulent. This year, Chopard took “opulent” and redefined it. To celebrate the festival’s 76th year, Caroline Scheufele, the Maison’s artistic director unveiled 76 haute joaillerie masterpieces – the Maison always unveils a number of pieces commensurate to the number of years of the festival –inspired by the arts.

Seven of them that Scheufele identified as architecture, sculpture, painting, music, literature, and, of course, cinema; all areas where Scheufele believes humanity shows its greatest creativity and nobility.

The starting point was Scheufele’s

travel diaries in which she notes down her inspiration including everything from beautiful sculptures to the casual elegance inherent in nature. Feathers reminiscent of ancient quills become diamond-and-sapphire-set paeans to literature. Sculpture is celebrated with an incredible ring where a 127-carat yellow sapphire is supported by a collar of hand-carved gold classicalstyle statues like ancient gods touched

by Midas. A matching necklace and earring set with diamond corrollas that gently tremble evoke the flutter of a ballet dancer’s tutu as she jetes across a stage. Even more diamonds, this time briolette cut form a choker whose stones resembles notes on a score. An artist’s use of colour and love of the natural world comes together in a luminous colourful

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butterfly ring, while architecture is interpreted through an elegant tanzanite necklace – all clean-cut symmetry and carefully constructed proportions. A moon pendant romantically hints at the darkness one needs in order to watch a film, and surrounding these seven totems are 71 other unique pieces of haute joaillerie and horlogerie through which these arts are explored.

This is also a place of innovation for the Maison. Titanium is used alongside Fairmined gold (Chopard’s commitment to ensuring its supply chain of both precious metals and stones is well documented), new stone cuts are experimented with, tradition and modernity blended. This year’s Cannes was also special for another reason.

Scheufele announced her first foray into couture.

“I wanted to create a collection for women who, like me, want to dress

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in a way that is fully aligned with who they are today”, explains Scheufele.

“Women in love with beauty – meaning true beauty, the kind that never goes out of fashion. Pure elegance. Clothes that can be cherished over time, worn in a variety of circumstances and in countless ways, without ever losing their value or relevance.”

50 silhouettes have been created and were debuted at a star-studded party at Cannes where supers such as Naomi Campbell, Helena Christensen, Eva Herzigova, and Natalia Vodianova stalked the runway. Each creation has been designed to complement the jewels of the Red Carpet Collection. Being Scheufele sustainability is at the heart of this collection as well. Each dress is made to order so no fabric is wasted.

Chiffon, taffeta, duchess satin, silk cady, lace, a large proportion of the fabrics is sourced from Jakob Schlaepfer in

To celebrate the festival’s 76th year, Caroline Scheufele, the Maison’s artistic director unveiled 76 haute joaillerie masterpieces inspired by the arts.

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St. Gallen, a Swiss manufacturer that has become a worldwide reference and a supplier to Haute Couture since its inception. Some of the fabrics also come from the Gentili Mosconi workshops in Como, in particular the universally acclaimed jacquards, which have been worked and redesigned to meet the unique requirements of Caroline's Couture. The embroideries are made in India by the best artisans of the Kalhtath Institute, which was set up

by Maximiliano Modesti, a fashion entrepreneur, to preserve the embroidery techniques of Uttar Pradesh.

“When you are lucky enough to live a charmed life, it is only right to give back what you can for the benefit of others and thus create a virtuous circle,” says Scheufele. “The Kalhath Institute works to strengthen the skills of the artisans, to pass on this exceptional expertise within India and to put in place framework conditions enabling the craftspeople to earn fair wages and these are exactly the kind of steps we have been taking for several years at Chopard.”

Chopard watches and jewellery are available online and at ROX Glasgow. www.rox.co.uk

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75

years

OF THE SERPENTI The Serpenti turns 75 in typically decadent Bulgari style.

ROX looks back on its sensuous and scandalous history.

Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak.

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ringer of death, symbol of fertility; bound to the earth but an emblem of eternal life – no creature has captured the human imagination more than the snake. It is one of the world’s oldest and most widespread mythological symbols found everywhere from the temples of Cambodia to the First Navy Jack, or flag, of the US Navy. Pharaohs wore a symbol of the Uraeus to represent the goddess Wadjet, often portrayed as a serpent with wings, the mother and protector of Egypt. In ancient Greece and Rome serpents were associated with healing, strength, seductiveness, and eternity.

Bulgari, with its Greco-Roman heritage would have wanted to harness those associations when it unveiled its first Serpenti in 1948. This initial creation was more of a figurative, rather than a literal, serpent. While the head was square, the body was given a symbolic sinuousness through the Tubogas technique. The Tubogas was originally a corrugated tube made from articulated

bands of used to transport pressurised gas, hence the name. Bulgari took this principle and refracted it through a highjewellery lens. Rather than crude bands, its craftspeople wrapped strips of gold, and sometimes steel, around a wooden form, ensuring the edges all interlocked.

It isn’t soldered but the jeweller must control the metal’s temperature until the form has been wrapped. By the 1950s, the Serpenti has become more snake-like with a realistic head set with preciousstone eyes and with a watch dial hidden in its mouth.

This icon was given a major PR boost in 1963 when images emerged from the set of Cleopatra. The biopic starring Elizabeth Taylor in the titular role and Richard Burton as Mark Antony had already garnered headlines thanks to replaced directors, illness (Taylor contracted meningitis which postponed shooting), and spiralling budgets, but it was the burgeoning romance between Taylor and Burton, both of whom were married to other people, that was generating the gossip column inches. www.rox.co.uk

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In a now-famous black-and-white image Taylor, glamourous yet casual is wearing a Serpenti.

Cleopatra was rumoured to wear snake jewellery, but it was this mixture of ancient symbolism with a modern edge that made this piece the perfect choice both for Taylor and the Egyptian queen; the bracelet adding to the conflation of the two women.

The Italian Maison went on to have a starring role in the Burton/Taylor tumult of a romance. Burton famously joked that he introduced Liz to beer, she introduced him to Bulgari.

Like a snake sheading its skin, the Serpenti has taken on many guises. It has appeared curled around a large, scaled cuff; shrunk to accommodate a movement, the in-house Piccolissimo, just 12mm in diameter and for its 75th birthday this year, it is back in its Tubogas form. This time, however, the sinewy sensuous bracelet continues all the way to the case, joining head and diamond-set in one smooth, gold, serpentine coil.

No creature has captured the human imagination more than the snake. It is one of the world’s oldest and most widespread mythological symbols Also new are two versions of the Serpenti Misteriosi, originally launched last year with the Piccolissimo-powered timepiece concealed in the snake’s mouth. This year there is a gorgeously opulent rose gold version with black lacquered scales. The art of lacquering inspired by the enamelling technique used by the Egyptians as far back as 2000 BCE, making it the appropriate choice for this symbol of the Pharaohs. The other is a white gold set with nearly 33cts of round-cut stone. On each of the Serpentis, the hexagonal scales are cast using the delicate lost wax technique, which also has roots in antiquity, dating back, as it does 6,000 years and both have dials painstakingly pave set with miniscule diamonds.

In a world where brands appear to be moving into more unisex styles, touting their latest launches as being for anyone, even, thanks to this summer’s full-blown Barbiemania, bubblegum pink (we’re looking at you Ryan Gosling), there is something unashamedly feminine about this uniquely formed watch. Forget what the Bible tells you, being tempted by a serpent, and now a Serpenti, is a privilege reserved solely for women.

Bulgari watches are available online and at ROX Glasgow. www.rox.co.uk

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THE LUXURY WATCH EDIT It’s never a better time to treat yourself or a loved one, whether it’s a gift, or simply because… well, why not? Here’s what your wrist needs to be rocking right now. Words by Alex Doak and Laura McCreddie-Doak.

