CONTENTS
ROX MAGAZINE
WELCOME “Grant was looking for a partner to help him grow his fledgling Lewis Grant business in the Argyll Arcade, and since I was still working in London and fed-up with travelling up and down from Glasgow, we came up with a new concept: ROX - Diamonds & Thrills!” Sounds simple, right?
jewellery to boot), but ROX have never sat on their laurels, constantly keeping the competition guessing. A new shiny Hublot boutique in Edinburgh, London openings in Battersea Power Station: all in a year’s work, regardless of postpandemic uncertainty. We’ll let the rest of our longestablished annual magazine do the talking. It just falls to us to thank you for listening, for shopping, and of course for partying. After all, diamonds and thrills never come from empty rooms, no matter how fabulously appointed.
It certainly sounds like Kyron and Grant, whose irrepressible enthusiasm and energy has combined with that of a stellar team, to build something like ROX in a blur of 20 years. Far from simple in execution, but supercharged Let’s raise a toast to the next by passion and self-belief. twenty years, The simple thing was the idea – like all brilliant ideas, only obvious when Cheers! someone else has it. Plenty still attempt to ape the lavish ’ROX’ experience, Alex Doak and Laura which never feels ‘salesy’ and always McCreddie-Doak feels like a treat (with its own fine Editors-at-large
EDITORS’ PICKS
HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang 76848 | £19,100
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TOM FORD Cashmere Scarf
ROX Love Pear Ring 76156 | £13,550
JIMMY CHOO Shoulder Bag
HUBLOT Big Bang One Click 64792 | £13,000
ROX MAGAZINE
CONTENTS
CONTENTS 29 WATCH ANATOMY Ethereal currency is here to stay and every high-roller's favourite watchmaker, Jacob & Co. sure knows it.
30 WISH LIST This seasons must have fashion, accessories and watches.
37 STRIKING A CHORD Jazz in Glasgow used to be disparate and unconnected but a new generation, led by the likes of Rebecca Vasmant are changing all that.
40 JEWELS OF THE THAMES You can keep your London callings and Waterloo sunsets: ROX is rocking up to the UK capital with its own brand of partyforward fabulousness.
45 THE ART OF INVESTMENT The world of art has a reputation for being mysterious, to all but a select few, which is why so many turn to the traditional asset classes when they are looking to invest.
50 CAMERON & CLYDE The jewel in Loch Lomond’s crown, Cameron House is back, more magnificent than ever.
58 STYLE REPORT Take inspiration from these Insta Queens and master the art of layering and wearing your jewellery for everyday dressing!
62 CATWALK AGENDA A season of endless style possibilities. Here is our round of the standout trends defining the new season.
74 THE IT GIRL Celebrating 20 years of the quintessential ROX woman with an homage to the ultimate IT girl. Missé Beqiri shows us how to do day to night style with added sparkle.
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CONTENTS
ROX MAGAZINE
CONTENTS 108 WEAR YOUR HEART Chopard’s new collection gifts women an irrefutable excuse to treat themselves.
112 BETTER THAN THE REAL THING? Lab-grown diamonds have made headlines by billing themselves as the ethical alternative to mined stones. But are they as environmentally sound as their press releases would have you believe?
118 COLOUR SURGE Surge with an explosion of diamonds, coloured stones and bejewelled timepieces that make a statement.
134 LUXURY WATCH EDIT Here's what ROX reckons your wrist needs to be rocking, right now, dusk till dawn.
139 ONE AND ONLY Edinburgh has Scotland’s first-ever monobrand Hublot boutique. And it’s all ROX’s doing.
140 TAG, IT'S IT The Heuer family pressed ‘start’ on an illustrious chain of horological events, currently seeing TAG Heuer at the vanguard of personal smart-tech, as well as 21st-century micro-mechanics.
148 DISCO TECH How Switzerland got its Seventies groove back, in luxury-watch form.
154 SUPER MARINER How Tudor’s Pelagos sets Rolex’s plucky stablemate apart as every man’s watch to dive for. 24
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CONTENTS
CONTENTS 158 LA BELLA OROLOGERIA Enzo Ferrari described Italy’s spectacular Mille Miglia road rally as "the most beautiful race in the world", and doesn't Chopard know it.
162 WATCH OUT! Discover the standout timepieces for the new season. From sports luxe superstars to classic designs and boundary pushing models, we reveal the must-have watches for this year.
176 ELECTRIC JEEPS Luxury car brands aren't immune to the electric revolution, they're just in wildly different time zones when it comes to the switch-over.
181 WOKING GOT WOKE McLaren’s blistering Artura flings the doors wide open for a new climateconscious era of British sports cars.
184 ROCKS STAR The latest to join Land Rover’s forecourt redux, the all-new Range Rover Sport is equal-parts speed and sophistication.
189 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.
193 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.
195 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.
196 GUEST LIST Back to what we do best! This year we've hosted some fabulous events, and there's so much more to come... www.rox.co.uk
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FEATURE
ROX MAGAZINE
TWO DECADES OF
DIAMONDS & THRILLS Long-time friend and early champion of the brand, Laura McCreddieDoak on how ROX changed jewellery retail (for the better, mind).
I
t’s hard now, 12 years down the line, to remember that retail, particularly jewellery and watches, looked very different. Most stores were family concerns, places where you would go to buy the jewellery and silverware to mark life’s milestones – a christening, 18th birthday gift, engagement then wedding ring, something for Aunt Vi’s silver wedding anniversary. It was nice, pleasant, but there was no pizazz. Kyron and Grant, who set up ROX together in 2002 when Grant was looking for a partner for his new store in the Argyll Arcade and Kyron wanted to move to Scotland for love, had already foreseen the boom in well-made fashion jewellery and watches. But after eight years, they wanted take things up a notch both in terms of their stock and their stores. I came to Glasgow to interview Kyron and Grant in 2011 in my capacity as Retail Jeweller editor on a judging visit for the UK Jewellery Awards for which ROX had entered as Independent Retailer of the Year. I was absolutely blown away by what I saw. It wasn’t just the sheer Louis XIV opulence of the Thrill Room, with its chandeliers and champagne bar, though that was pretty jaw-dropping. It was the ethos
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too. Kyron wanted this space, a space that, in any other store would be for VIPs only, to be for everyone, whether you’re dropping a few grand on a diamond or not. He spoke about sending staff on hospitality training, so they knew how to pour coffee (proper coffee, mind, not weak Nescafe) or a coupe of that aforementioned champagne properly. This wasn’t just about selling product but bringing people into a lifestyle, a ROX way of doing things. I came away from that visit telling anyone who wanted to listen, and those who didn’t, about this revolutionary new store concept. Unsurprisingly ROX won Independent Retailer – the first win of many – and since then it has transformed the luxury watch and jewellery retail scene; not least because of all those very flattering imitators. Since then, ROX has built its own jewellery brand, opened seven more ROX stores as well as multi-brand boutiques, and monobrands for Gucci and Hublot and, finally, a boutique in London in the revamped Battersea Power Station. Twenty years really isn’t a long time in jewellery, but Kyron and Grant have certainly done a lot with the last two decades. The only question now really, is what’s next?
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FEATURE
“Our events are always pretty spectacular. Emeli Sandé performing at our Glasgow launch put us on the map, and since then we’ve had Labrinth, Lewis Capaldi, and up-and-comers Nina Nesbitt and Luke La Volpe.”
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ROX MAGAZINE
WATCH ANATOMY
CRYPTO MAKES THE WORLD GO ROUND Ethereal currency is here to stay and every high-roller’s favourite watchmaker, Jacob & Co., sure knows it. Celebrating the king of crypto’ with the Astronomia Solar ‘Bitcoin’, a geocentric orrery with planetary bodies, flying tourbillon and intricate décor that goes some way to unpacking the means by which 25 lucky collectors will be paying for theirs.
Squint and you’ll spot a charmingly cartoon-like miniaturised rocketship, soaring as rapidly as Bitcoin itself – itself now a mainstay of the financial universe, rather than the shady outlier it once was.
The three-armed carrousel spins on its large, central axis to the tune of one turn every 10 minutes. As a consequence, the flying tourbillon is really a twinaxis tourbillon, with one-minute and ten-minute 360º periods.
Whirring within a sapphirecrystal ‘bubble’, in turn grasped by a titanium cage coated with scratchproof diamondlike carbon (DLC) , Jacob & Co.'s Astronomia Solar Bitcoin engages keenly with a new, young, fintech-savvy generation. Mechanical it may be, but this high-complication timepiece – purchasable only via Bitcoin or altcoin – is a two-pronged reminder, both of the principles underpinning cryptocurrency, and the physical world it catalyses.
The symbolic décor tops a frame surrounding the movement, mounted on ball bearings. It spins counterclockwise to the tune of one rotation each eleven minutes.
JCAM19’s mechanics are built vertically on top of this base, crafted entirely in titanium and some steel elements. It’s a threepronged carousel, one of its arms carrying a one-minute ‘flying’ (or single-bridge) tourbillon; the second one holds the hours and minutes dial; the third is topped by a rotating, 3D Bitcoin symbol.
Adorning the carrousel are a yellow sapphire sun, a 288-facet Jacob-cut diamond moon (1 carat) and a golden Earth, the latter forming a geocentric, rather than traditionally heliocentric take on the solar system.
The bottom plate of the ‘JCAM19’ movement has been decorated as what Jacob & Co. calls an ‘expression platform’: positive engravings of microchip componentry, plus keywords describing the crypto’ universe: a “peer to peer” system, regulated by “Blockchain”, where “Bitcoin” is the founding and leading “decentralized digital currency”.
The orbiting dial is mounted on a differential gear that counteracts the movement's rotation, so it’s always read upright. And in this instance, it's shaped like a fan: a nod to the ones found in Bitcoin mining farms' notoriously energysapping servers.
As per international regulations, Jacob & Co. is obligated to determine a fixed price in official local currencies – in US dollars, being $348,000. Regardless of where the sale ultimately takes place, payment will be available in the crypto of the buyer's choosing – Bitcoin or Altcoin – at the going rate on the day of the transaction.
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WISH LIST
ROX MAGAZINE
WISH LIST Our Top Must-Have Picks This Season.
ROX Luxe Vetiver Kashmir Candle 75937 | £35
GUCCI Signature Silver Bracelet 79962 | £485
ZENITH Chronomaster 76249 | £9,200
ROX Adore Diamond Ring 0.70cts 76178 | £4,295
TAG HEUER Formula 1 Chronograph 79980 | £1,550
CHOPARD Alpine Eagle 79241 | £16,500
CELINE HOMME Cotton Mesh Belt Bag
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SAINT LAURENT Nylon Trucker Jacket
TUDOR Black Bay GMT S&G 79157 | £3,420
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WISH LIST
BOTTEGA VENETA Leather Belt ROX Platinum Wedding Ring 56335 | £1,695
HUBLOT Square Bang Unico 79149 | £33,000
MAHARISHI Eagle vs Snake T-Shirt
BULGARI Octo Finissimo 76464 | £11,100
WOLF Cub Watch Winder 73277 | £309
GUCCI Enamel Tag Necklace 79399 | £465
ETTINGER 6oz Hip Flask 74267 | £90
ROGER DUBUIS Excalibur Spider 75727 | £43,000
TOM FORD James Leather, Suede Nylon Sneakers
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WISH LIST
ROX MAGAZINE
GUCCI Interlocking G Earrings 77548 | £260
SAINT LAURENT Monogrammed Leather Cardholder
BULGARI Lucea Scaglie Steel and Rose 79087 | £10,800 ROX Cosmic Diamond Bangle 79651 | £6,200
CHOPARD Alpine Eagle Small 75488 | £13,100 CHOPARD My Happy Hearts Diamond Ring 79273 | £1,250
ROX Cascade Stud Earrings 79359 | £1,850
GUCCI Metallic Silk Scarf
ROX Love Diamond Necklace 0.57cts 77850 | £1,995
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ROX Honour Oval Diamond Ring 78577 | £20,500
TUDOR Black Bay S&G 79596 | £5,750
ROX MAGAZINE
WISH LIST
ROX Honour Oval Earrings 78587 | From £995
ROX Love Dress Ring 77853 | £5,895
HUBLOT One Click Steel Pave 78862 | £17,300
ZENITH Defy Midnight Borealis 78843 | £9,800 LOEWE Embroidered Mohair-Blend Sweater
ROX Cascade Drop Necklace 79358 | £2,600
BOTTEGA VENETA Padded Leather Shoulder Bag
SAINT LAURENT Square Frame Sunglasses
ROX Cosmic Diamond Bangle 79682 | £11,000 VALENTINO One Stud 100 Leather Pumps
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CULTURAL RADAR
ROX MAGAZINE
CULTURAL RADAR From Damien Chazelle’s latest visual extravaganza to Daniel Avery’s aural immersion and an autobiography that couldn’t be more exciting, we’ve rounded up the hot news on the cultural scene. Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak.