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HUBLOT

ZENITH

BULGARI

Square Bang White Ceramic

Extreme E Limited Edition

Roma Blue

The blunt switch to four sides for Hublot’s cult, ‘octagonally circular’ Big Bang was jarring at launch in 2022, but this year the Square Bang feels settled-in, with all to play for, let alone play with given the versatile canvas that the Swiss disruptor has given itself. This Storm Trooper of a watch weaponises its matte-white ceramic armour with a black-detailed flyback chronograph, whose stopwatch mechanics – observable dial-side – operate with laser focus.

80922 | £22,600

Ahead of electric off-roading series Electric E’s second race of the 2023 season, in Scotland no less, principal sponsor Zenith unveiled a suitably uncompromising chronograph crafted entirely in carbon fibre.

Dumfries and Galloway, let alone former opencast coal mines have never seen such futurism on both counts, but given the latter being on the verge of transformation into a plant and wind farm, perhaps change is in the air on all fronts.

81246 | £26,600

Fabrizio Buonomassa embdodies the ‘eyes’ of Rome and Elizabeth Taylor’s favourite jeweller-turned-watchmaker – a genial genius hailing from the motor industry who isn’t afraid to disrupt his own iconography.

The genius lies in the outcome: the corecollection ‘Octo’ smoothed out as ‘Roma’, managing still to retain the monumental DNA of the Italian capital. The royal-blue dial is etched in ‘Clous de Paris’ relief, in perfect concert with its faceted framework.

80937 | £6,800

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TAG HEUER

CHOPARD

TUDOR

Aquaracer Pro 200

Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph

Black Bay GMT 41

The yellow gold ‘thing’ is back, just like red lipstick, perms and vinyl. Even hyper-functional, super-affordable Swiss mechanical diving watches aren’t immune to the Eighties revival, it seems. Crowned by 18 carats of gleaming, unidirectionally rotated bezel, here you have a straight-up waterbaby fit for the murky depths (all 200 metres of them), but also the murky wee hours of Annabel’s, if you know what we mean…

79999 | £4,400

The reason it’s impossible to imagine a different partner for Italy’s Mille Miglia vintage rally is probably the same reason Chopard has been riding shotgun for a full 35 years. The watchmaker and three-day regularity race through 1,000 miles of sweeping Tuscan and Lombardy countryside share equal passion for beautiful engineering and performance, born of co-CEO Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s own participation, manifest in watches like this rakish riff on the watchmaker’s yearly special edition, now in pistachio-green on retro driver’s-glove-style strap.

80972 | £8,220

Dropping in parallel to news of Tudor cutting the ribbon on its factory in Le Locle – Swiss watchmaking’s heartland, in other words – the new Black Bay GMT couldn’t be a more perfect posterboy for Rolex’s all-grown-up sibling. An opaline dial as fresh as an ice cream on a hot summer’s day, mechanics made entirely in-house and rigorously tested for precision and anti magnetism by live-in robots, plus a second time-zone 24-hour bezel as vivid as the new facility’s red cladding.

80964 | £3,400

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BULGARI

Happy Sport Green

Spirit of Big Bang

Serpenti Tubogas

Coloured dials are having a moment but if you don’t want to go bold, dip a sartorial toe with this delectable pistachio-hued number from Chopard. As the name suggests, this is a watch designed to make you smile with diamonds that skitter joyously around the dial. In keeping with the trend for smaller dials across the gender divide, this is a refined 30mm, which means it could crossover into cocktail hour should you not have time to change.

81057 | £5,430

Despite being on a rubber strap, there is something wonderfully decadent about this Spirit of Big Bang. There’s the inky black dial, lit up by a bezel set with diamonds and the opulent rose-gold case. Powering it is Hublot’s HUB1120 automatic movement that has a 40-hour power reserve and, if you’re brave enough, it’s good to 100m.

Ideal should you find yourself on a yacht – because this is so a “yacht watch” – at midnight and someone suggests a swim.

81032 | £23,500

It’s hard to believe this iconic design will be 75 this year. It still looks so original, so out of time. Rather like the animal that inspired it, the Serpenti can take many forms, here is it on the minimalist yet sinuous tubogas in steel and rose gold. The envy-inducing green dial has a beautiful sunray guilloche pattern and is flanked by two rows of delicate diamonds. It’s a little touch of everyday luxury.

80936 | £13,200

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ZENITH Defy Skyline 36mm Zenith has opted for a dial in a shade that is pretty rather than PeptoBismol and it complements the steel beautifully. You could have diamonds on the bezel, but this unset version feels preferable. The pink sunburst pattern on dial brings subtle detail, while the dodecagon bezel is an elegant refinement of the usual octagonal style. Under the dial is Zenith’s Elite movement with 50-hour power reserve, giving this watch brains as well as beauty.

80480 | £7,500

TAG HEUER

TUDOR

GUCCI

Carrera Date 36mm

Black Bay 36mm

25H

Ryan Gosling was seen rocking this exact Carrera on the Barbie pink carpet, emphasising his unique brand of Kenergy. Should want some of that vibe in your life, then this is the watch for you. It is unabashedly pink, which transforms the Carrera’s familiar lines into something fresh and new; the sportiness coming across as insouciance. It is the perfect way to bring a splash of colour to a winter wardrobe. This watch is everything. Not just for Ken. 80952 | £2,750

The Black Bay has morphed from rugged “Boys’ Own” tool watch to become the brand’s key collection shape, appearing in every livery from bronze to bicolour. This 36mm version keeps the tool watch aesthetic but refined it. A 36mm case is a nod to its 1950s origins, however the steel case and bracelet brings it into the 21st century. Using diamond hour markers on a champagne dial cleverly soften the ruggedness, without making it overtly feminine.

80986 | £3,970

Idris Elba may be a fan of the pink dial version of this design but if you’re pinked out after a summer of wall-to-wall Barbie then this steel-on-steel is the perfect palate cleanser. This is a modern interpretation of a steel sports watch. Gucci’s interlocked Gs are subtly embossed on dial, the lack of hours markers brings a feeling of serenity, while the diamonds elevate it beyond the everyday.

Meet your new daily companion.

79776 | £3,100

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ZENTIH HAS CONTROL Captain of ‘Pilot’ as livery adorning any watch dial, Zenith has charted the skies since 1909 – continuing in magnificent fashion with an all-new fleet of flying machines. Words by Alex Doak.

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olex may earn more PR points from its historic links to the Daily Mail – a 1926 ad celebrating its ambassador Mercedes Gleitz swimming the English Channel – but Zenith harbours its own vicarious Mail connection 17 years earlier. Surprisingly, also concerning the English Channel.

In 1909, the then-higher-regarded newspaper offered a £1,000 prize for the first man to fly the English Channel in a powered aircraft. That man was French inventor Louis Blériot and his own Type XI monoplane. After many failed attempts, earning him the plum nickname ‘king of wrecks’, he succeeded in becoming the first man to fly across La Manche that same year.

Landing on the White Cliffs of Dover after struggling through earlymorning fog, the pioneering airman’s Zenith told him the flight had taken 36 minutes and 30 seconds. In a thank-you letter to the watchmaker of Le Locle in 1913, Blériot went on to recommend the quality of his Swiss timekeeper – high praise indeed, given his own precisionmanufacturing nous, albeit at the

aircraft-sized end of the scale.

“I am extremely satisfied with the Zenith watch, which I use regularly, and cannot recommend it highly enough to those in search of precision.”

Zenith’s pilot credentials were cemented, with a downwind fleet of sepia-tinted tributes and throwbacks over the ensuing years. But founder Georges Favre-Jacot was an innovator through and through, from founding an all-in-house manufacture in 1865 to equipping it with electric lighting – both unheard-of in the Swiss Jura back then – and having the foresight to register the trademark for ‘PILOTe’ and later ‘PILOT’ in 1888 and 1904.