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THE SCREEN
THE NIGHTSTAND
THE STREAM
BABYLON
MATTHEW PERRY: FRIENDS, LOVERS, AND THE BIG TERRIBLE THING
FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE
December 25 (limited release), January 6 2023 (wider release)
This might just be the film to drag everyone’s focus away from the first in James Cameron’s cinematic Avatar onslaught. Directed by Damien Chazelle, he of Whiplash, La La Land, and First Man fame, it is already being talked about as an Oscars contender. Set in Hollywood in the 1920s and focusing on the shift from silent films to “talkies”, it has a cast list that would make Quentin Tarantino jealous. Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie as Clara Bow, Tobey Maguire playing Charlie Chaplin, Olivia Wilde back in front of the camera after directing beau Harry Styles in Don’t Worry Darling, and a host of others. Little is known about the plot but given the cast and Chazelle’s track record, we’re expecting fireworks.
Of course there are more high-brow books we could recommend, there’s a new Cormac McCarthy out, Margaret Atwood has a collection of short stories that’s imminent, but this is the book everyone will be talking about. In a social media post, Perry said that as “so much has been written about me in the past. I thought it was time people heard from me. The highs were high, the lows were low. But I have lived to tell the tale, even though at times it looked like I wouldn’t.” Inside sources say it will deal with his Vicodin and alcohol additions as well as the tough times he went through with the cast of Friends. We just want to know who he liked best – the chick or the duck?
In 2019, this was the book on everyone’s nightstand. It tells the story of the titular Toby Fleishman, whose wife, Rachel, with whom he is undergoing a bitter divorce, has disappeared to a yoga retreat leaving him with his two children. Narrated by his friend Lizzie who, through the process of the novel discovers her own voice, thereby providing a critique of the constant critical lauding of white-male centric narratives written by the likes of Jonathan Franzen and Philip Roth, it was a sensation. And, as is the way with all sensational books it must now be a star-studded series. Jesse Eisenberg will play the eponymous antihero and Claire Danes his wife Rachel, which just has Emmy awards written all over it.
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ROX MAGAZINE
CULTURAL RADAR
THE COFFEE TABLE BOOK ICE COLD:A HIP-HOP JEWELRY HISTORY £80, TASCHEN.COM UNTIL JANUARY 8, 2023
There is nothing a hip-hop star loves more than diamonds, lots and lots of diamonds. These opulent signifiers of success have been a wardrobe staple since the 1980s but exploded in the 1990s thanks to one Jacob the Jeweller (aka Jacob & Co’s founder Jacob Arabo) and his coterie of stars including Notorious B.I.G, LL Cool J, Sean Combs, aka Puff Daddy aka Love, Nas, and a young Jay-Z. Using iconic imagery starting with Run-DMC’s gold Adidas pendants and Eric B. & Rakim’s Mercedes medallions through to the likes of Pharelle Williams, Gucci Mane and Cardi B and their love of using diamonds alongside unconventional materials author Vikki Tobak illustrates how these pieces aren’t just about the bling bling but are about artistry, self-expression, and escape.
THE PODCAST HEIDIWORLD: THE HEIDI FLEISS STORY (Apple podcasts, Spotify)
The trial of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss was up there with the OJ Simpson trial and the shenanigans of Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. It had everything – a red Gucci planner supposedly containing the names of the Hollywood A-listers, directors, and politicans for whom she procured women; a celebrity witness in the form of Charlie Sheen and lots of sex. Now writer Molly Lambert has created a 10-episode podcast looking at the hypocrisy (Fleiss went to prison, Sheen didn’t) and sexual politics at play. It also looks at Fleiss history – how she came to be a madam in Los Angeles, her rise and subsequent demise. It listens like a blockbuster containing one of Fleiss’s clients.
THE EXHIBITION
THE ALBUM
REFRACTIVE POOL:
DANIEL AVERY, ULTRA TRUTH
Contemporary Art in Liverpool Until January 8, 2023
A regular feature at the Walker Art Gallery since 2019, the Refractive Pool project explores contemporary art in Liverpool through events, online resources, and a book all highlighting the diverse range of artists and painting styles that culminates in this exhibition. Curated by two local artists – Josie Jenkins, known for her uncanny paintings of domestic scenarios, and Brendon Lyons, who experiments with the trompe l’oeil tradition – it features 40 of the cities artists who work with paint and will be accompanied by new poetry by Paul Farley, who has been described by The Independent as a cross between Paul McCartney and Philip Larkin. Walker Art Gallery, William Brown St, Liverpool.
Anything new from DJ and producer Daniel Avery is always worth an ear, but this new album sounds intriguing. Known for his hazy experimental dance tracks, this new release sees the Bournemouth-born musician taking a different tack. In an interview with DJ magazine, Avery described this album as “an intentionally heavy and dense album, the hooks often hidden in dusty corners. I’m no longer dealing in a mistyeyed euphoria. 'Ultra Truth' is a distorted fever dream of a record: riled, determined and alive”. Regular vocal collaborator, Kelly Lee Owens, is back, who is joined by women of the moment HAAi and Sherelle, last seen doing 160 down the A406. Avery has cited Deftones, Portishead, Nick Cave, and the films of David Lynch as influences. Expect things to get dark. www.rox.co.uk
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FEATURE
@grahamcostellomusic
STRIKING A CHORD
M
usic as always been threaded through Glasgow’s identity as a city. It has thrummed to techno beats, rock chords and folk arpeggios; danced the night way in places such as King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut. And now it’s being seduced by discordant notes and lush piano. The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (RCS) has been influential in this shift. Many of the scene’s newest stars, such as Mercury-nominated Fergus McCreadie and Graham Costello of STRATA, studied there. It also boasts the only full-time degree level jazz course in Scotland – one geared toward a performance career, which is obviously working given the amount of alumni on the scene. Whereas London, where the UK jazz scene has previously been focused thanks to the likes of Moses Boyd and Nubya Garcia, has a sound influenced by R&B, Afrobeat and grime, Glasgow’s pulls in influences from reggae, hip-hop, Scottish folk, and ambient minimalism. What unites them is the drawing of inspiration from the electronic scene, and a desire to have jazz be seen as comparable to club culture. These are people with Resident Advisor listings, which says everything.
@kingtutsofficial
Jazz in Glasgow used to be disparate and unconnected but a new generation, led by the likes of Rebecca Vasmant are changing all that. Laura McCreddie-Doak looks at who to listen to and where to go around the city.
Check out what to put on your playlist overleaf... www.rox.co.uk
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FEATURE
ROX MAGAZINE
@hiitskitti
KITTI Young, Careless and Free
The winner of Best Vocalist and Best British Female Breakthrough Artist at 2020’s Scottish Music Awards and with the backing of corto.alto’s Liam Shortall, Kitti leans more into the soul side of the jazz spectrum. She has been compared to Amy Winehouse, which is true but more during her Frank period rather than the all-out old school sound of Back to Black. There’s also elements of Smile-era Lily Allen in her rap patterns. Her EP Young, Careless, and Free is a whisky-soaked look back at the insecurities and highs of adolescence.
REBECCA VASMANT Vasmant is the beating heart of the Glasgow scene, pulling all the disparate elements together, and this album is a love letter to both the city and the people who make up the jazz scene in it, using, as it does, a pool of talent from the RCS jazz course. This is a lush, warm album with gorgeous vocal performances from the likes of Nadya Albertson and Emilie Boyd, and with AKU!’s Harry Weir showing his sensitive side in the up-tempo Jewels of Thought. If we’re more familiar with seeing Glasgow’s tough side, this explores its sensitive, creative underbelly.
@rebeccavasmant
With Love, From Glasgow
CORTO.ALTO EP Not for Now
@corto.alto
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Led by composer and trombonist Liam Shortall this minialbum packs a punch larger than its five-track listing would suggest. The supporting cast reads like a who’s who of the Glasgow scene. Graham Costello and Peru Eizaguirre from STRATA provide drums and percussion, McCreadie’s magical fingers are on piano, and Harry Weir’s back on sax. It is a languorous, rich album, full of ideas, beautifully produced by Tom Excell of Leeds-based Nubyian Twist. There’s lolloping ska beat to the opening track Not for Now, while Mayday is pure funk. Interlude brings in a hip-hop beat and finally No. Pt II is a slice of soul. Justin Turford writing in Truth and Lies describes it as “rich and meaty, like jazz Bovril”, which is probably the best explanation yet.
ROX MAGAZINE
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@akutrio
WHERE TO GO THE 78 the78barandkitchen.com
AKU! Their debut Blind Fury
The band describes themselves as “doom jazz” and are influenced by noise and punk. They cite bands such as Young Fathers and Kuti as inspiration. This is most certainly not the smooth aural bath of John Coltrane. Imagine if the Beastie Boys took up saxophone instead. It’s an angry, passionate sound, with drum lines that feel like techno beats. It also contains a track titled In the Bath, Having a Magnum. What’s not to love?
Sunday nights are reserved for jazz at this bar and restaurant just off Argyle Street. Food is 100% vegan, and the beer selection is reported to be extensive with a mix of pub-crawl staples alongside IPAs from Edinburgh-based Bellfield Brewery. There is a house trio, but the likes of Fergus McCreadie has been known to pull up a seat at the piano on occasion.
THE BLUE ARROW bluearrowjazzclub.com
This is your quintessential jazz club – it’s in a basement and doesn’t take reservations. So passionate is the Blue Arrow about getting the music of its performers out there, many of the shows operate on a pay-what-you-can-afford ticket policy. There’s an act on every Thursday-Sunday sometimes with two performances on occasional Fridays and Saturdays. Go for a pint or stay for the full set.
THE HUG AND PINT thehugandpint.com
@fergusmccreadie
FERGUS MCCREADIE The Mercury-nominated Forest Floor
McCreadie, who is joined by fellow scensters David Bowden on double bass and Stephen Henderson on drums, has a dexterity on the piano that is dazzling and pushed to the fore in the energetic opening track Law Hill – the name of a landmark just outside Dollar in Clackmannanshire, where McCreadie grew up. Inspired by Scotland’s green craggy landscape, McCreadie expertly weaves Scottish folk refrains in with jazz cadences to create a sound that pays homage to Scotland’s unique countryside and culture.
Named after the Arab Strap song Monday at the Hug and Pint, this vegan bar and eatery is a regular venue for the Glasgow Jazz Festival, which takes place in June. They pride themselves on being one of Glasgow’s best live venues promoting both up-andcoming local talent and international artists. They are also very proud of their pan-Asian food. It’s critically acclaimed apparently.
THE BUTTERFLY AND THE PIG thebutterflyandthepig.com
The façade of this restored old Georgian townhouse conceals a restaurant, bar, tea-room, and a nightclub where, every Wednesday, the students of the RCS host a jazz night, which has become famous citywide. It is also renowned for its “humorous” menus, which are either amusing or grating, depending on your personality.
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FEATURE
ROX MAGAZINE
JEWELS OF THE
THAMES What better 20th-birthday celebration than ROX cutting the ribbon on its very first venture down south? Words by Alex Doak.
Y
ou can keep your London callings and Waterloo sunsets: ROX is rocking up to the UK capital with its own brand of party-forward fabulousness. And it’s about time, following two decades’ incubating and fine-tuning a luxury retail experience throughout Scotland and the north of England, now primed to surprise and delight down south, even to wilfully jaded Londoners. It’s nothing as obvious as Mayfair or Chelsea or Canary Wharf; ROX’s first southern venture is debuting, alongside so many other vaunted brands, in the cathedral-like turbine halls of Battersea Power Station, on the south bank of the River Thames. The Grade II*-listed 1933 building opened to the public on Friday 14th October, almost 40 years after its closure – plus many years besides’ 40
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politically charged wrangling over planning and preservation. Just a few steps inside, it’s quickly plain to see how ROX and its new neighbours were convinced, regardless of the headlines. Part of a gigantic development process totalling some £9bn, Battersea Power Station itself – the historic heart of a new residential district that’s earned a brand-new spur on the tube network’s Northern Line – is set to become London’s most exciting retail and leisure destination. Brands setting up shop alongside ROX include Ace + Tate, lululemon, Mulberry and Ralph Lauren. LIFT 109 is a glass elevator experience transporting visitors 109 metres up the building’s north west chimney, with one of the best views of London’s ever-busier skyline. All amounting to over 2,500 new jobs once the doors to the Power Station open, with a total of 17,000 jobs once the
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whole 42-acre project has completed. ROX’s gleaming new 1,500-squarefoot boutique is showcasing its own-brand diamond jewellery and engagement rings collections, plus – as we have come to expect from Glasgow and Edinburgh’s beloved party animals – a Moët & Chandon champagne bar, beaming that signature ‘Diamonds & Thrills’ direct from the Argyll Arcade. “Since the day Grant and I founded ROX our aspirations have always been to take the brand to London,” enthuses co-founder Kyron Keogh. “Being able to showcase our brand in one of the most exciting retail schemes in the world right now is an honour and we are delighted to be able to reach this milestone as we celebrate 20 years in business.” “Like every industry we faced our fair share of challenges thanks to lockdowns and travel restrictions,” he adds, “but it seems that many consumers have rediscovered a love of fine jewellery that instantly sparks joy. It’s a ‘forever purchase’ thankfully still regarded as being worth the investment.” Just as Battersea kept a huge portion of London electrified till 1983 – Buckingham Palace included – visitors and residents are now being charged with new sparks, of joy.
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ROX MAGAZINE
CABINETS OF
CURIOSITY Any home worthy of a Pinterest board or Instagram feed has its pick of vintage finds – but where to dig up those swoonsome mid-century treasures for your abode? Here’s our guide to six of the best vintage stores, close to ROX's own homes Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak.