So in keeping with Monsieur FavotJacot’s visionary spirit, 2023 finally sees an all-new, all-contemporary Pilot collection from Zenith with begoggled eyes set firmly on the horizon. No matter how keen your radar, it’s impossible to see where this bold bid for higher altitude will take the maverick brand, but it always pays to triangulate the course plotted thus far, airborne for a full century.

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1909 White Cliffs calling Blériot’s cross-Channel wristwatch was typical of pilot’s watches of the era. It had a chrome-plated case with fixed lugs, a black enamel dial with large Arabic numerals and cathedral hands. Another distinguishing feature was the large onion-shaped crown sitting on an elongated set for easy adjustment while wearing gloves.

1928 Special features It features a coin-edge rotating bezel with a triangular ‘▽’ point and a protruding pocket watch-like crown that makes it easy to operate even with thick gloves.

The large, fixed lug bar is another prerequisite of the ‘Type 20’ standard procurement spec issued by the French air force at the time, seen elsewhere in Longines or Breguet’s archives, to name a couple. Re-released jn 2015, the ‘EXTRA SPECIAL’ label for the now-discontinued Type 20 core-catalogue collection is a nod to the original pilot pieces’ having ‘special’ on their dial, a minority with ‘extra special’. Horolo-historians still can’t discern any distinction beyond marketing, least of all in terms of the identical mechanics ticking precisely beneath…

But who’s counting, eh?

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1968 Ciao, bella

1939 Cockpit fighting With LVMH group’s finest watchmaker undergoing a ‘back to the roots’ reboot at the hands of charismatic CEO JeanFrederic Dufour – long since at the helm of Rolex, no less – it was only a matter of time before the archives were raided and Zenith took to the skies once again. The talk of Baselworld trade fair in 2012 was undoubtedly the Pilot Montre d’Aéronef Type 20 – a near-comical 57.5 millimetres of wristworn tribute to a 1930-1940s handwound clock fitted into the instrument panels of many a French aircraft. Rather than a crown, the clock’s knurled bezel wound and set the watch. Meanwhile, 2012’s conversation piece justified its enormity with the 50mm movement inside, the calibre 5011K: designed in the late fifties as a competition chronometer, it was the most accurate movement ever tested

by Neuchâtel’s observatory. And effectively brand-new having resided, unused, on stock shelves ever since. All 350 of them.

The Cronometro TIPO CP-2 is affectionately referred to by collectors as the ‘Cairelli’, since it was issued for a decade to the Italian Army, who in turn commissioned not Zenith direct, rather the Roman dealership A. Cairelli. 'CP' stands for cronometro di polso, or ‘wrist chronometer’. The monochrome utility of its twin-subdial design takes you straight into the cockpit of an Aeritalia F-104 Starfighter, and ever since 2018’s re-release in ‘flyback’ guise, the 2,500 units produced by Zenith in the 1960s now fetch sky-high prices on the vintage market. Its hand-wound ‘calibre 146 DP’ chronograph movement was made by Zenith at the Martel Watch Co., which Zenith had acquired then used to develop the legendary, self-winding El Primero of 1969.

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1997

© Antiquorum Auctioneers

Over the rainbow

1972 Red herring / Red Baron An oddball cult classic is Zenith’s Pilot/ Diver, thanks to an unknown, vanishingly low-figure production ratio of the two variants’ respective bezels: a diver’s bezel with a 1-55 graduation and an aviator’s bezel with numerals 1 through 12. Pilot/ Diver was introduced by Zenith in order to compete with the other well-known, highclass chronographs of the time, namely the Breitling Navitimer, various Heuers (Autavias and Carreras) and the Omega Speedmaster. Think of it as a strategic, farsighted sports chronograph, neither fish nor fowl, but definitely fair game.

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In the mid-1990s, the French Air Force commissioned Zenith to deliver 1,000 watches for each of four years; chronographs fit for the extremes of a fighter jet cockpit, and therefore right up Zenith’s airstream.

After the French elections at that time, the new government cancelled the project.

Still dusting itself down from the Quartz Crisis, like all of its Swiss contemporaries, Zenith pivoted to Civvy Street, having developed and delivered six prptotypes already. The El Primero Rainbow Fly-Back Chronograph launched at the Baselworld to instant acclaim – huge for the time at 40mm, complete with military kudos and aeronautical sector colours to excite any aero-nerd worth their wings. Needless to say, collectors were dismayed not to see a 25th birthday revival last year... Wrists crossed for 2027!

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2012 Flying past Rather than a reissue, consider this a rose-red, rheumy-eyed, sepia-tinged ‘Now That’s What I Call Zenith Pilot’s Watches!’ greatest hits album – and how.

At the time, it represented the best-value way into a brand-new, high-frequency El Primero chronograph from Zenith (under £6k, believe it or not) with all the retro, twin-counter monochrome cockpit motifs distilled down to Biggles-worthy raffishness. Streamlined six years later with 2018’s Cairelli reissue, the Pilot Big Date Special is essentially the latter, sans flyback function yet avec twin-digit date.

2023 Flying forward Since 2012’s Big Date, it’s been wave after wave of Blériot-types. But Zenith has now laid firm foundations for a new era of magnificent, genuinely airworthy flying machines, sights set keenly on horizons both real or artificial. In the new Pilot Automatic and Pilot Big Date Flyback you certainly have all the requisite readability and utility of the latter cockpit fixture, their engines ticking over precisely to the beat of El Primero’s rocksolid 5Hz powertrain – timeworn for over half a century. With flyback functionality, ceramic case options, instant-switch straps and curvaceous restyling, the next-gen flyboys from Zenith are the stealth fighters to 1928’s biplanes. (The ‘rainbow’ colour pops hopefully enough to sate Zenith nerds till 2027 at least…)

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NOUGHT TO

SIXTY Jack Heuer’s brilliantly legible motorist’s chronograph careers onward, six decades young. Words by Alex Doak.

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t takes a week-long Bullet Train tour to appreciate the sprawling extent of Japan’s biggest watchmaker. Doubly appropriate since the first rails were laid as far back as 1964 for the Tokyo Olympics – the very same event for which Seiko, as official timekeeper, successfully reduced the size of a quartz timekeeper from the proportions of a cupboard to a handheld box. Five years later, they’d shrunk the technology even more, launching the world’s first quartz wristwatch.

Around the same time, a selfadmittedly wet-behind-the-ears Jack Heuer was conducting a similarly peripatetic campaign over in the US, not only rescuing his Swiss family’s historic marque by leveraging its mastery of precision watchmaking about motorsport’s golden age (the 12hour Sebring race proving particularly perspicacious) but also steering Heuer

SA devotedly through the ‘Quartz Crisis’ – a crisis that Seiko’s seminal ‘Astron’ had sparked so devastatingly in 1969.

Regardless of all those pictures of Steve McQueen wearing a bluedial Monaco, Jack’s posterboy was the circular Carrera, all along – stoically mechanical and a crucible for Heuer’s revolutionary self-winding ‘Calibre 11’ chronograph. It was developed alongside Breitling and launched the very same year, in both Switzerland and Manhattan.

Opportunity, reactivity and patience was what it took. For a start, Jack had an eye for what Heuer’s speciality, the utilitarian stopwatch could grow into, post-war. Cue Heuer’s dashing triptych of ‘driver’s watches’, all stemming from the dashboard with equally dashing names: 1962’s ‘Autavia’ (the ‘avia’ a reference to Heuer’s piloting pedigree); the ‘Carrera’

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of 1964; then aforementioned squarejawed ‘Monaco’.

Racy designs that worked their way onto the wrists of actual F1 pilots.

Standard podium fodder today, but revolutionary back then – down in no small part to a wholesale deal with Switzerland’s F1 star turned pitlane hustler, Jo Siffert. His wheels and deals even resulted in McQueen’s aforementioned choice for Le Mans (1971), modelling his character, as he did, on Siffert himself.