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PARIS, PROCTOR, AND DOG
GEORGIAN ANTIQUES
SALVATION_GLASGOW
Perth
Edinburgh
Online
This may be an hour’s drive outside of Edinburgh, but if you want mid-century then Sam Proctor’s your man. While making an appointment is the best way to have a nose, keep an eye on Instagram for weekend openings. His feed also acts as his shop window and is full of excellent quality Eames, to-die-for Vitra, and gorgeous Hans Wegner. Occasionally there’s some traditional Scottish pieces mixed in but really this unit in Perth is a mid-century paradise.
If mid-century is not your bag, then you’ll definitely find what you’re looking for at Georgian Antiques. As the name suggests this predominantly stocks pieces from the Georgian period, though it has expanded with the website stating its product periods now start at 1644 and stretch to the late 20th century. Set over a staggering five floors and 50,000sqft this is the largest collection of antiques in the United Kingdom and the place where interior and set designers come when they want to add some antique flair to a room.
Restoring vintage furniture is at the heart of this small business located in the south of Glasgow. There is a consistent style to the pieces – think lushly polished wood with the odd flash of industrial metal. Pieces range from mid-century Danish dining tables to an antique smokers’ companion. It helps that Salvation’s owner, Iain Mackay is also a photographer, which means that each piece looks “hand-overyour -card-now” desirable.
By appointment, or check Facebook for weekend opening times. Instagram: @Paris.proctor.dog
georgianantiques.net Instagram: @Georgianantiques
salvationglasgow.com Instagram: @salvation_glasgow
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L
et’s face it: vintage furniture sourcing has become to this decade what the “I just picked this up in Portobello market” was to the late-’90s. It’s the ultimate humble brag, an instant signifier of impeccable taste. All you have to do is click on an interiors’ influencer or open a Sunday supplement and there’s someone waxing lyrical about a tiny flea market in some obscure French town where you can buy amazing one-off pieces and still have change for a baguette. The reality, when us mere mortals try, is of course the choice of a dusty chair with one dodgy leg or a badly framed and faintly sexist beach advert from the 1950s. To take the frustration out of furniture shopping we’ve picked six amazing businesses in and around Scotland and the North East where you’re certain to snap up something stylish. (After a shopping trip to ROX, naturally.) @Georgianantiques
RETRO INTERIORS
ANTIQUITES FRANCAISES
BIBELOT NOOK
Liverpool
Newcastle
Newcastle
The website may be a bit Web.0, but Retro Interiors owner Sue knows a good piece when she sees one. The mix is most definitely eclectic with a dressing table by British post-war furniture designer Alfred Cox sharing page space with a French Louis-style bedroom chair. If you can’t find what you’re looking for you can give Sue your requirements and she’ll source it for you, which certainly takes the effort out of having to rummage house clearances for yourself.
We all harbour fantasies of taking the car to France to potter about flea markets picking up exquisite furniture at bargainous prices, only for the reality to be traffic jams, broken chairs, and rain. Luckily, Antiquities Françaises is here to help you realise your chateau-interior dreams. They source everything personally from France, specialising in the 19th century, but with the odd contemporary piece and everything is cleaned and restored by proprietor Babette Malleret. It’s French style without the faff.
With a name that sounds like a place in The Hobbit, Bibelot Nook (bibelot is actually the name for a small, decorative ornament or trinket) is a charming collection of handpicked pieces, with a mid-century flavour. Curated by Dan and Faye, what began as a shared hobby has been turned into a business with the overriding ethos being “we love this, we hope you will too”, which is why you can pick up everything from a vintage yellow mannequin foot to a midcentury chest of drawers.
Call 07944 288560 sue@retro-interiors.com retro-interiors.com
antiquites-francaises.co.uk Instagram: @antiquitesfrancaises
Visits to the studio are welcomed but are made by appointment only. Instagram: @bibelotnook
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THE ART OF INVESTMENT The world of art has a reputation for being mysterious, complex and inaccessible to all but a select few, which is why so many turn to the traditional asset classes when they are looking to invest. Words by Claire Roberts.
W
hat those investors are missing out on, however, is not just the phenomenal returns that have been witnessed for more than a decade. They are also overlooking one of the most compelling aspects of art investment: the fact that nothing tells a story quite like art. Unlike other passion assets – classic cars or wine, for instance – acquiring art is a very personal experience. What you hang on your walls is a reflection of you, which distinguishes art as an asset class like no other. Of all the categories of art investment, it is the contemporary art market that has seen the greatest growth in the past 20 years, increasing its share of the global art market from 3% to 21%. These are very persuasive figures for any investor looking to place their funds, yet for those who have never properly considered art as a viable investment opportunity, they can also seem more than a little daunting. How does someone become an art investor if they have no experience of this famously opaque world? More importantly, is it really possible to make money from an asset class with which you are unfamiliar? These are the kinds of questions that inspired Maddox Gallery, an international group of galleries specialising in contemporary and modern art, to launch Maddox Art Advisory in 2015. With a reputation for acquiring and exhibiting cutting-edge work from internationally acclaimed blue-chip, established and emerging artists, the founders of Maddox quickly realised that they were uniquely placed to provide specialist support to the growing number of contemporary art enthusiasts who were looking for help navigating the increasingly alluring world of art investment. Born from a desire to assist people who are curious about the art world and are looking to diversify their investments, Maddox Art Advisory comprises a team of specialists who are experts in identifying, sourcing and supplying exceptional works of contemporary art.
@andywarhol
@banksy
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@rossmuir_art
@sebastian_chaumeton
@davidyarrow
Together, they have assisted established collectors to build valuable art portfolios comprising of 50 works or more, and as well as provided invaluable guidance to budding collectors who are considering investing in art but are not sure where to start. Many clients approach the Advisory looking for help to buy their first investment piece and discover that the process is much more dynamic than they anticipated. Buying art is often led by the heart, and the most rewarding investments are those that stimulate us on a deeper level. “The first step of any art investment journey should be exploring the artists and artworks that resonate with you,” explains John Russo, CEO of Maddox Gallery. “It is all about finding that sweet spot: art that you like, and which represents a sound investment for the future. The best investors are those who are interested, engaged and talk passionately about the artwork in their home – that’s what makes it such a unique asset class. One doesn’t become an expert overnight though, and that is what inspired us to launch Maddox Art Advisory.” Often, a potential investor’s interest is piqued by a specific artwork and they want to find out more. “A lot of conversations begin because someone spotted something on Instagram and reached out to us,” says Russo. “Some have no prior knowledge of an artist – they just saw their work and felt a connection to it”. “Once we have paired a client with a dedicated advisor, they are then introduced to a wide range of contemporary art and data from our in house research team that outlines the investment opportunity of each artist and even compares the difference in potential across specific artworks.” Like any asset class, art is not something that you can buy today and sell tomorrow. Rather, investing in art is a journey that starts with your first
@roryhancockartist
@andywarhol
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@retna_art
‘The Agony & The Ecstasy’ group exhibition @yayoikusama_
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acquisition and develops as you build a collection. Maddox Art Advisory doesn’t promise quick returns. Instead, its advisors provide reassuringly full disclosure on the growth of the contemporary art market as a whole, alongside up-to-the-minute data on the performance of individual artists, ongoing support with the management of a client’s portfolio and help selling an artwork when the time is right. “We are known for our ability to both source and sell work,” explains Russo, “and this makes us quite unique in the industry. If someone wants to sell, we have our network of galleries and a base of engaged collectors, which means we can act efficiently and effectively.” In order to maximise the opportunity for success when embarking on an investment, Maddox advises developing a balanced portfolio between risk and return. While blue-chip art by worldrenowned artists such as Banksy, Damien Hirst and Andy Warhol continue to consistently outperform other investment classes, it is the emerging art market that provides the most accessible entry point for new collectors. With original works and editions ranging from £10,000 to £50,000 and above, emerging art represents both the higher-risk end of the fine art investment spectrum and the opportunity for significant potential for substantial returns in the future. As the desire to acquire art continues to grow among investors, Russo has some advice for new collectors who are keen to enter this burgeoning marketplace: “Hunt out art that makes you smile and which you’re excited to tell your friends about. You don’t become passionate about collecting art by watching your investments grow. Instead, it comes from enjoying your art on a daily basis, in your home or office.”
@damienhirst
@davidyarrow
@andywarhol
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LET'S GET IT OM! If you’re looking for somewhere to perfect your paschimottanasana or tune up your trikonasana, there some incredible yoga studios in Scotland and the north east. Laura McCreddie-Doak gets the lowdown (ward dog) on where to go plus where to buy the best eco-friendly clothing and mats. Ideal whether you’re looking to find spiritual enlightenment or to rediscover your glutes.
THE ZEN ONE Edinburgh calmoncanningst.com
From lunchtime express sessions and restorative Yin to vinyasa flow, Calm at Canning Street has classes for every type of yogi. As Calm also bills itself as a wellbeing sanctuary there are also massage therapists, holistic facialists, and even a Celtic shamanic practitioner on hand to prolong that post-yoga bliss.
THE SPIRITUAL ONE Glasgow kalicollective.com
According to the website, this space in the centre of Glasgow is the physical expression of the Hindu goddess Kali – the one usually depicted holding a man’s severed head, but also the embodiment of the divine feminine. Don’t let that deter you because this gorgeous space offers everything from Rocket yoga – think Ashtanga with added handstands – to gentle flows, Yin, and even Barre.
THE INCLUSIVE ONE Newcastle themodernyoga.co.uk
Offering classes, workshops, retreats, and courses, The Modern Yoga prides itself on having a class for everyone. If you’re a total newbie, there’s a Beginners’ Course; for those who want to explore something different to the usual flow classes there’s Yin Yang, which combines strong flows with calming restorative poses. There’s even day retreats to the Northumberland coastline for yoga on the beach.
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THE COOL ONE Liverpool yogacita.co.uk
Its tagline may be “Hot Yoga at the Old Gun Factory”, but Yogacita offers so much more. There are the usual flow classes on offer, but also Rocket, evening candlelit classes and traditional Indian hatha, for those who find the westernisation of yoga problematic. Occasionally it also has puppy yoga. Yes, that’s right downward dogs with small dogs. Who could refuse?
THE ENLIGHTENED ONE Leeds theyogaspace.co.uk
Practising your pincha mayurasana in a converted chapel is certainly going to up the spiritual vibes, especially as all the stained-glass windows are still intact making for a beautifully lit space. Once you’ve finished marvelling at your surroundings, it’s time to marvel at the variety of classes on offer – dramatherapy, acro yoga, Yamuna body rolling. Or vinyasa flow if you’re feeling that basic.
THE CLOTHES London asquithlondon.com
Yoga is about harmony with ourselves and the planet so it’s a bit hypocritical “namaste-ing” in trousers riddled with microplastics. Which is where Asquith London comes in. The clothes are all made from bamboo, which has ethical benefits in the way it is grown, and plasticfree packaging that’s also fully recyclable. The clothes are made in Turkey in a factory set up by a Turkish businesswoman, where all employees are properly paid, work reasonable hours, and have fresh lunches made every day from produce grown on the factory’s roof.
THE MAT Liforme liforme.com
This is by far the best yoga mat on the market (I can personally vouch for it having used it for five years). The selling point is its uber grippiness. You just won’t slip, which really helps build confidence if you’re practising inversions or arm balances. It is also eco-friendly – made from natural rubber and non-toxic eco-polyurethane, which is biodegradable. The markings on the mat are an alignment system that fits everybody, so you know where to put your feet and hands when practising at home. Liforme also takes its altruism off the mat, donating money to various planetprotecting charities such as Friends of the Earth and TreeNation, as well as giving a minimum of 10% of yearly profits to its Life for More foundation. We’ll say “om” to that. www.rox.co.uk
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CAMERON & CLYDE The jewel in Loch Lomond’s crown, Cameron House is back, more magnificent than ever – a bolthole as well as springboard for high-octane japes that take in the region’s spectacular sea lochs Words by Alex Doak.
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GREAT DRIVES
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t’s been just over a year since Cameron House reopened on the bonny banks of Loch Lomond. Careful and sensitive restoration work on the 1830 ‘baronial’ style stone castle has furnished the hotel’s peaked gables and decorative turrets with a magnificent new grand foyer, a library bedecked in neo-gothic ‘Timorous Beasties’ wallpaper, plus a brand-new Lobby Bar boasting a grand marble-top bar. And that’s before you’ve peeked behind closed doors upstairs: a beautiful, 14-strong suite of suites – named after Cameron House’s local adage ’The Auld House’ – all having benefitted from a luscious, maximalist makeover. Johnstons of Elgin, no less, developed a bespoke tartan for the cashmere throws, its colours inspired by the heather-dappled glens in the distance (the suites’ crowning feature remaining original, of course: their windows’ sweeping views across Loch Lomond). Nestled in the heart of the Trossachs National Park, the hotel is an escape like no other, even for locals. Not only does it feel a million miles from civilisation, but it is a luxurious ecosystem – ‘nestled’ being the operative word. A completely remodelled Cameron Leisure Club and Tavern Bar constitute the wider Cameron House ‘Resort’, also home to an award-winning spa complete with a rooftop infinity pool, an 18hole championship golf course, 4x4 off-road
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adventures, falconry experiences, even a 234-berth marina for goodness sake (we recommend an opulent champagne cruise aboard Celtic Warrior). With the majesty of the Highlands literally on your doorstep, and all around, you need never stray. But regular readers of ROX magazine know that these pages are in the business of urging you to hop back in the car and explore the further reaches of Scotland’s unbridled scenery. To wit: the Clyde Sea Lochs Trail, all 65 miles of it signposted rather helpfully by the Scottish tourism board. It takes you into the heart of the coastal communities to the southwest of Loch Lomond, starting in Dumbarton and ending north in Arrochar, with plenty of opportunities to explore, or gaze slackjawed into the distance, between. If you can bear to pause, just seven miles after leaving Cameron House and on the threshold of the A814’s widescreen vista, Dumbarton Castle is a broody, blasted waypoint – sat high on a volcanic plug overlooking the River Clyde. There are 500 steps to the top, but the views are well worth the climb. Through Cardross’s 17th-century village, you reach Ardmore Point: a great spot to capture striking panoramic views of Gare Loch and the River Clyde. Bring binoculars, as there’s excellent seal and birdwatching to be had, too. Or simply drive straight through and onward, to explore the Victorian streets of Helensburgh instead. Its seaside promenade and wide tree-lined streets offer a host of cafés and restaurants if it’s that time of day. The Scottish Submarine Centre is a good distraction for the kids, if you’ve brought them.
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If not, get some proper Scottish culture at the magnificent Hill House. Designed by Charles Rennie Mackintosh, it’s considered his finest domestic masterpiece: an exuberance of arts and crafts, art nouveau, Scottish baronial and Japonisme, with a peaceful wander around the beautifully restored garden into the bargain. The fjord-like Gare Loch is next on the trail, stretching 10km out to join the River Clyde, with a pretty 1820s village resort perched on its shores. Admire the iron-clads of Clyde Naval Base from
WHICH CAR? MASERATI GRECALE Yes, it’s another mid-sized luxury SUV, but why have a Macan, Stelvio or Urus when you can proudly – and very enjoyably – fly the three-pronged flag of Modena’s finest? Maserati has always been the leftfield, thinking man’s performance marque: Italian design flair, but with restraint, serving to not only keep you cool (rather than try-hard) but also belie seriously racy goings-on beneath the bonnet. Sure enough, the Grecale is all these things, once you’ve got over the fact that Maserati just had to enter this market, whether true to its circuit-proven heritage or not. There’s plenty of space inside as you’d expect, but the outer styling is lithe and ready to pounce. Of the three versions, we’re of course going to lean to the ‘Trofeo’, over the GT and Modena: a de-tuned version of the MC20 supercar’s ‘Nettuno’ 3.0-litre twin-turbo V6, with 530bhp getting you to 62mph in just 3.8 seconds, as that final A814 stretch to Arrochar demands.
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‘Haul Road’ viewpoint, before heading to the picnic spot at Whistlefield with more picture-perfect views to enjoy. Rosneath Peninsula and Kilcreggan woodland next, finishing with a thrilling, undulating blast along the coast-hugging A814, north to Arrochar. A great spot for exploring further on foot, take to the rugged Three Lochs Way (starting in Balloch), the Loch Lomond & Cowal Way or Ben Arthur, also known as ‘The Cobbler’. Or, you know, just park up and go for a stroll. The scenery never lets up.
STYLE REPORT
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STYLE REPORT
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The Big Drop
@vikyandthekid
@lisaingmarinelli
Take inspiration from these Insta Queens and master the art of layering and wearing your jewellery for everyday dressing!
2
Suits You
Drop diamond necklaces can be layered and stacked for a modern take on diamond dressing! Add interesting colour combos for a really contemporary take on daytime dressing.
Tailoring and understated pieces will be instantly elevated with classic diamond studs and stacking rings adding just the right amount of subtle sparkle.
ROX Honour Pear Earrings | 78193 from £995 ROX Honour Pear Necklace | 78728 from £895 NILI LOTAN Yvette Silk Blouse REFORMATION Penny Crepe Mini Skirt GUCCI Dionysus Mini Shoulder Bag CHRISTIAN LOUBOUTIN Me Dolly Mules
ROX Cascade Earrings | 79361 £960 ROX Cascade Diamond Ring | 77595 £1,720 MONCLER Wool Baseball Cap FRANKIE SHOP Lyocell-Blend Blazer GIVENCHY Antigona leather tote MANOLO BLAHNIK Leather Chelsea Boots
STYE REPORT
@pernilleteisbaek
@charlotteemilysanders
@flaviastuttgen
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City Style
Every city girl worth her style credentials invests in a season- less mega trench! Just add luxe leather, cashmere and lots of diamonds.
ROX Adore Hoop Earrings | 74028 £2,800 ROX Adore Dress Ring | 76675 £3,295 BOTTEGA VENETA Cotton-Canvas Trench Coat JOSEPH Teddy Leather Slim-Leg Pants CHLOÉ Jamie Tasseled Leather Platform Loafers
4 Next Gen Gem
5
Cult denim + classic white shirt in oversized proportions are all you need! Stacks of delicate diamond bangles or a wow-factor tennis necklace will ensure your look shines.
When it comes to diamond earrings to offset your simplest yet most stylish looks, bigger is always better!
ROX Honour Diamond Collar | 71490 £12,950 ROX Honour Diamond Earrings | 75903 from £3,995 LE SPECS Tortoiseshell sunglasses HOMMEGIRLS Cropped Cotton Shirt LOEWE High-Rise Wide-Leg Jeans COACH Pillow Tabby Shoulder Bag
Think Big
ROX Cosmic Diamond Bracelet | 71786 £4,800 ROX Cosmic Drop Earrings | 71783 £1,850 GABRIELA HEARST Corduroy Vest MOTHER Straight-Leg Jeans AQUAZZURA Suede Mules BALENCIAGA Neo Classic Mini Handbag
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BALMAIN
DIOR
MICHAEL KORS
MUGLER
BLUMARINE
FENDI
ISABEL MARANT
Images © IMAXtree.com
CATWALK AGENDA
CATWALK AGENDA A season of endless style possibilities. Here is our round of the standout trends defining the new season.
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CATWALK AGENDA
TAKE FLIGHT
Blame Maverick, but the bomber jacket is back. A wardrobe classic that keeps your look young and fun. Wear it casual with your fav sports luxe staples or add an unexpected edge to tailoring.
HUBLOT Big Bang One Click 71925 | £13,300
ROX Love Diamond Earrings 1.68cts 77844 | £4,695
ROX Love Diamond Ring 1.00cts 77860 | £3,495
GORUNWAY.COM
ROX Honour Diamond Ring 78589 | From £25,795
ISABEL MARANT
ROX Honour Diamond Collar 7.00cts 71490 | £12,950
ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 3.00cts 67060 | £4,950
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CATWALK AGENDA
HARD SHOULDER
ROX Cosmic Earrings 0.85cts 79567 | £1,850
Want to invest in something you’ll wear season after season? Get yourself a power blazer to elevate even the simplest of looks. Look out for expensive fabrics, tailored details and a powerful shoulder for the ultimate luxe look. Simply throw over and go!
HUBLOT Big Bang One Click King Gold 78871 | £26,900
CHOPARD Alpine Eagle Rose Gold 79243 | £33,300
SAINT LAURENT
BALMAIN
CHOPARD Happy Hearts Pendant 76449 | £3,780
CHOPARD Happy Hearts Ring 67785 | £1,500
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SHOW SOME SKIN
Dare to bear and show some skin in diaphanous, silky fabrics and slinky cuts that are ultimate style statement. Layer up diamonds and statement jewellery to up the glam factor.
ROX Cascade Drop Necklace 71812 | £2,800
ROX Cascade Drop Earrings 1.23cts 79362 | £3,200
ROX Cascade Diamond Ring 0.94cts 77594 | £3,200
ROX Cascade Drop Earrings 2.14cts 79647 | £6,500
DIOR
ROX Cascade Circle Necklace 0.87cts 71811 | £2,950
ROX Cascade Diamond Bangle 2.53cts 79712 | £10,500 66
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CATWALK AGENDA
RETURN OF THE WAIST
Body positivity is here to stay and it’s the perfect time to hail the not so humble corset! This boned wonder is back with a modern interpretation and looks great in bold colours, lingerie inspired design and cropped dimensions.
ROX Cosmic Earrings 1.19cts 77869 | £2,950
ZENITH Defy Midnight 75478 | £9,300
MUGLER
ROX Cosmic Diamond Necklace 77868 | £4,450
SAINT LAURENT
ROX Cosmic Diamond Collar 71798 | £8,400
ROX Cosmic Starburst Ring 74149 | £4,500
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LEATHER TO LIVE IN
Get ready to get glossy. Luxurious leather will enhance all your new season looks so invest in hard working separates that will be your wardrobe forever pieces. Either keep it classic in black, or add buttery tones of mocha, chocolate and caramel.
HUBLOT Classic Fusion Titanium 74465 | £9,500
ROX Adore Diamond Earrings 0.63cts 76895 | £1,680
ROX Adore Diamond Necklaces 0.30 cts | 76898 | £1,350 0.51 cts | 76899 | £1,850
ROX Adore Emerald Ring 77504 | From £3,150
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MICHAEL KORS
ROX Adore Dress Ring 0.85cts 76676 | £4,500
ROX Adore Diamond Bangle 2.18cts 77841 | £4,500
CATWALK AGENDA
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TAILORING GONE WILD Tailoring’s new look is way too fabulous to keep to the office. Amp up day and night looks with high impact tailored pieces with standout shoulders and oversized silhouettes. Keep the look ultra-modern with colour blocking and tonal combinations.
BULGARI Lucea Pink Titanium 79083 | £8,400
ROX Love Diamond Earrings 1.12cts 78261 | £2,995
ROX Diamond Cocktail Ring 1.87cts 61903 | £4,995
FENDI
ROX Pink Sapphire Ring 2.12cts 77966 | £7,295
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VERSACE
ROX Love Diamond Necklace 0.57cts 78259 | £1,995
ROX Love Diamond Bangle 2.00cts 71325 | £4,950
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PREPPY MEETS Y2K Time travel for fashion? Yes please! The futuristic and oh so instgrammable fashion for the 90s and the 2000s is back for round 2. A distinctive look that perfectly blends the best of nostalgic pop culture in a new and experimental way.
ROX Diamond Inital Necklace 76366 | from £675
ROX Diamond Heart Earrings 0.24cts 72009 | £795
ROX Diamond Dress Ring 0.56cts 74841 | £1,380
TAG HEUER Aquaracer 79543 | £3,900
ROX Diamond Necklace 0.20ct 77784 | £980
BLUMARINE
ROX Diamond Stacking Ring 0.19cts 69160 | £650
ROX Diamond Torque Bangle 0.33cts 74843 | £1,150
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HUBLOT Classic Fusion £9,500 (74465), ROX Love Diamond Halo Ring from £3,395 (77921), ROX Love Wedding Ring £1,995 (74642), ROX Honour Brilliant Cut Ring 3.00cts £19,500 (78576), ROX Honour Diamond Earrings from £3,995 (75904), ROX Honour Diamond Necklace From £6,495 (75906), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 5.00cts £8,250 (69144), ROX Honour Diamond Tennis Bracelet 9.00cts £19,500 (77675), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 7.20cts £17,500 (77674)
THE IT GIRL Celebrating 20 years of the quintessential ROX woman with an homage to the ultimate IT girl. Missé Beqiri shows us how to do day to night style with added sparkle.
Stylist: Danielle Timperley
Photography: Ian Lim @milianeyes
Models: Missé Beqiri
Hair stylist: Florence Neilsen Make-up: Stacey Toner
OFFICE ETIQUETTE Liven up the boardroom with luxe looks, jewel tones and layers of diamonds.
Zenith Defy Midnight £9,800 (78843), ROX Love Radiant Halo Ring 3.15cts £49,000 (77918), ROX Honour Emerald Ring 3.00cts £19,600 (78578), ROX Honour Brilliant Cut Ring 3.00cts £19,500 (78576), ROX Diamond Eternity Ring 2.00cts £6,495 (71386), ROX Adore Dress Ring 2.58cts £7,900 (77778), ROX Diamond Hoop Earrings 4.63cts £8,495 (74128), ROX Honour Diamond Collar 7.00cts £12,950 (71490), DNA Diamond Bangle 2.90cts £8,600 (77769), ROX Adore Diamond Bangle 3.36cts £7,800 (77840), ROX Diamond Baguette Cut Tennis Bracelet 5.00cts £9,800 (77677), ROX Diamond Honour Tennis Bracelet 10.39cts £22,500 (59980)
Hublot Big Bang Quartz £19,900 (58110), ROX Adore Trilogy Diamond Ring from £3,095 (75763), ROX Cosmic Diamond Swirl Ring 1.30cts £3,450 (72537), ROX Cosmic Drop Earrings 0.59cts £1,850 (71783), ROX Cosmic Diamond Collar 1.59cts £8,400 (71798), ROX DNA Diamond Bangle 1.64cts £7,500 (77768), ROX Cosmic Diamond Bracelet 1.29cts £4,800 (71786), ROX Cosmic Diamond Bangle 2.60cts £11,000 (79682), ROX Cosmic Diamond Dress Ring 0.80cts £3,200 (79681)
STREET STYLE Take inspiration from all the cool girls with laid back looks we want to wear now. Add diamond earrings and bedazzled watches for an unexpected touch.