“I wanted a dial that had a clear, clean design,” Jack explains of Carrera’s genus, in his memoirs, “and a new technical invention came to my aid.”

A manufacturer of plastic watch domes (no sapphire crystals existed then) had invented a steel tension ring that fitted around the inside to keep the dome pressed against the surrounding steel case, increasing the degree of water resistance. But it wasn’t water that Jack was up against – it was legibility: “I decided to use the inside bevel of this tension ring to carry the

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markings measuring one-fifths of a second… Sixty separate one-minute divisions would allow the wearer to set a marker for a defined interval of less than one hour.”

Before, during and immediately after the war, chronographs had busy dials, crowded with scales: tachymeters, telemeters, pulsometers, logarithmic spiral 'snail' scales… Jack Heuer swept all this away and bathed a cleaner design in light. Hence the prominent 'box crystal' solution revived so brilliantly in 2023’s opening salvo of 60th-anniversary Carrera specials (pictured here, £6,100).

Its no-nonsense layout earned instant endorsement from motorsport royalty, aided in large part by a design far suaver than the chunky-bezelled Autavia of 1962, plus its borrowing its name from Mexico’s notoriously dangerous Carrera Panamericana road rally.

“I loved not only its sexy sound but also its multiple meanings, which include road, race, course and career.

All very much Heuer territory! So

“I loved not only its sexy sound but also its multiple meanings, which include road, race, course and career. All very much Heuer territory! ”

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as soon as I got back to Switzerland I rushed to register the name under “Heuer Carrera’.”

'Carrera', though, wasn't a label limited to just car races and car watches. Having won the Panamericana in 1954, a carmaker from Stuttgart dubbed its iconic '911' (back then ‘901’) coupé of 1964 also as ‘Carrera' in tribute – a nomenclature that, bar the semi-convertible Targa model (named after a Sicilian race) continues today.

Considering this namesake connection, let alone the fact McQueen drove a 917 in Le Mans, it's a wonder it's taken so long for TAG Heuer and Porsche to become official bedfellows… if you don't count all the intervening high-octane hook-ups: Carrera wearers have included every Ferrari F1 driver of the Seventies, thanks to Heuer’s groundbreaking sponsorship of the Prancing Horse. Today, TAG Heuer continues to burn rubber aboard the wrist of Max Verstappen and Red Bull Racing, as well as strapped to brandambassador-of-dreams Ryan Gosling, whose short film ‘The Chase for Carrera’ could have been a cringe, but is genuinely worth YouTubing – for every second of its five minutes. Plus, of course, co-branded with Porsche’s victorious Formula E team.

All worlds that easily outstrip a bullet train.

TAG Heuer watches are available online and at ROX Newcastle.

MOMENT IN TIME

EYES ON THE PRIZE The year? 1972. The man? Jack Heuer of course. On his wrist? A panda-dial Calibre 11 (hence left-hand crown) Carrera chronograph. And round his neck? The brand-new Heuer Microsplit – the world’s first digital stopwatch. Either side of him? Swedish racing legend Ronnie ‘SuperSwede’ Peterson, then racing in March F1 cars team, plus Peterson’s future wife, Barbro.

That day, at the German Grand Prix, he won the Jo Siffert Prix Rouge et Blanc Award for the "underdog" drive of the day, and Heuer presented him with the now-highly collectible gold-on-gold-bracelet ‘Pilot’ version of the Carrera chrono’, engraved with words ”SUCCESS RONNIE PETERSON FROM JACK W. HEUER.” It went on to sell for $230,000 at Sotheby’s in 2016 and is now in the TAG Heuer Museum.

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THE X-FACTORIES Three of ROX’s favourite ‘manufacture’ watch brands harbour a singular in-house nous not seen anywhere this side of the Jura mountains. Words by Alex Doak.

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hey might all still be perched on the rolling slopes of the Jura mountains, surrounded by clanking, cud-chewing dairy cows, but these days the selfcontained Swiss watch ’manufacture’ is a particularly different prospect to your imagining of hunched Geppetto types with smocks and tweezers.

They’re all there because of a bizarre turn of industrial and religious events, with snow-enforced job diversification thrown in. But regardless of Calvinist puritanism, Huguenot persecution by Louis XIV and winterised cheesemakers, the serene environs continue to benefit Switzerland’s finest watchmakers and their timeworn craft.

Not only that, but afford the headspace to innovate: with process and materials, if not the anachronism that continues to be the tick-tocking mechanics inside their creations.

Whether it’s Hublot’s sprawling campus near Lake Geneva, Bulgari’s bucolic Saignelégier facility on the French border, or Tudor’s gleaming new facility in ‘Watch Valley’ down the road from Zenith and TAG Heuer, any visitor starting their 146

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tour on ground floor will be greeted by a staggering battery of computer-numerical-control (CNC) milling machines. In five, seven or even eleven axes, their robotic drilling bits are transforming raw bars of brass and steel into intricately sculpted baseplates and bridges.

Upstairs, the traditional rows of labcoated watchmakers are now interwoven by a fully automated Scalextric-like conveyor system. Each part-complete movement assembly arrives at its next workstation riding colour-coded ‘cars’, fed by stacked magazines. Man and machine in eerie concert, aided by technology – appropriately enough – from blood-sample analysis labs.

It’s an autonomy that has seen warranties extend from two years to a standard five. But with an unexpected upshot: leapfrogs in niche, in-house specialities: quality control, testing, materials innovation, ad nauseam. It distinguishes ‘maker’ brands with a particular ‘thing’, sure. But crucially, keeps the barside conversations fresh for watchnerds like us, and 21st-century mechanical watchmaking even fresher.

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CRYSTAL METHODS From sapphire to rubber and gold, Hublot is THE Swiss alchemist.

Lausanne’s École Polytechnique Fédérale (EPFL) had a tough brief almost 15 years ago: develop an 18-carat gold that wouldn’t scratch. Their hot young buck Senad Hasanovic – who went on to set up an actual ‘metallurgy and materials’ division chez Hublot HQ – came up with ‘Magic Gold’.

It was made by fusing 24-carat gold with a porous ceramic substrate under tremendous pressure and temperature, to give a scratch resistance of 1,000 Vickers.

Normal 18-carat gold is 400 Vickers, by comparison.

“Why do we go to these lengths?” he told ROX at the time. “It’s because, as a young brand, we can’t talk about heritage.

So materials are the thing that differentiates us. And now we have the foundry in-house, the cool thing is that Hublot can continue to experiment.”

By watchmaking standards Hublot is indeed very young, founded in 1980 by the scion of the Italian Binda Group dynasty, best known for making Breil watches. But as unique as Hublot’s eponymous portholeshaped case was, Carlo Crocco’s ensuing three years of R&D was primarily occupied with what his gold vessel was conveyed by, come launch in 1983.

Crocco was an avid sailor, and he was unsatisfied with the metal bracelets and leather straps solely available at the time.

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He wanted to create a watch that looked as good with a suit and tie as it did on the deck of a sailboat. A latex compound, most commonly sourced from the Pará tree was the perfect mix of stretch, water resistance and pristine durability – known by its French name ‘caoutchouc’.

But in the late 1970s no one knew how to work natural rubber to watchmaking’s standards of UV, dust, chemical and wearresistance – already achieved with purely synthetic rubber by strapmakers like Omega’s go-to, Isofrane. So Crocco looked to tyre producers to create the exact mix, reinforced by an inner steel blade for thinness, flexibility and resilience – the genius touch was to add a vanilla scent to the mix, masking the slight acrid smell of the natural material.

Where is Hublot’s fire now burning the brightest? Sapphire. Borderline alchemists, and seemingly with a closely guarded process that keeps things bafflingly affordable (at least by comparison to other crystal-cased watches) the Nyon brand continues to describe a rainbow of rocksolid (literally rocksolid) aluminium oxide Big Bang watches in unprecedented colours. Inclusion and imperfectionfree, these 2,000ºC-fused, 3D jigsaws of components are all agonisingly machined to water-tight tolerances.

If Willy Wonka was a watchmaker, he’d work at Hublot.

HUBLOT watches are available online and at ROX Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle and Liverpool.

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DOCTOR OCTAGON Fashioning the 110 facets of Bulgari’s single-block ‘Octo’ don’t come easy.

The village of Saignelégier is as sleepy a Swiss backwater as you’re likely to find.

The main business appears to be horses, with a sign welcoming you to “the cradle of the Franches-Montagnes” – Switzerland’s most celebrated breed, examples of which meander about the surrounding pastures.

Paying little mind to their neighbour, one of the most noble names in luxury.

Opulent, monumentally Roman, magisterial and fully Liz Taylor-endorsed Bulgari has wrought a quiet revolution in Swiss watchmaking over the past two decades. The brand’s early-Noughties acquisition of horological hothouses Gérald Genta and Daniel Roth ensured there was no shortage of ingenuity on the tourbillon or minute repeater front. But how to channel Bulgari’s inherent Italian flair in concert?

No better illustration than the Octo, a multi-faceted megalith of watch-case design. In leaning into this as its ‘halo’, Bulgari made things particularly hard for itself: the case of the Octo is a symphony of 45-degree angles, overlapping surfaces and faceted layers, with 110 different plains, each of which has to be cut, milled and polished from a single block of metal.

Eighteen operations alone go into the milling of the Octo’s bezel – the one round bit of the watch. For the rest of it there are scores of processes enacted by bespoke, hugely expensive CNC milling

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machines. These turn raw blanks into mini sculptures that are then finessed with the manual deftness of violin players by a platoon of hand-polishers, sat at spinning fabric buffers. With multitudes of facets and angles to approach separately, the cases are coated in red lacquer, meaning that any facet that’s still red has yet to be worked on. Working to microns-worth of interplay, this is deeply nuanced stuff. But because the Octo case is a single piece of metal, things are different from most: one mistake ruins an entire case, rather than a single component.

High pressure… but importantly without applying too much pressure.

BULGARI watches are available online and at ROX Glasgow

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TESTING, TESTING Tudor has risen to the antimagnetic ‘Master’ standards of METAS Drive southwest down the Swiss Jura’s ‘Watch Valley’, from ‘cradle of watchmaking’ La Chaux-deFonds to equally sleepy Le Locle and you’ll find Tudor’s new fire-engine-red factory, in stark juxtaposition to the art nouveau surroundings.

Completed in 2021, four storeys totalling 5,500 square meters represent nothing less than the cutting edge. Cutting-edge cutting (and milling, drilling, profile-turning, etc…) thanks to the adjoining Chanelbacked ‘Kenissi Manufacture’ machining facility whirring day and night.

Where things get next-level cutting-edge is the assembly and quality-control department, in Tudor’s gleaming annexe, next-door. Here, the abovementioned watchmakers and their Scalextric / sushi-bar assembly lines are joined by an eerie hum…

It’s nothing short of an in-house metrology department, complete with multi-axis robotic sorting arms and actual R2-D2-like robots shuttling trays of chronometer-precise ‘watch heads’ from workbench to test bed. A programme conceived by Omega and the Swiss METAS institute metrology to be ‘open-source’, but so rigorous that it’s only been Tudor to dare to pitch its tiny metal engines against the magnets for ‘Master Chronometer’ worthiness.

Given watchmaking’s baseline ISO 764 standard demands about 60 Gauss of magnetic resistance before accuracy starts to go awry (your fridge door, or thereabouts) METAS’s 15,000 Gauss minimum goes all the way to MRI scanner-ready.

Sure enough, Tudor’s ‘MT56XX’ workhorse, complete with silicon implants, is ripe and ready for these rigours, and a new edition of Tudor’s Black Bay diving watch now beats rock-solidly to the rhythm of ‘MT5602-1U’ calibre.

That suffixed ‘U’: selected simply because of a magnet’s shape. Who said the Swiss were without a sense of humour?

TUDOR watches are available online and at ROX Newcastle

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INTERPLANETARY

PERFECTION Gucci is hitting new heavenly heights with its latest haute horlogerie collection. Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak.

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nyone casting an eagle eye around the watch choices at this year’s Oscars would have noticed something rather surprising peeking out of Idris Elba’s cuff. Prior to becoming a Gucci ambassador Elba’s watch collection could be categorised as “solid but serious” – IWC Mark XVIII, Cartier Santos, classic yellow gold Rolex DayDate. However, Elba chose the red carpet to debut a far bolder choice – Gucci’s G-Timeless Planetarium, one of the latest models from its haute horlogerie collection that features a centrally mounted diamond-set star covered tourbillon surrounded by 12 beryl stones representing the twelve signs of the Zodiac that rotate when activated by a button on the case. Definitely not the sort of thing Luther would wear.

For the past few years, Gucci has been leaving behind its fashion watch roots and experimenting with complicated watchmaking, albeit with the classic Gucci traits of flamboyance and fun.

If there is any doubt about Gucci making an entrance in this sphere, it would do well to remember that this fashion house was making watches

seriously before Chanel’s Jacques Helleu picked up a pencil. Back in 1972, the same year Maurizio started his ill-fated marriage to Patrizia Reggiani, Gucci decided to start making watches. Rather than give their logo and designs to a thirdparty supplier, as many fashion brands were to do, Gucci opened an atelier in La Chaux-de-Fonds – where quality control, assembly, and jewellery setting still happens today – and tasked Ticinobased company Fabbrica Quadrani, which Gucci bought in 2013, to make dials and do specialist decorative work.

So successful was Gucci’s first foray into timepieces that its Model 2000 earned a spot in the 1978 Guinness Book of World Records for selling over one million watches in just two years. Unfortunately, this being the volatile Gucci family, a series of bad decisions and Maurizio’s extravagance with money led the company to the brink of bankruptcy; something only prevented by Maurizio finally agreeing, in 1993, to sell his 50% stake in Investcorp, who had already acquired 47.8% of the company back in 1988. Watch production during this period tailed off, only to be revived again in the 1990s with production starting www.rox.co.uk

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again in Switzerland in 1997. For the next (almost) twenty years, Gucci produced nice watches. They referenced the House’s codes – bamboo bezels to mimic the handbag handles, bracelets with the interlocking Gs on them, leather cuffs stamped with the GG monogram. All perfectly fine but nothing to get your wrist, or wallet, out for.

“The star is the G-Timeless Planetarium. At its centre is Gucci’s Dancing Hours Flying Tourbillon, whose movement is named after one of our galaxy’s brightest nebulas” That all changed with Alessandro Michele who took the role of creative director in 2015.

Not only did he shake up the clothing side of the brand, but he turned his attention to the watches and jewellery creating bold, brilliant and beautiful creations inspired by everything from nature to skateboard treads. Michele has now left but Gucci’s timepieces are as bold and brilliant as ever and this time they are complicated. The star is the G-Timeless Planetarium. At its centre is Gucci’s Dancing Hours Flying Tourbillon, whose movement the GGC.1976.DS is named after the Orion Nebula NGC 1976, one of our galaxy’s brightest nebulas and visible with the naked eye. Rather than at six o’clock, which is where tourbillons normally sit, this one is in the middle of the dial and set with a diamond-studded star. Surrounding it are twelve precious stones, which, when activated by a startstop function on the crown spin on themselves in nine seconds, orbiting clockwise around the dial in 90 seconds creating a shifting, tumbling effect as the light refracts off them. For 2023, there are four different iterations of precious stone. The first is set with Ethopian opals, whose milky beauty has a lunar quality. Another brings the majesty of the constellation with four different types of star set with a diamond at their centre; another has a pastel melange of topaz, peridot, amethyst, and Ethopian, while the final version captures the swirling fire-like colours of the Orion Nebula with an otherworldly sunset of contrasting reds: rubies, fire opals, pink tourmaline and mandarin garnet It’s not just the Planetarium that has been starstruck, Gucci has updated its gorgeous interpretation of the moonphase with a customisation option.