MIRROR IMAGE Keep it simple by adding the ultimate timepiece and delicately stacked necklaces to elevate a daytime outfit that’s always selfie ready.
HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang Beige Ceramic £16,500 (76350), ROX Love Drop Earrings 2.31cts £7,295 (78210), ROX Love Diamond Necklace 1.80cts £7,495 (78687), ROX Love Brilliant Cut Diamond Wedding Ring 0.22cts £1,995 (74642), ROX Love Oval Yellow Halo Ring from £9,950 (76159), ROX Love DIamond Dress Ring 1.65cts £5,895 (77853), ROX Honour Oval Cut Diamond Ring 3.00cts £20,500 (78577), ROX Love Diamond Bangle 3.00cts £7,500 (77669)
HUBLOT Big Bang One Click £61,000 (78633), ROX Diamond Hoop Earrings 4.63cts £8,495 (74128), ROX Honour Oval Diamond Ring 3.00cts £20,500 (78577), ROX Love Diamond Dress Ring 1.40cts £4,995 (77851), ROX Love Diamond Dress Ring 1.65cts £5,895 (77853), ROX Love Cushion Yellow Diamond Halo Ring from £5,250 (76158), ROX Love Oval Cut Yellow Diamond Ring from £9,950 (76150), ROX Pear Yellow Diamond Halo Ring 1.50cts £13,550 (76762), ROX Love Diamond Bangle 4.11cts £9,800 (77698), ROX Love Diamond Bangle 3.00cts £7,500 (77669), ROX Love Diamond Drop Necklace 2.17cts £11,500 (77886), ROX Love Diamond Necklace 0.57cts £1,995 (77850)
OH BABY Instant glam is child's play when you throw on some diamonds – set in eye catching geometric designs that demand to be noticed.
ROX Diamond Drop Earrings 3.55cts £14,500 (79800), ROX Diamond Drop Earrings 2.12cts £7,600 (79802), ROX Diamond Drop Earrings 2.12cts £7,600 (79801), ROX Diamond Drop Necklace 1.58cts £7,800 (78903)
Hublot Classic Fusion King Gold £27,100 (79844), ROX Cosmic Diamond Earrings 0.85cts £2,250 (77864) ROX Love Yellow Diamond Halo Ring from £10,195 (76157), ROX Cosmic Diamond Dress Ring 1.30cts £3,500 (72538), ROX Cosmic Diamond Dress Ring 0.42cts £1,950 (79650), Diamond Eternity Ring 2.00cts £6,495 (71386), ROX Cosmic Diamond Necklace 1.24cts £3,400 (77866), ROX Cosmic Diamond Bracelet 1.29cts £4,800 (71786), ROX Cosmic Diamond Bangle 0.66cts £6,200 (79651), ROX Diamond Rubover Bracelet 4.03cts £7,200 (78053)
URBAN EDGE Relaxed but elevated, it’s how girls on the go do it. Add a statement timepiece in bold gold to keep everything looking super luxe.
GLAM FACTOR Va va voom glamour is back. Diamonds are the ultimate extra that take you from day to night.
ROX Cascade Diamond Ring 0.94cts £3,200 (77594), ROX Cascade Drop Circle Earrings 2.14cts £6,500 (79647), ROX Cascade Diamond Collar 5.11cts £16,500 (79649), ROX Cascade Diamond Bangle 1.68cts £5,400 (77612), ROX Cascade Drop Earrigs 1.23cts £3,200 (79362), ROX Cascade Diamond Collar 5.11cts £16,500 (79649), ROX Cascade Bracelet 2.93cts £8,600 (79648), ROX Cascade Diamond Ring 0.94cts £3,200 (77594), ROX Cascade Dress Ring 1.68cts £7,500 (79643), ROX Cascade Sapphire and Diamond Ring £6,995 (79706), ROX Cascade Dress Ring 1.10cts £5,995 (79642)
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HEART
Chopard’s new collection gifts women an irrefutable excuse to treat themselves, says Laura McCreddie-Doak. 108
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I
t wasn’t so long ago that jewellery was something bought for a woman, not bought by her. It was a silver bracelet when she was born, a gold one, maybe set with diamonds, on her 18th. Then engagement and wedding rings, a piece to mark the birth of a child, one for each special anniversary. A life measured out not in afternoons and coffee spoons but carats. The 21st century woman is most definitely not one to wait around to have jewellery bought for her. It is thought that around 78% of purchases of jewellery are self-gifting. And this figure isn’t just women buying fashion or demi-fine pieces – think silver or gold vermeil set with stones such as cultured sapphires, gemstones such as spinels or using small lab-grown stones – these women are spending serious amounts of money. A piece on Porter magazine found that the days of women waiting to be bought fine jewellery was over – the modern way to buy luxury was, as with clothes and handbags, to buy for oneself. It is exactly this person Chopard is appealing to with its new collection – the fresh, fun, Happy Hearts. It distils the luxury Maison’s codes – hearts, dancing diamonds, ethical metals – and transforms them into entirely new proportions. Rather than occasion pieces, these designs are the ultimate in everyday luxury. The collection is based around a simple heart motif, either in ethical 18-ct rose or white gold and each design is set with either glossy, lipstickred carnelian; softly luminous mother of pearl, or C h o p a r d ’s signature diamonds; some of which skitter around the inside of the heart.
(Left) Happy Hearts Mother of Pearl Necklace 79264 | £1,340 (Right) Happy Hearts Necklace 70872 | £7,870
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The allure of this new line is its ability to reflect the personality of the woman who wears it. Delicately pretty, the necklaces and bracelets are designed to make just as much of an impact whether styled solo or stacked, while Chopard has cleverly made the decision to give you the option to buy the earrings separately meaning you can either create your own pairings or buy just one to add some luxe sparkle or a scarlet colour pop to a curated ear. The dimensions of these new designs make them the perfect way to bring luxury to the every day; whether that means wearing a suit and stilettos or cut-offs and linen.They may start at £1,120 but these pieces contain within them all the jewellery expertise gleaned from Chopard’s over 160 years of making exquisite watches and jewellery to the highest possible levels of craftmanship. It’s also a price tag that is perfectly designed to tempt women to add another piece to their collection. As if we needed an excuse.
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CHOPARD Happy Hearts Bracelet 79269 | £1,150
CHOPARD Happy Diamonds Earrings 67915 | £2,280
CHOPARD Happy Hearts Ring 79262 | £1,120
Chopard watches and jewellery are available online and at ROX Glasgow.
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BETTER THAN THE
REAL THING? Lab-grown diamonds have made headlines by billing themselves as the ethical alternative to mined stones. But are they as environmentally sound as their press releases would have you believe? Laura McCreddie-Doak is here to set things straight, so you can form your own opinion.
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B
illy Porter wore 64.5cts of them to perform at the Oscars in 2020, Lady Gaga has been known to tread the red carpet in them, and Emma Watson is also a fan. We’re talking about lab-grown diamonds – stones that are chemically and structurally real but, rather than being dug out of the ground they are grown in a lab. The PR machine surrounding these stones has been keen to emphasis the fact that, because these stones aren’t mined, they have none of the negative environmental or human impact of mined stones; something that appeals to a generation looking to invest in luxury items that don’t impact the planet or adversely effect people. However, as with the fashion industry, these green credentials aren’t as pristine as they at first seem.
WHAT ARE
LAB-GROWN STONES? Despite only recently having been adopted by the luxury jewellery industry, lab-grown stones aren’t a new thing. They have been around since the 1940s, though they gained prominence in 1954, when US multinational conglomerate General Electric (GE) produced the first synthetic diamond for use in the tech and manufacturing industries.
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However, because these were functional diamonds, all GE cared about was the stones having the same hardness and conductivity levels of mined stones, flawlessness was not a priority. It wasn’t until the 1970s that labs started to experiment with creating stones at adhered to the four cs – cut, clarity, colour, and carat –and it was only in the 1980s that they started producing stones that could be used in fine jewellery. It must be emphasised that these stones aren’t fake. Unlike cubic zirconia or mossanite, which look like diamonds but are chemically and structurally different, lab-grown stones are real, it’s just that the intense heat and pressure that forms them doesn’t happen naturally but is simulated in a lab. This is done in two ways – high pressure high temperature (HPHT) or chemical vapour deposition (CVD). They both star the same, with a thin slice of another manmade diamond, called the seed. Then, with the HPHT method the seed is placed among pure graphite carbon and exposed to extreme pressure – about 15 million pounds per square inch – and extreme heat, in this case around 1,500ºC. For CVD the seed is put in a chamber filled with gas that has been enriched with carbon. This is then heated, which forces the carbon atoms to stick to the seed; this build-up of atoms creates the diamond. These elevated quality of this new generation of lab-grown stones has allowed luxury jewellers to use these stones to create high-end pieces offering ethically minded customers a stone, which, they claim, doesn’t have the ethical baggage of mined stones. But the truth isn’t quite so clear cut. www.rox.co.uk
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DIGGING DEEPER You can’t deny that mined diamonds have had a bit of a rocky history PRwise. Many still associate the stones with dreadful labour and environmental practices that occurred in some African countries in the late 1980s and most of the 1990s. From 1989 to 2003, civil wars in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, and Sierra Leone were funded by the illegal trading of stones extracted from mines which were unregulated and used slave labour, which led to them being dubbed “blood diamonds”. It was this trade in illegal stones that led to the forming of the Kimberley Process in 2003, a multilateral trade certification programme that was set up to prevent conflict stones from entering the marketplace. It was the beginning of the diamond industry putting in place measures to ensure customers could buy jewellery safe in the knowledge that they had been mined safely and responsibly. Work that continues today, with the likes of De Beers, the world’s largest diamond miner, in 2019, launching Tracr a blockchain traceability scheme that allows diamonds to be traced along the supply 114
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chain from mine to market. It has also started, through the Natural Diamond Council (NDC), to communicate to the public how diamond mining can, if done responsibly and with the cooperation of the indigenous community, be a force for good. One such example is Botswana, where De Beers has mined diamonds in a 50/50 partnership with the government for over 50 years. This partnership has funded educational schemes, for both adults and children, helped build schools and hospitals, it has even benefitted conservation projects. In working with the local communities, De Beers has also ensured that when the mine closes, enough tertiary industries have been constructed that there won’t be any economic damage to the region; a strategy that is adopted wherever De Beers mine. The NDC also commissioned the Total Clarity Report in 2019. This report looked at the socio-economic and environmental impact of large-scale mining, it also compared the carbon emissions of mined stones to lab-grown ones. Because most of the labs that grow these stones are in countries that rely on coal or natural gases for energy, the report concluded that the carbon footprint of a cultured stone was three times that of a mined one. Using what the report
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termed “an average of estimates in the public domain,” it surmised that for every polished carat 160kg of CO2e was produced and that this figure for lab-grown stones was closer to 511kg per carat. Unsurprisingly, some sectors of the lab-grown industry hit back at the report. The likes of USbased Diamond Foundry, which boasts Leonardo DiCaprio as an investor, uses 100% hydropower and is the world’s first and only certified carbonneutral diamond producer in the world, said that the report was inaccurate because it chose to lump all cultured stone producers into one group. It also did not consider that labs could be moved to more clean-energy areas, or modify their practises to be more environmentally friendly. However, it did present an interesting conundrum – if you don’t know where your cultured stones are grown how can you be sure that their environmental impact is less that a mined stone? And couldn’t you also argue that it’s better to put money into a supporting a community by buying a mined diamond than into the pockets of a faceless laboratory? As with anything that hangs on an ethical premise, there is no easy answer. Are lab-grown diamonds better than the real thing? Well, that all depends on your definition of “better”, doesn’t it? www.rox.co.uk
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HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang £76,700 (74932), ROX Adore Dress Ring 2.58cts £7,900 (77778), ROX Adore Diamond Dress Ring £7,200 (77737), ROX Love Pink Sapphire & Diamond Halo Ring £7,295 (77966), Diamond Hoop Earrings 4.63cts £8,495 (74128), ROX Diamond Collar 7.00cts £12,950 (71490), ROX DNA Diamond Bangle 2.90cts £8,600 (77769), ROX Adore Diamond Bangle 3.36cts £7,800 (77840), ROX Diamond Cross Necklace 0.79cts £1,950 (77746). 118
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COLOUR SURGE Surge into this season with an explosion of diamonds, coloured stones and bejewelled timepieces that make a statement.
Stylist: Danielle Timperley
Photography: Ian Lim @milianeyes
Models: Leticia Vigna @IMG
Hair stylist: Florence Neilsen Make-up: Stacy Toner www.rox.co.uk
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DENIM DAYS Double up the cool factor with a headto-toe denim look and stacks of the finest diamonds. Hublot’s new timepieces in bright white adds even more of a hint of excess.
HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang £13,900 (77946), ROX Honour Diamond Tennis Bracelet 10.10cts £22,500 (59980), Diamond Tennis Bracelet 7.20cts £17,500 (77674), ROX Diamond Bracelet 8.30cts £12,950 (71173), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 5.00cts £10,500 (69146), ROX Honour Princess Cut Diamond Ring From £2,255 (75751), ROX Love Radiant Cut Diamond Halo Ring From £16,200 (77930), ROX Honour Emerald Cut Diamond Ring From £2,800 (75750) 120
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ROX Love Brilliant Diamond Ring 75773 | from £2,750
ROX Honour Diamond Ring 75751 | from £2,255
ROX Pear Diamond Ring 77606 | from £3,895
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ROX Love Radiant Halo Ring 77930 | from £16,200
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GLAM ROCK Embrace the neon trend this season just add wow factor diamonds and a glittering statement watch that will get everyone talking.
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ROX Love Diamond Earrings 1.12cts 77847 | £3,495
ROX Diamond Bracelet 8.30cts 71173 | £12,950
ROX Love Emerald Ring 77928 | from £3,150
ROX Honour Emerald Earrings 78588 | from £995
BULGARI Serpenti Scaglie Diamond 78960 | £90,000
ROX Princess Cut Tennis Bracelet 3.20cts 77774 | £6,500
ROX Honour Emerald Ring 3.00cts 78578 | £19,600
ROX Cosmic Drop Necklace 2.17cts 77611 | £6,500
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HUBLOT Big Bang Blue £10,200 (67865), ROX Love Sapphire Diamond Halo Ring from £3,870 (77967), ROX Adore Diamond Dress Ring 2.43cts £7,200 (77737), ROX Honour Emerald Cut DIamond Ring 3.00cts £19,600 (78578), ROX Diamond Dress Ring 1.47cts £4,495 (77512), ROX Diamond Rubover Bracelet 4.03cts £7,200 (78053), ROX Diamond Baguette Cut Tennis Bracelet 5.00cts £9,800 (77677), ROX Diamond Princess Cut Tennis Bracelet 3.20cts £6,500 (77774) 126
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BEST DRESSED Be more Melanie Griffith in Working Girl and power-up your wardrobe with powerful timepieces and stacks of delicate diamonds.
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ROX Love Radiant Halo Ring 3.01cts from £10,195 (76157), ROX DNA Diamond Bangle 2.90cts £8,600 (77769), ROX Love Diamond Bangle 4.11cts £9.800 (77698), ROX Adore Diamond Bangle 3.36cts £7,800 (77840), ROX Diamond Baguette Tennis Bracelet 5.00cts £9,800 (77677), ROX Honour Diamond Tennis Bracelet 10.39cts £22,500 (59980), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 5.00cts £10,500 (69146), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 4.00cts £7,200 (58823)
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MORE IS MORE Effortless excess is easy with stacks of the finest diamonds. Layer classic necklaces for a modern twist and if you're feeling brave, coloured stones paired with cocktail rings will break all jewellery codes.
ROX Diamond Necklace 0.84cts 77790 | £2,750
ROX Baguette Cut Tennis Bracelet 2.50cts 77676 | £6,500
ROX Cosmic Stud Earrings 0.80cts 72529 | £3,650
ROX Cascade Dress Ring 1.68cts 79643 | £7,500
ROX Love Diamond Bangle 2.00cts 71325 | £4,950
ROX Cascade Drop Necklace 0.72cts 71812 | £2,800
ROX Adore Diamond Dress Ring 1.83cts 77739 | £6,400
ROX DNA Diamond Bangle 77769 | £8,600
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TIME IS GOLDEN All that glisters sure is gold. Even the simplest looks can be elevated with a dress watch of timeless opulence.
Bulgari Serpenti Tubogas £12,300 (78879), ROX Love Diamond Drop Earrings 3.11cts £11,000 (77882), Honour Oval Cut Ring 3.00cts £20,500 (78577), Honour Brilliant Cut Ring 3.01cts From £2,920 (75761), ROX Love Radiant Halo Ring 3.15cts £49,000 (78586), ROX Adore Diamond Bangle 3.36cts £7,800 (77840), ROX Diamond Tennis Bracelet 2.00cts £4,600 (59977), ROX Love Diamond Bangle 2.00cts £4,950 (71325)
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THE LUXURY WATCH EDIT Here's what Alex Doak and Laura McCreddie-Doak reckon your wrist needs to be rocking, right now, dusk till dawn.
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ROGER DUBUIS Excalibur Spider Huracán ST Evo 2 Black SMC Carbon
HUBLOT Square Bang Unico King Gold
CHOPARD Alpine Eagle Flying Tourbillon
There seems to be something of a vehicular theme to this issue’s Luxury Watch Edit. Red Bull Racing, Ducati, and now Lamborghini, the unbridled supercar manufacturer just down the road from Ducati, in fact, whose partnership with Roger Dubuis – Switzerland’s own unhinged practitioner of all things motive and outrageous – continues to bear fruit. Framed by blackcarbon-coated titanium, the calibre structure is designed like a supercar engine with strut-bars forming a clear and visible visual signature. Rearside, the rotor spins as an alloy rim in miniature form. 79524 | £52,500
Do not adjust your sets… even if this bombshell from Hublot does in fact look like a TV set, in a good way. Since 1980, we’ve known the Swiss disruptor to project its mixed-media ‘fusion’ of precious metal and rubber via the titular ‘porthole’ motif; but here, we have that bolted bezel rendered in oblong form. Disrupting its own disruption, with typical chutzpah. And all the more desirable for it – especially when housing the in-house Unico stopwatch movement, whose columnwheel array conducts proceedings front-ofhouse, at ‘6 o’ clock’. 79150 | £35,600
The ‘St Moritz’ of the early Eighties was Chopard co-CEO, Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s breakthrough brainchild: a cocktail of disco-glitz bracelet, blended seamless with robust case construct, aimed squarely at the wintering Jetset. Now reduxed as ‘Alpine Eagle’, its sport-luxe vibe has been beefed up (rather like the Royal Oak’s Offshore or the Big Bang did for Audemars Piguet and Hublot, respectively) and proves haute horlogerie is fit the slopes, being spiked with one the trickiest moves a watchmaker can pull off: a ‘flying’ tourbillon, whirring atop a single bridge. 79206 | £96,200
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ZENITH Chronomaster Open El Primero Early-Noughties: Swiss mechanical watchmaking regains its mojo, postQuartz-Crisis, with sapphire-crystal display casebacks becoming a fixture in this new era of deliberate and proud distinction from disposable electronic fodder. Trust Zenith to go one further and introduce the ‘Open’ in 2003, proudly framing its historic ‘El Primero’ movement’s frantic, 5Hz ticking regulator dial-side, through not so much the Round Window as a kidney-shaped one. This year’s revival, in original tricolore configuration, is long overdue. 79187 | £17,800
TUDOR Black Bay Pro Fabric Strap
TAG HEUER Formula 1 X Red Bull Racing
BULGARI Aluminium Chronograph Ducati
The Black Bay singlehandedly rebooted the fortunes of Tudor in 2012 – a potent cocktail of retro throwbacks so beguiling as to detract from Tudor’s surprisingly ambitious moves into autonomous, chronometergrade movement manufacture. So praise be for the ‘Pro’, which in one fell swoop proves how those cherrypicked vintage details so beloved of the French Navy’s elite fragmen in the Sixties needn’t be all and end all: just £2,920 buys you mechanical precision, legit Swiss-madeness, full-on sub-aqua action, plus integrated ‘GMT’ 24hour hand… nonchalantly, almost. 79153 | £2,920
While Bulgari flirts with fellow Latin lothario, Ducati, TAG Heuer is enjoying a purple patch with Red Bull Racing’s F1 team – back where the Swiss sportsman excelled in the Sixties, as go-to watchmaker for the talent tinkering away in the pitlane, or indeed driving away from the pitlane. A pedigree masterminded by Heuer’s third-generation scion, Jack, which inspired TAG’s most accessible, successful collection in the Eighties, the Formula 1. Max Verstappen is leading the championship, so this handsome beast places you pole-position in the horological stakes. 78904 | £1,900
If not for the Italian racing red of the dial, petrolheads will surely thrill at the mere sight of the 10, 11 and 12 o’clock numerals here: a nod to the racy dashboards of Ducati motorbikes. Built since 1946 in Bologna while, over in Roma, fellow countryman Bulgari has ploughed its own furrow of equally high-performance jewellery, Ducati’s two-wheelers are the purest expression of high-octane passion. Apart from boyish excitement, the only other response to this automatic chronograph is surely, “what took the two Italians so long?” 79766 | £4,160
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CHOPARD Happy Sport Chrono
ZENITH Defy Midnight Sunset
GUCCI 25H MD38 Bracelet
This gorgeous timepiece combines the delightful sight of dancing diamonds with the practical addition of a chronograph, the only complication, bar a date, that you actually use. The polished 18-ct rose gold case, which is ethically sourced, is complemented by the rich matte blue of the leather strap; a colour picked out in the faceted sapphire set into the crown. It’s a wonderful mix of whimsy and usefulness. And diamonds of course, lots of diamonds. 79171 | £28,100
With a colour fade that any 1990s teenager will recognise as a cover of an Ibiza chillout album, this new version of the Zenith Defy is summer in steel and diamond form. The original Defy was a bold design from 1969 with an octagonal case and 14-sided bezel, which, through the years has been softened to become this sleek, 1970s adjacent, Elite-powered design that feels so right for now. 78844 | £9,800
With a name inspired by creative director Alessandro Michele’s favourite number and powered by Gucci’s first in-house movement, the 25H announced Gucci’s intent to be taken seriously on the watch front. It helps that it looks incredible too. It has the Seventies louche vibe so beloved of Michele, with the steel bracelet keeping the all-gold bezel and dial from tipping into ostentation. Style with crushed velvet and a cocktail. 77696 | £1,510
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TUDOR Black Bay S&G So many words are devoted to Tudor’s more masculine designs that people seem to forget it makes standout watches for women too. You could accuse it of doing a shrink and pink (making a man’s watch smaller, giving it a pink dial, and calling it a woman’s watch) but the downsized proportions actually work here. It transforms a 41mm sports watch into something altogether more elegant that effortlessly takes you from boardroom to bar. 79184 | £3,810
BULGARI Lucea Scaglie Steel
TAG HEUER Aquaracer Professional 300
HUBLOT Classic Fusion Orlinski
Before watches and clocks there were sundials, which is where Bulgari found inspiration for LVCEA, a collection where timekeeping’s past become entwinned with its present. Everything is a blend with this design. The name a mix of Italian and Latin for “light” – “luce” and “lux”; the design combines the traditional sundial inspired dial with a contemporary linked bracelet. It is all steel and sinuousness, a mass of contradictions just like the modern woman for whom it was designed. 79086 | £6,400
It may have diamonds but there is nothing precious about this watch – it is a proper diving watch with a unidirectional bezel, 300m water resistance, and a robust 36mm steel case. The ocean-blue dial has the Aquaracer’s signature wave pattern, with green SuperLuminova on the indices and hour hand, and contrasting blue on the minute and tip of the seconds hand. It’s a smart design that can be styled with any kind of suit, wet or otherwise. 76560 | £3,050
Richard Orlinski’s collaboration with Hublot hasn’t produced any off-the-wall designs but it has led to tactile, visually interesting timepieces that really require you to be hands on to appreciate the detail involved. The French sculptor’s trademark angles have been translated into a sculpted case, while the faceted dial refracts the light making it appear crystalline, as if hewn from ice. This is probably Hublot at its most restrained and most elegant. 76092 | £10,000
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ONE AND ONLY Edinburgh has Scotland’s first-ever monobrand Hublot boutique. And it’s all ROX’s doing. Words by Laura McCreddie-Doak.
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OX likes to be the first. No one had seen retailing like it when ROX opened the Thrill Room in the Argyll Arcade; it is a fine-jewellery retailer that has turned itself into a finejewellery brand, just as famous for their epic parties as it is for the store’s décor. And now ROX has brought the first-ever monobrand Hublot boutique outside of London to Scotland. Being ROX it didn’t slip the boutique quietly into a vacant space Multrees Walk. It pitched up in the most iconic building in the city – the Assembly Rooms; a monumental Georgian building on George Street that, somewhat appropriately, was built to entertain the rich. A move which cements ROX firmly within the fabric of Edinburgh’s architecture 10 years after it opened its first ROX store in the city. Aside from giving Scottish shoppers access to over 70 of Hublot’s notoriously desirable watches, opening a monobrand boutique offers a way to really step into the world of haute horlogerie. And Hublot’s is certainly a world you’d want
to step into. The boutique, which opened in September in typical ROX style with a party at which performed up-and-coming Glasgow jazz scenster Kitti (for more about the scene flick to page 37), is, in accordance with Hublot’s Art of Fusion philosophy a mash-up between typical luxury and the graffiti more commonly seen in Milne’s Court. There’s marble floors in tasteful shades of grey, sofas in muted tones, glass cases unbothered by fingerprints – the usual trappings of high-end retail. However, on other walls are colour bursts of graffiti-esque images of watches, surreal collages of images that are both at odds with the refined palette and yet seem to complement it; illustrating in interior design form that Hublot may be an haute horlogerie company, with all the skill and technical prowess those two words connote, but it also knows how to have fun with, and destabilise, our perceptions of a Swiss luxury watch brand. Rather like ROX did 10 years ago when opened its doors and subverted Edinburgh’s idea of luxury retail for good. www.rox.co.uk
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TAG, IT'S IT Like the chronograph mechanisms they pioneered, the Heuer family pressed ‘start’ on an illustrious chain of horological events in 1860 currently seeing TAG Heuer at the vanguard of personal smart-tech, as well as 21st-century micro-mechanics. Words by Alex Doak.