These made-to-order G-Timeless Moonlights can be personalised with your specific time, date, and place of birth. Six gemstones are used to

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reflect the astral map of the zodiac and birthday planets’ positions, and these are paired with six diamonds set on a rotating rehaut, or outer ring, which spins randomly when you press the crown at two o’clock. Five personal letters can also be etched onto the dial’s inner ring, the oscillating weight can display your personal constellation, and the alligator leather strap is customisable as well. It’s so quintessentially Gucci – witty, a little whimsical, but of exceptional quality.

Gucci’s skeleton tourbillon, which first appeared in last year’s 25H collection, is back in all its architectural glory, but this time there’s the option of a fully baguette-pavé option and one with clever colour pops, including a pink flying tourbillon, purple barrel bridge, visible green bridges, and an electric blue winding system, which can be customised with eight digits on each of its four sides. Or there’s also a fabulous new perpetual calendar 25H if tourbillons are too haute for every day. There’s no escaping the whirlwind on the new G-Timeless Dancing Bees. Michele introduced the bee motif to the brand in his first collection, which some cultures hold to be a sacred insect that bridged the natural world to the underworld, and which, in

Rome is the symbol of the Barberini dynasty, who were powerful in the 17th century. These, set on either intense watery turquoise, or intense verdant green opal, tremble and flutter moving when you move to create a dial that thrums with life; a feeling enhanced by the constantly spinning form of the tourbillon at 12 o’clock.

For each of its haute horlogerie collection Gucci has created worlds. Last year it was a magical fairground, a Gucci Wonderland. This year the ever-changing beauty of nature, from the smallest of insects to the unimaginable limitless expanse of the cosmos and at its heart incredible feats of watchmaking – serious timepieces dressed up in seemingly frivolous garb where complications can delight as well as be signifiers of watchmaking prowess. Gucci may have been in his business for 50 years, but these haute collections are the markers of a watchmaker whose exciting new journey has just started. To infinity and beyond!

Gucci watches and jewellery is available from the Gucci Watches and Jewellery boutique at the Argyll Arcade, Glasgow, ROX Newcastle and online. www.rox.co.uk

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Zenith Defy Extreme 76547 | £15,900

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WATCH OUT! Discover the standout timepieces for the new season. From bold gold and cool blue editions to dopamine inducing dials we reveal the must have watches for this year.

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ZENITH Chronomaster Original £8,400 (76548)

TUDOR Black Bay Pro £3,520 (79151)

ZENITH Pilot Automatic 80925 | £6,700

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TAG HEUER Carrera 77797 | £2,750

TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph £5,600 (80417)

HUBLOT Classic Fusion 77510 | £7,700

TUDOR Pelagos 79932 | £3,930

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TUDOR Black Bay 54 £3,260 (80961)

BIGGER

ISN'T ALWAYS

BETTER

Step back in time and embrace smaller dimensions. Smaller sizes are gaining in popularity driven by the popularity of vintage models and watch brands are now taking note. www.rox.co.uk

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ROX MAGAZINE HUBLOT Big Bang Unico Yellow Gold £34,400 (78858)

GOING FOR GOLD A force to be reckoned with. Instantly recognisable luxury credentials combined with durability means bold gold is here to stay.

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HUBLOT Square Bang Unico King Gold £37,100 (79150)

HUBLOT Big Bang Integrated Time Only £42,600 (78853)

HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang 78791 | £37,100

HUBLOT Classic Fusion Aerofusion 63704 | £30,300

ZENITH Chronomaster Sport El Primero £33,700 (79192)

ZENITH Chronomaster Sport 76544 | £18,700

TUDOR. Black Bay Fifty-Eight 76541 | £14,540

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HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang King Gold £37,100 (78791)

HUBLOT Square Bang Unico £19,900 (79148)

HUBLOT Classic Fusion Aerofusion 57318 | £14,200

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ZENITH Defy 21 Chroma II 81739 | £13,800

ZENITH Defy Skyline Skeleton £9,700 (80470)

TAG HEUER Aquaracer Professional 300 79126 | £3,050

TUDOR Black Bay Chrono 76537 | £4,640

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HUBLOT Big Bang MP-11 Power Reserve £82,000 (76288)

FUNKY DIALS Our quest for sartorial serotonin has spread to the wrist with brightly hued dials having a major moment. www.rox.co.uk

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ROX MAGAZINE ZENITH Defy Skyline £7,900 (78839)

TRUE BLUE The contemporary choice for those looking for a dynamic timepiece to get you noticed.

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BULGARI Octo Finissimo £12,800 (76464)

HUBLOT Big Bang Unico £18,100 (76880)

HUBLOT Big Bang Meca-10 69691 | £20,800

ZENITH Defy Extreme 76547 | £15,900

TUDOR Black Bay Fifty-Eight £3,090 (75076)

TAG HEUER Monaco 73140 | £6,500

BULGARI Octo Roma Chronograph 80941 | £8,550

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HUBLOT Big Bang Integrated Time Only £15,300 (78852)

HUBLOT Big Bang Integrated Titanium £20,800 (79315)

TUDOR Pelagos FXD 81880 | £3,490

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ZENITH Defy Extreme £15,900 (76547)

TAG HEUER Aquaracer Professional 79195 | £5,500

CHOPARD Mille Migla GTS 74535 | £7,990

HUBLOT Big Bang Unico 70073 | £17,100

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HUBLOT Square Bang Unico Titanium £20,800 (79147)

TITANIUM TAKEOVER Sleek, sophisticated and effortlessly understated. Everyone should own at least one titanium timepiece. www.rox.co.uk

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MOTORING

V12, 11, 10, 9…

The countdown to petrol obsolescence is nigh, but that doesn’t mean the fiercest engine configuration of all time is retiring quietly, as Ben Barry is pleased to report.

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hat do the Bugatti Veyron’s recordbreaking 256mph top speed, Ayrton Senna’s 1991 Formula 1 World Championship and the Ferrari Testarossa from Miami Vice have in common? Answer: all were powered by 12-cylinder engines, arguably the greatest, most formidable arrangement of sucking, squeezing, banging pistons ever driven.

Whatever its layout – V12, flat-12, W12, all depending on how those cylinders reciprocate around a common crankshaft – the 12-cylinder engine can be breathtakingly powerful, eartinglingly sonorous and blissfully smooth. Often it is all three.

V12 engines have serenaded owners and admirers of Ferraris and Lamborghinis since the dawn of Italian supercar time. A dozen stately

cylinders have whooshed VIPs near-silently about town in the likes of the Rolls-Royce Phantom and Bentley Flying Spur. They have also cropped up in some anomalous if brilliant machines over the years, notably the Toyota Century (a Japanesemarket limousine with a cult European following) and the Audi Q7 V12 TDI – a likeable diesel exception to the petrol-powered elite.

Three times larger than the average engine, the 12 cylinder today finds itself on the wrong side of ever tightening fuel-efficiency standards, often replaced by downsized V8s in newer models, sometimes even pure electric propulsion (the new Rolls Spectre is all-electric).

It’s why an ever-decreasing number of new cars boast a dozen cylinders, and fewer still of these wondrous engines are being engineered from scratch. Yet luxury car makers know buyers remain www.rox.co.uk

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hungry for a 12-cylinder symphony and are often willing to pay huge premiums as a result. So the limited cars that remain are spectacular – headed by a recent flock of V12 swansongs from the finest marques.