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here won’t be many unaware of the name TAG Heuer – although a fair few still get nervous pronouncing it (for the record: ‘hoy-er’). Switzerland’s top sporting watch brand, with a stellar cast adorning its billboards from Red Bull Racing to Ryan Gosling, boasts plenty of clout behind the sponsorships though. Edouard Heuer’s workshop wasted no time establishing itself as a forefather of the chronograph alongside Longines and Breitling – all three in the business of satisfying the demands of everfaster transport – by the Sixties, finding itself uniformly status-symbolic
among the era’s dangerous, glamorous Formula 1 circuit. The ‘TAG’ prefix came in the Eighties, when one of McLaren’s major shareholders, Techniques d’Avant Garde bought Heuer and truly set its modern phase on the way, with firm focus on everyday reliability and great value for money. A suite of up-to-the-minute calibres engineered in-house ensures future-proof relevance in the mechanical sector; the Connected now seems to have established leading status as de facto premium smartwatch; all the while, the petrol-soaked brand upholding prowess in F1’s pitlanes as Red Bull Racing’s choice of timekeeper.
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1887
1860
At age 20, Edouard Heuer opens his watchmaking shop by the family farm in Saint-Imier, nestled deep into the creases of the Jura mountains, starting out with pocket watches cased in silver.
1869
Edouard changes the course of watchmaking with his first patent: a crown-operated, keyless winding system. It replaced the separate key that had been required to wind a watch, and proved popular – especially among more absent-minded gents on the move.
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Heuer & Cie patents its greatest and most enduring innovation: the ‘oscillating pinion’. This improvement allowed the chronograph to start and stop instantly with the use of a pushbutton. The most common (therefore, in engineering terms, the most cost-effective, elegant, reliable) Swiss chronograph movement, ETA's Valjoux 7750 still hinges on the oscillating pinion, virtually unchanged since and testament to Heuer’s historical import.
1911
As the golden age of automobile and air travel took hold, Heuer designed a rugged instrument to be installed on the dashboards of the new generation of vehicles. The ‘Time of Trip’ was a precision chronograph, indicating the time of day on the main dial, while two hands on a smaller dial recorded the duration of a journey.
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1963
1916
Disciplines as varied as sports timing, industrial production and artillery calculations demanded more precise stopwatches. Charles-Auguste Heuer, the son of Edouard Heuer, was now head of the company, and he led a project to take stopwatches from 1/5 second to displays of 1/100 second, in the Mikrograph.
1961
Since 1933, the family firm's 'Autavia' dash clock had combined the words ‘automobile’ and ‘aviation’ as a byword for cockpit precision, rivalling even Breitling’s own line in onboard instrumentation. Come the autumn of 1961, fourth-generation Jack Heuer recalls in his memoirs, The Times of My Life, ‘Autavia’ was revived as an all-new wristworn chronograph, fitted with a turning bezel for the very first time, “with divisions of 1/100th of a minute useful for time study purposes.”
Jack lends the organisers of Florida’s famed 12-Hours endurance race a dozen Heuer pocket chronographs with split-second displays, recalling with nostalgic brio: “What impressed me most at Sebring was the mix of professional roadracing pilots, amateur gentlemen drivers and spectators...” Upshot: 1963’s ‘Carrera’, its clean elegance, rugged construction and at-a-glance legibility making it the first sports chrono’ specifically designed for the era’s style-conscious driver. It was named – just as Porsche did with its 911 – after Mexico’s notorious open-road endurance race, Carrera Panamericana. “| loved not only its sexy sound but also its multiple meanings, which include road, race, course and career. All very much Heuer territory!” (It only took 50-odd years for TAG and Porsche to finally join the dots and hook up as official roadgoing brand partners.)
1962
Despite the impressions you may get from Omega, the first Swiss watchmaker in space was Heuer. NASA astronaut John Glenn strapped a large ref. 2915A stopwatch around the outside of his suit to time his 1962 Mercury-Atlas 6 flight, orbiting Earth three times in Friendship 7 before splashing down. Something TAG Heuer itself was oblivious to, until very recently, thanks to the picture here.
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1971
Heuer’s Electronics Division developed the Centigraph, a timing system used by Ferrari’s F1 team to keep track of multiple drivers’ progress to a thousandth of a second (diehard brand hero, Jean Campiche pictured here in 1979 at the Monaco GP), stats printed out on the spot. Other teams lined up, while, in the same year, Steve McQueen cements icon status for Calibre 11’s first housing – the square-cased ‘Monaco’ – by wearing one in cult racing film, Le Mans, cobalt dial and piercing eyes in perfect synchrony.
1969
Secretive ‘Project 99’ finally comes to fruition, in the same year as Zenith’s ‘El Primero’: both very different takes on a lengthy quest to develop the world’s first self-winding chronograph. Zenith and TAG Heuer are now LVMH Group stablemates, ironically enough, but the race was fierce at the time. Heuer – along with Breitling, each agreeing to share the IP for their Calibre 11 / Chrono-Matic – took the ‘modular’ route, hybridising Depraz’ stopwatch mech’ with Büren’s base mechanics, whose ‘micro’ winding rotor was embedded, keeping things slim and wearable.
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1999
France’s biggest luxury-goods group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton acquires TAG Heuer. Jack Heuer, who had been forced to sell the family business in 1982, returns in 2001, as the company’s Honorary Chairman.
1986
Born in the Eighties as a ‘gateway drug’ into the world of Swiss watchmaking, capitalising on Heuer’s fertile Ferrari partnership throughout the Seventies and 1983’s Swatch-watch sensation among teenyboppers, the plastic-fantastic Formula 1 soon matured into a solid-metal luxury proposition in its own right. Under McLaren’s holding company Techniques d’Avant Garde (‘TAG’), it was the first big hit for Heuer’s new incarnation.
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2009
The reinstatement of TAG Heuer as a horological force to be reckoned with kicks off in earnest with Calibre 1887: a Euro-only license of an existing Seiko design, made chez TAG, only nipped and tucked to exacting Swiss standards. Vertical-clutch chronograph mechanism, naturally, plus a columnwheel ‘processor’ to ensure crisp start, stop, reset operation.
2004
TAG Heuer stuns the crowds at Baselworld by unveiling its Monaco V4. Ambitious is an understatement: for a start, its four winding barrels were arranged at an angle, like the cylinders of a V8 engine. On top of that, the gear wheels of its ‘transmission’ were replaced by toothed rubber belts, each thinner than a human hair.
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2013
The ribbon’s cut on a purpose built factory in Chevenez, right on the French border: short of casing-up and QC, a complete and cutting-edge manufacture for the new Calibre 1887, plus the incoming, ground-up ’CH80’…
2015
Launched in the same year as Apple’s Watch, what started as a kneejerk precaution against the tech giant stealing a huge chunk of Switzerland’s entry-level market – just as the Far East did in the Seventies with quartz tech – actually cemented TAG Heuer from the get-go as one of the most complete ‘smartwatch’ makers out there. Powered by bespoke electronics and software from Android and Intel, mediated by Google Wear OS.
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2016
The CH80 chronograph of 2014 that never was, thanks to a shakeup at the hands of industry maven Jean-Claude Biver, finally finds its identity as ‘Heuer02’ – with Calibre 1887 renamed as ‘Heuer01’ in parallel. Both manufactured in parallel at the Chevenez facility, distinguished by power reserve and thickness (longer and thinner in Heuer02’s case, making it the premium option).
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2019
Deep in the postively-pressurised skunkworks of TAG Heuer’s La Chaux-de-Fonds HQ, carbon nanotube technology comes to bear (again, positively) on the Achilles heel of a watch’s mechanics: the delicate balance spring, ticking inside the new core-catalogue Autavia. Like silicon, it’s antimagnetic and unwaveringly laser-etched from a wafer – but, unlike brittle silicon, tough as old boots.
WHATEVER NEXT?
2017
The chronograph that greenlit Heuer’s post-war purple patch, Autavia, is rebooted at the public’s behest, voting on a design famously endorsed by F1 racer Jochen Rindt. The revival forms the first home to Heuer02.
2022
LVMH scion Frederic Arnault really hits his stride as youthful CEO, with a breathless flurry of novelties, taking the three-year-dormant Watches & Wonders trade show by storm, then running with the hype: lab-grown diamond crowns on tourbillon chronographs, a thousandmetre ‘Superdiver’ kitted out with chronometer mech from Tudor, and NFT artwork displayed on OLED dials connected to your crypto wallet.
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DISCO TECH How Switzerland got its Seventies groove back, in luxury-watch form. Words by Alex Doak.
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ccording to so-called tastemakers, it was the decade that style forgot. But clearly the watchmakers dotting the remote valleys of the Swiss Jura missed that particular memo. The Seventies was a challenging decade on many fronts, whether you sold petrol or ran a fashion boutique. Trad’ mechanical timekeepers can be added to that list too, given the devastating toll of 60,000 jobs and 1,300 companies by 1980, entirely at the hands of moreaffordable Far Eastern quartz electronics – first looming onto wrists in 1969 in the guise of Seiko’s Astron (admittedly not so cheap from the outset, launch-price matching that of a Toyota Corolla). Just as ‘the Sixties’ ran from 1964 into 1972 or thereabouts, the Seventies watchmaking revolution started in 1969. Only, it was a revolution with many faces, both technical and design wise. For a start, before quartz had even got its hooks into the dominant mechanical market, 1969 witnessed
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the two-pronged birth of a long-awaited form of wristwatch: the self-winding chronograph, led by Zenith’s ‘El Primero’. Unlike Heuer/Breitling’s piggybacked stopwatch mechanism, it fully integrated its internal mechanics, and even threw in high-frequency precision for good measure (a 5 Hertz ‘tick’ over 4). So how, to the backdrop of quartz ruination, global economic crises fuelled (or not, as the case may be) by oil shortages, as well as tanked-out R&D departments, did the Seventies see such an exuberance of creativity? Not only that, but lasting creations, more resilient than the flare-up of flares we’re seeing in high-street windows this season. The original disruptor was Audemars Piguet’s Royal Oak of course, which established the codes of the newfangled ‘luxurious steel sports watch’ in one fell, octagonal swoop. Patek’s Nautilus followed, plus IWC’s Ingenieur SL (all three penned by horological starchitect Gérald Genta). But what ensued, and what we’re celebrating here, is the panoply
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ZENITH Defy Skyline 78839 | £7,100
of subversive and arguably more daring supporting acts. In fact, three years prior to the mighty Oak (“the costliest stainless steel watch in the world”, go figure) aforementioned Zenith beat everyone to the punch. At the start of 1969 its revolutionary and immortal El Primero found a home first in the 12-sided curveball of horological geometry, ‘Defy’. A name tentatively revived in 2020, but now with the encouragement of rampant commercial success to brave stretching back to dodecagonal form. As the ‘Defy Skyline’, not only does its 5Hz powertrain finally, successfully transpose itself into time-only guise this year – the calibre ’3620’ – but now encroaches onto that ‘70s Riviera scene that Monsieur Genta was tasked with satisfying, complete with star motif ‘stippling’ on the blue dial, integrated bracelet… all in all, a brooding RayBan-ned eye for ‘sporddy luxe’. Zenith watches are available online and at ROX Glasgow. 150
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BAUME ET MERCIER Riviera 77902 | £2,350
Then along came one of Switzerland’s oldest blue bloods, Baume & Mercier, with its aptly named ‘Riviera’. Created in 1973, just one year after Genta ripped up the rulebooks with integrated bracelets, exposed bezel screws and bolshy gold-cased pricetags, B&M - like Zenith - went four better than AP with twelve sides of steel case. Riviera returns this year to revive that boulevardier flush of watchmaking, before quartz temporarily buried things. It still features the distinctive bezel and streamlined steel case that have brought it such renown. But rather than a slavish, rheumy-eyed revival, the fifth generation of this legendary watch is an authentic renewal. Riviera moors-up at the marina to showcase B&M’s in-house Baumatic calibre, since now reserved for the dressier Clifton collection. You don’t even need to flip it rearside: the movement shimmers through an azure sapphire-crystal dial.
A micro-mechanical soup of futureproof and life-proof ‘marginal gains’, Baumatic has been engineered by Richemont Group’s ValFleurier skunkworks to offer five-year service intervals, super-alloy components resistant to all our devices’ magnetism, plus five full days of power reserve and COSCcertified ‘chronometer’ precision. All for a hair over three grand. If this is the legacy of the “decade that taste forgot” then be grateful Switzerland’s watchmakers remembered it. Mercifully, what they also recall is how watch design tipped from ‘lounge lizard’ to ‘disco glitz’ come the Eighties, despite the bleak state of their ledgers. Chief protagonists being a Who’s Who? of watchmakers still in the business of kitting out yachties and hedgies alike. Baume et Mercier watches are available online.