Take the ‘W12’-powered Bentley Batur, the last 12-cylinder model from a maker that once bench-tested V12 Merlins for Spitfires and Hurricanes before they flew off to win World War Two. Bentley introduced its W12 engine (basically two V6 engines joined at the hip) with the Continental GT in 2003. A more ‘affordable’ kind of Bentley made on a regular production line unlike its coachbuilt predecessors, the Continental GT single-handedly bumped Bentley from 414 to 8,627 sales within two years and helped save the company.

Two decades later the W12 bows out in the Batur, the most powerful Bentley ever and one that, while based on the Continental GT, flips its economies of

MOTORING

scale – just 18 Baturs, each around £2m a pop, helped Bentley achieve its juiciest ever profits last year.

The coachbuilt Batur features completely new carbonfibre bodywork, an almost entirely bespoke hand-crafted cabin and 740bhp of 12-cylinder majesty – enough to propel the 2.2-tonne coupe from zero to 62mph in just 3.4 seconds and onto 209mph.

Aston Martin’s V12 history dates only to 1999 but over the last two decades it’s given us incredible machines ranging from the highly collectible V12 Vantage to the £1.4m One-77. And it’s not done yet.

The DBS 770 Ultimate is the swansong to its DBS grand tourer, and the most potent Aston Martin production car in history. The Ultimate cranks up Aston’s twin-turbocharged V12 to 759bhp (or the 770 metric horsepower of the name), adds a more dexterous chassis to match and garnishes this lastof DBS with luxuries including sports

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seats trimmed indulgently in semi-aniline leather and Alcantara.

Only 499 of these run-out DBSs will be produced, each costing £314,000 minimum, and the order book had already closed when Aston officially announced it earlier this year.

The Aston Martin Valour uses the same 5.2-litre V12 but mates it with a manual gearbox and is even more exclusive – launched to celebrate Aston’s 110th anniversary, production will be limited to just 110 units globally.

The Valour’s retro design references Aston’s more muscular, Americanised period introduced with the V8 Vantage in the 1970s, but reimagines it in cutting-edge carbonfibre bodywork while the gorgeous interior similarly blends past and present – carbonfibre seat shells are trimmed in woollen tweed inspired by the 1959 DBR1 that won Le Mans.

It should be easier to buy a Lamborghini Revuelto – the supercar might be sold out into late 2025, but it’ll be around for years to come and there’s no upper limit on production.

Replacement for the Aventador, the Revuelto is the latest in the Italian supercar makers’ V12 bloodline and differs most obviously from the Bentley and Aston Martin in two respects.

First, the mighty 6.5-litre V12 is a new engine, not an evolution. Second, rather than boosting performance with turbocharging, Lamborghini does it with hybrid assistance. Three electric motors (one integrated with the gearbox at the rear axle, two driving the front wheels independently) help the V12 break the 1000bhp barrier, but they also allow the Revuelto to run silently in zero-emissions mode.

There are other, more rarefied examples of all-new V12s too – the Aston Martin Valkyrie and Gordon Murray Automotive T.50 both cost north of £2m and rev well beyond 10,000rpm (even the most exciting road cars usually run out of puff by 9000rpm), doing a fair impression of the best fingers-in-ears F1 cars in the process. Right now, they are arguably the most incredible road cars on the planet.

The 12-cylinder engine might be reaching the end of the line, then, but it’s not about to bow out without a final roar.

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Lamborghini's transverse-mounted V12 monsters are hewn entirely in-house since the Sixties

“The Valour’s retro design references Aston’s more muscular, Americanised period introduced with the V8 Vantage in the 1970s”

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X SPARKS

THE SPOT Forget Formula E: thanks to the speed demon of Stuttgart electric cars just got properly real-world thrilling and Ben Barry has it from Porsche’s mouth.

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MOTORING

G

enuine surprises are rare in the automotive business, but Porsche sprung one to celebrate its 75th birthday – a stunning hypercar called Mission X. It’s only the third Porsche in history to stray beyond the Stuttgart maker’s usual sports car remit, and each of those predecessors – the 959, Carrera GT and 918 Spyder – spectacularly moved the needle on performance and technology, not to mention price.

True to type, Mission X looks set to be the most powerful Porsche production car ever and – the big tech twist – will be powered by nothing but electricity. Pricing should easily break the millionpound barrier.

While officially a concept car, Porsche has already laid down a series of daunting challenges for its engineers should Mission X make production (Porsche’s way of saying it definitely will). Those challenges include setting the fastest time for a road-legal production car on the Nürburgring and achieving charge times roughly half those of the already-quick-charging Taycan, thanks to a supertrick 900-volt charging architecture.

Mission X’s extra-terrestrial design owes more to Porsche’s closed-cockpit Le Mans winners than it does a 911. The bonnet line starts at shin height and rakes up quickly between muscular front wheel arches before flowing into a pod-like canopy significantly narrower that the car itself – the better to reduce wind resistance for a higher top speed and greater electric range. A dramatic teardrop profile then tapers into a rear end as bluff as a sawn-off shotgun. Rather than spoilers, air flows through and under Mission X, pushing and sucking it to the ground.

It is aggressively futuristic yet walking around Mission X those cues from Porsche’s racing past are everywhere.

“At Porsche it’s always tradition with innovation, so we’re looking back but with a clear focus on the future,” explained design boss Michael Mauer to ROX after the big unveil. “We had the Carrera GT, 918 Spyder and 917 Le Mans car in the design studio – that's the beauty of this company, you basically have your own little museum – but I don’t want to have a retro design, we have basically further dreamed our design DNA.” www.rox.co.uk

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The motorsport feel continues inside. Le Mans-style doors open upwards and forwards, inviting the driver to climb over a chunk of carbonfibre chassis and into carbonfibre-shelled bucket seats with six-point harnesses.

An oblong, open-topped steering wheel lies ahead, complete with four analogue dials that tailor drive modes and handling characteristics. Rather than an adjustable seat, the steering wheel and pedals move instead.

A racing driver would feel very much at home, but there’s also a sophistication and luxury at play in Mission X that’s absent in hardcore racers – Kalahari Grey leather wraps around the driver’s seat, centre console and dashboard, with the passenger side trimmed in contrasting Andalusia Brown hide.

“It’s important to create the feeling of being in a racing car,” says Mauer, “but if you look at other super hyper sports cars, especially in the interior… these are racing cars, there's no design, and I think it’s one thing to go on the Nürburgring, but when we started

thinking about this car, we had the idea that you can just go through the Alps to Monaco… it’s a little bit about fast travelling.”

Exactly how quickly Mission X owners will be travelling remains unclear, but there are strong clues in that targeted Nürburgring record time, and that Porsche intends Mission X to produce one metric horsepower per kilogramme.

Electric cars are heavier than petrol counterparts, but Porsche promises ‘extreme’ lightweight construction and is investing in lighter, more powerful batteries, so we could well be looking at 1500kg with a comparable 1500 or so horsepower.

It’s a mind-boggling amount of performance, but the bigger challenge is making the all-electric Mission X drive like a Porsche should and ensuring it is a worthy follow-up to three of the greatest cars of all time.

Around four years from now, we’ll know for sure if it does and if it is. And ROX will be first in line…

Soul, electrified.

EXPERIENCE THE ALL-ELECTRIC TAYCAN. THE ULTIMATE STYLE ACCESSORY. As the perfect expression of a Porsche electric sports car, the Taycan needs to be fully experienced to be appreciated. With its striking proportions and timeless design, it is the perfect blend of performance and everyday usability.

Available in three body shapes, there is a Porsche all-electric model to suit you.

Book a Taycan test drive at Porsche Edinburgh.

Porsche Centre Edinburgh Fort Kinnaird 4 Oversman Road Edinburgh, EH15 3BZ 0131 657 8220 info@porscheedinburgh.co.uk www.porscheedinburgh.co.uk

Porsche Taycan models official WLTP combined energy consumption: 24.8 – 19.6 kWh/100 km, WLTP combined CO2 emissions: 0 g/km.

INTRODUCING THE FIRST-EVER ALL-ELECTRIC BMW i5.

The rich heritage of the 5 Series meets progressive design and all-electric performance.

This is the new BMW i5 – and it’s the start of an electrifying new era with a range of up to 357 miles*.

Hamilton Bothwell Road ML3 0AY 01698 303700 Glasgow Kyle Street G4 0HP 0141 333 0088 Stirling New Kerse Road FK7 7RZ 01786 474477

SEARCH: Douglas Park *Provisional WLTP figures. Range figure was obtained after the battery had been fully charged. The i5 is a battery electric vehicle requiring mains electricity for charging. Figures shown are for comparability purposes. Only compare electric range figures with other cars tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect real life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors including the starting charge of the battery, accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load. Subject to confirmation.

Douglas Park Limited is an Appointed Representative of Park’s of Hamilton (Holdings) Limited, FRN 308476 of 14 Bothwell Road, Hamilton, ML3 0AY, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. We, Park’s of Hamilton (Holdings) Limited, act as a credit broker and can introduce our customers to a panel of lenders. Those lenders normally pay us a commission for the introduction of business. Any commission received from lenders, will not affect the amounts paid by you under your finance/hire agreement. We may also receive future remuneration or financial support from lenders based upon our sales.

ROX MAGAZINE

GADGET MAN

GADGET MAN Are you a fan of all things technical and technological? Here are our top picks of the latest and most exciting gadgets to put you one step ahead of your fellow man.

1

HUBLOT

BIG BANG E GEN 3 Hublot’s Connected watches represent the pinnacle of premium smartwatches, combining the renegade Swiss master’s modular, iconic jigsaw of a case construct – the 20-year-young ‘Big Bang’ interpretation of the 44-year-old brand’s eponymous ‘porthole’ case, fused with octagon, rendered in flawless white ceramic here. With integrated Google Wear OS interface, breakthrough features allow owners to access Google Play, Google Assistant and use Google Pay on the go. No wonder FIFA’s referees, linesmen and VRs all rely on the ‘e’ for the biggest games, including the recent Women’s World Cup. 81340 | £4,600

2

3

CHOPARD

L.U.C FULL STRIKE SAPPHIRE No ‘ordinary’ minute repeater by a country mile, this is an extraordinary example of Chopard’s elite L.U.C facility’s already-extraordinary Full Strike. Two inner hammers would usually strike two metal gongs fixed to the movement, but here the hours, quarters and then minutes ring out with literal crystal clarity, since the whisper-thin gongs are machined from the same ‘monobloc’ of sapphire that covers the dial – resonant and intense, and borderline materials alchemy.

Needless to say, hand-assembly is a suitably agonising undertaking, not least fine-tuning the ‘governor’ flywheel, whose air-resistance acts as metronome to the cadence of the crystal gongs’ melody, in C# and F. £POA

APPLE

Vision Pro Apple Vision Pro is the result of decades of experience designing high‑performance, mobile, and wearable devices — culminating in the most ambitious product Apple has ever created. Apple Vision Pro integrates incredibly advanced technology into an elegant, compact form, resulting in an amazing experience every time you put it on.

4

WOLF

ATLAS 4 PIECE WINDER SAFE The Atlas 4-Piece Winder Safe is the epitome of luxury watch care and security. Crafted with precision, this masterpiece ensures your timepieces are not only wound to perfection but also safeguarded in a high-quality, sleek safe. With exquisite design and cutting-edge technology, the Atlas 4-Piece Winder Safe is a must-have for watch enthusiasts seeking elegance, functionality, and peace of mind.

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GIFTS

GIFTS FOR HIM

You may not need convincing to spend that cash on a flashy must-have, but just in case, here’s a selection of treats to tempt you.

TAG HEUER Connected Watch 80425 | £2,350

ON-RUNNING Cloudmonster Low-top Trainers

GUCCI Tag Bracelet 81988 | £280

MANIFEST Roxie Nafousi

BANG & OLUFSEN Beoplay EX Wireless Earbuds

ETTINGER Lifestyle Hip Flask 74283 | £85

ROX Platinum & Rose Ring 74227 | £1,695

ROX Classic Cufflinks 63860 | £125

ROX White Gold Wedding Ring 74892 | £695

TUDOR Ranger Watch 79701 | £2,420

WOLF Cub Watch Winder 79833 | £349

MAHARISHI Miltype 6-panel Cap

ROX Champagne Flute Set 71819 | £200

GUCCI Diagonal Interlocking G Ring 81946 | £265

LE LABO Thé Matcha 26

WOLF Elements Watch Roll 82001 | £239

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GIFTS

GIFTS FOR HER

From glistening diamonds to the latest fashion trends and accessories, we promise this will be your go-to gift guide this season.

lULULEMON The (Un) Yoga Mat

ROX Miss ROX Diamond Necklace 81656 | £420

ROX Diamond Hoop Earrings 81691 | £965

CHOPARD Ice Cube Ring 69382 | £935

ROX Diamond Earrings 81652 | £325

CHANEL Rectangle-frame Acetate Sunglasse

ROX Diamond Initial Necklace 76364 | £395

ROX Diamond Bangle 69177 | £1,150

ROX Miss ROX Diamond Ring 81784 | £595

GUCCI Gucci Trademark Necklace 81985 | £355

ROX Diffusion Bracelet 76301 | £95

CLOUD NINE Midnight Collection Original Iron

VICTORIA BECKHAM Eyewear

GUCCI G-Timeless Watch 79718 | £1,040

APPLE AirPods Max

ROX Diffusion Earrings 73505 | £90

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GUEST LIST This year we've hosted some fabulous events, from the Scottish Music Awards in Glasgow, an evening with HUBLOT and Alan Shearer in Newcastle, the Hydro Prix X Extreme E race in Dumfries with Zenith and our annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe showcase!

HOW TO SHOP

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KEEP UP WITH THE DIAMONDS & THRILLS Follow us on social media for the latest product drops and jewellery trends.

@ROXJEWELLERY @ROXWATCHES

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HOW TO SHOP

Enjoy our magazine online and stay up to date with all of our new season launches, jewellery trends and lifestyle inspo at rox.co.uk/magazine

Shop online at www.rox.co.uk with free next day delivery. Alternatively vist our boutiques in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool, Leeds or London.

The materials in this publication may not be reproduced in any format without permission. Please email requests for permission to pr@rox.co.uk. Unsolicited manuscripts will not be accepted. Editorial material and opinions expressed in the ROX Magazine do not necessarily reflect the views of ROX (UK) Ltd. ROX (UK) Ltd do not accept the responsibility for the advertising content.

Jewellery shown may not be actual size and/or set to scale. Carat weights shown are approximate and may vary in-store. When buying online,

please check our website for full terms and conditions. The contents of this magazine were correct at the time of going to print (1st October 2023).

ROX and the brand owners featured reserve the right to change prices and specifications without notice.

For more information about ROX, or to request a magazine, please call our Customer Services team on Freephone 0808 164 6448. © Copyright ROX (UK) LTD 2023

www.rox.co.uk

LAMBORGHINI EDINBURGH Authorised Dealer

Andy Canning Lamborghini Sales Manager andycanning@lamborghiniedinburgh.co.uk www.edinburgh.lamborghini/en

8 Whitehill Road Fort Kinnaird Edinburgh EH15 3HR 0131 475 5500

SPIRIT OF BIG BANG Vibrantly-coloured and patented yellow ceramic case. Self-winding chronograph movement. Limited to 200 pieces.