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Under the Scheufele family, Chopard became a darling of the Euro jetset – daughter Caroline makes the red carpets of Cannes sparkle annually, adorning every starlet in Chopard jewellery. It was her 22-year-old brother Karl-Friedrich’s debut at the helm of the watchmaking division in 1980 that revealed Chopard’s potential as the Dapper Dan of watchmaking we now know. (Remember, just four years prior, the dainty Happy Diamonds was pitched to men!) His masterstroke coincided with Cartier and Piaget’s other silky-smooth darlings of Wall Street and the Alps alike (Santos, Polo). The Chopard ‘St Moritz’ was a heady cocktail of bracelet blended with outré case construct, targeted presciently at the wintering Jetset. Recently reduxed as ‘Alpine Eagle’, the St Moritz reboot is now spiked with one the trickiest moves a watchmaker can pull off, a ‘flying’ tourbillon, as well as time-only and chronograph stalwarts, all in-house made. The bracelet has been beefed up, along with the rugged case, but leather straps work equally well – as this season’s drop proves, just in time for that switch from salopettes to double pleats. Chopard watches are available online and at ROX Glasgow. 152
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HUBLOT Classic Fusion 78859 | £23,400
The same year Chopard’s St Moritz sashayed onto the scene, another plucky, geometric tyro did too – one that persists thanks to its eponymous ‘porthole’ or ‘Hublot’ bezel array. Contrary to what you might think, it wasn’t the titular case construct that posed the biggest challenge. It was Carlo Crocco’s decision in 1980 to fit his ‘Hublots’ with the first-ever truly natural rubber strap in Switzerland’s history. In the late 1970s there was no one who knew how to work rubber to luxury watchmaking’s standards, so Crocco looked to tyre producers to create the exact mix of rubber, 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 rubber. The fact that we now see rubber so frequently throughout watches and jewellery – in rebellious ‘fusion’ with bling-bling gold – can be credited entirely to Crocco. Groove on, people. Hublot watches are available online and at ROX Glasgow, Edinburgh, Newcastle & Liverpool. www.rox.co.uk
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How Tudor’s Pelagos sets Rolex’s plucky stablemate apart as every man’s watch to dive for. Words by Alex Doak. A watch is the last thing I put on when I am getting dressed for the day and it has to match my look,” revealed a certain David Beckham, making a surprise appearance at the July launch of Tudor’s Ranger watch, in east London’s Tobacco Dock (see box, overleaf). “Pelagos is my favourite watch whether I am going to the gym, doing the school run or a date night,” he disclosed, seemingly contrary to the subject of the gathering. "My Pelagos works with everything.” As a self-confessed watch lover (and, yes, official Tudor ambassador) the legendary exEngland right winger can be trusted on this. And he has a point: the Pelagos really is – like the best international footballers – your go-to all-rounder. Now even more versatile, thanks to a new 39mmdiameter model, which straddles both sexes and all sleeve lengths with even less effort. The Heritage Black Bay has been the blueeyed posterboy for Tudor’s latter-day renaissance, since stepping from the shadow of the Rolex mothership and establishing full autonomy, inhouse movement and all. But what if you want something boxfresh and future-facing, when all of the BB’s design cues are drawn from a back catalogue of Tudor diving watches going by the name of ‘Submariner’? Sound familiar? Of course it does. Switzerland’s modern-era genius Hans Wilsdorf founded his Tudor label in 1946, forty years after launching Rolex in London. Named after the colourful English historical period (Wilsdorf was a self-confessed Anglophile) Tudor was built on the promise of, “a watch that our agents could sell at a more modest price, that would attain the standards of dependability for which Rolex is famous.” By the mid-Fifties, he had launched in
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parallel to Rolex’s immortal, James Bond-endorsed Submariner the Tudor equivalent, which was immediately snapped up by the era’s pioneering SCUBA hobbyists and elite naval frogmen. Casedup in Rolex’s signature watertight ‘Oyster’ case with screwed-down crown, yet fitted with cheaper, out-sourced mechanics, the Tudor Sub’ was realistically affordable kit for Marine Nationale Française divers until 1981. But as gorgeous as 2012’s Black Bay reboot is, and continues to be in all its restless iterations, it is ultimately a tribute act. A Now That’s What I Call A Tudor Submariner greatest-hits mix of retro details, such as the famous ‘snowflake’ hours hand of 1969, the oversize crown, the ‘Pepsi’ bezel of the new GMT. The Pelagos on the other hand, launched quietly in the same year, was designed on a blank sheet of paper with a simple brief: make the perfect modern diving watch. Much like the Submariner back in 1953, in fact. Nothing was overlooked and everything is just-so. Apart from 2016’s left-hand-crown version and the switch from an ETA movement to Tudor’s own top-flight MT5612 calibre a year before that, little has been tweaked since 2012. Even when Marine Nationale was invited to spec-up a new version for its elite frogmen in 2021, all that changed was a monobloc case that integrated its fixed strap attachments – an ingenuity that lent its name, ‘FXD’. Its potent cocktail of saltwater qualifications starts with the titanium case – a super-tough metal that’s incredibly tricky to engineer to diving-watch tolerances, yet lightweight, with a grey sheen that complements a two-piece suit as well as a wet one. Then there’s the use of scratchproof ceramic for the prominent surface of the rotating timing bezel,
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TUDOR Pelagos Titanium Bracelet 78288 | £3,090
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meaning glances against coral won’t scuff things up. Not only that, but Tudor’s casemaking facility has managed to machine and seal up all those titanium components to a water resistance rating of 500 metres. Far beyond the reach of the finest SCUBA divers, but ‘good to know’ and hugely reassuring at that. It’s as if Tudor has been building up to the Pelagos ever since 1954’s Submariner. Yet, as future-forward as its physical make-up may be, what’s charming is the one concession to its genetic make-up: that snowflake hours hand from 1969. Meaning it sits alongside the Black Bay collection not as the all-mod-cons show-off, but rather Tudor’s more business-like offshoot. “The Pelagos has been called by many the best modern dive watch, full stop, and I’m not inclined to disagree,” says mad-keen SCUBA diver, freediver and diving-watch authority, Jason Heaton. “The minimalism is born out of pure, stripped-down utility, saved from brutal sterility by the mesmerising cerulean dial and ceramic of the Blue version. “And then there is the clasp,” Heaton continues, “which is perhaps the Pelagos’s pièce de résistance: micro-adjustment notches allow for fine-tuning while the floating section expands to accommodate a thick wetsuit and contracts to take up slack as the suit compresses under 156
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water pressure.” The most impressive feature, however? The pricetag. All of the above – Rolex pedigree, military heritage, future-proof engineering, inhouse precision mechanics and super-smooth styling – is yours from £3,090. Even if you harbour an abject fear of open water, the great thing about a diving watch is you can ‘throw on and forget’, safe in the knowledge that a spontaneous dip in the pool or unexpected cloudburst may mess up your hair, but certainly not the delicate Swiss mechanics ticking on your wrist. The luminous dial markings are handy on your 4am bathroom visit, and you know its chunky case will survive a knock or two, whether you’re clambering back aboard a RIB or assembling an IKEA flatpack. Bottom line: dressed as dashingly as it is, the Tudor Pelagos is fish, fowl, or whatever else you want it to be. Suddenly, Becks’ sartorial decisions on date-nights with Posh don’t seem quite as questionable, right?
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RANGER, ROVER It was the 70th anniversary of the British North Greenland Expedition in July; a two-year exploration supported by both Queen Elizabeth II and Winston Churchill to document, with all the stiff upper lips its 30 serving team members could muster, everything from the geology and seismology, to physiology and terrain of the ice cap in North Greenland. A launch event precisely seven decades to the day in East London, over the river from the expedition’s departure point of Deptford, unveiled Tudor’s new version of the ultra-utilitarian ‘Ranger’ tool watch – a land-born equivalent to the brand’s Pelagos waterbaby, if you like. The Ranger wasn’t on board the Norwegian sealer Tottan in 1952 – the watches the men took were Oyster Princes, Tudor’s first water-resistant automatic, two years before its adaptation of Rolex’s Submariner (now trickled down as Black Bay, and Pelagos). It wasn’t till the Sixties that Tudor made the Ranger per se its own, marching stoically onward till 1988. And now back with all the original grit intact, plus an astonishingly good-value pricetag (£2,170) given what’s in the bag: Tudor’s in-house MT5402 movement, 70 hours power reserve and COSC-certified chronometer precision. If it was good enough for military men 70 years back in –50ºC conditions, it’s more than suitable for nigh-on anything now.
TUDOR Ranger 79702 | £2,420
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LA BELLA OROLOGERIA Enzo Ferrari described Italy’s spectacular Mille Miglia road rally as "the most beautiful race in the world" – and doesn't Chopard know it, riding shotgun these past thirtyfive years… literally, in the case of the watchmaker’s petrolhead co-president. Words by Alex Doak.
F
or the 35th consecutive year in June, Chopard proudly strapped in as world sponsor and official timekeeper to the 40th edition of the historic 1000 (or ‘Mille’) Miglia. It’s not just brand hoardings or specialedition chronographs, though: the Swiss watchmaker follows through with brio, thanks to co-president Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and his 30-something garage of high-octane classics. He joined the field for the 34th time this summer, behind the wheel of the family’s 1955 gull-wing Mercedes Benz 300 SL, fondly familiar to the crowds and participants along the thousand-mile route, thanks to its strawberry-red paintwork. “This was the very car in which I took part in my first ever 1000 Miglia back in 1989, accompanied by the motorsport legend, and great friend, Jacky Ickx,” notes Monsieur Scheufele. “We have since driven the route together many more times and, while I always feel a certain level of apprehension before the start of every 1000 Miglia, being beside a six-times Le Mans winner whose Formula One career saw him take to the podium 25 times always boosts my confidence.”
His start-line jitters are to be forgiven. Despite the massive expansion of Italy’s road network over the past 95 years, the route of the 1000 Miglia has remained remarkably close to that of the original course from Brescia to Rome and back, potholes, brick walls and all. After the starting flag dropped at 1.30pm on Wednesday 15th June, over 400 cars headed off from the historic start ramp on Brescia’s Viale Venezia in one-minute intervals, as tradition dictates. Well into dusk, the city’s ancient, labyrinthine walls echo with the unmuffled roar of four, six and eightcylinder engines. Initially, contestants head towards Lake Garda, passing through the waterside towns of Salo and Sirmione and on to the first overnight stop in Cervia-Milano Marittima – a total run of more than 300km that, for the drivers of older cars, will mean at least six hours on the road. There really is nothing like the Mille Miglia. While the route still threads together the same spectacular scenery of Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, as a three-day ‘regularity’ rally the competitiveness is still rife. But things are a little more sedate compared
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to the founding event, kickstarted by the Brescia Automobile Club in 1927. For good reason, given a horrific accident in 1957, which put paid to full-bore road-racing in Italy. Just two years after Stirling Moss took the fight to the continentals, setting the course record at 10 hours (an average 97mph, on rural roads, nonstop), the passion and crowds were higher than ever. Less than 40 miles from the finish in Brescia, the 11th Marquess of Portago, Alfonso de Portago’s front tyre exploded. He hit a telephone pole and volleyed over a brook, hitting several spectators. His Ferrari then bounced back on the road, hitting more spectators. Besides de Portago, and his navigator Edmund Gunner Nelson, ten spectators – among them five children – lost their lives. Reinstated in 1977 on the 1000 Miglia’s 50th anniversary, only period-correct sports cars can now enter. Given the sheer, collective pricelessnes of all this vintage metal, you’d think this would naturally (sensibly?) handicap the pace. But, to the delight of car-crazy Italians who continue to line the route, the cavalcade of mid-century Astons, Alfas, Bentleys, Bugattis, Ferraris and Porsches are driven hard. They’re given license to speed, to overrev, to overtake, the Carabinieri waving you through red lights with gusto. Chopard has been synonymous with this extraordinary event since 1988, making it the watch-world’s longest-running ‘car-llaboration’, and one of the most potent in terms of catalogue as well as PR. Every year, each of M. Scheufele’s fellow competitors receives a special-edition Chopard chronograph in their race pack, directly informing the publically available Mille Miglia watch, now a core-catalogue collection in its own right. These chronographs – and occasionally timeonlys – are retro-styled in accordance with the pre-’57 vehicle criteria, designed in a manner that’s so sumptuously sensitive to this golden age of motoring, you can practically smell the Connolly leather upholstery and leaky oil. But don’t be fooled: under the bonnet, things are kept ticking over, unwaveringly, thanks to mechanics wrought in-house by Chopard’s ‘Fleurier Ébauches’ imprint: fine-tuned to ‘chronometer’ levels of precision, sticking resolutely within –4 and +6 seconds a day. Even if this year’s 404 participating cars eventually pack up, you can be sure their owners’ new Chopards will be up and running for the foreseeable. Chopard watches are available online and at ROX Glasgow. 160
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THE FIRST FIVE Before Chopard nailed the string-back-gloved DNA of its annual 1000 Miglia chronograph – minting a collection of watches that may as well be lubricated by tiny drops of Castrol GTX – privileged participants were kitted out with rather more esoteric, but no less rakish race accoutrements.
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Two new series of Chopard's 1000 Miglia chronograph collection launch this year, in tribute to the race's 40th year: an all-steel iteration in a run of 1,000 timepieces, plus a second interpretation featuring ethical 18-carat rose gold adorning the crown, pushers and bezel, produced in a 250-piece edition. With a dial in Italy's racing colours of grey and blue, a calfskin strap is perforated to reveal the underlying blue of its Dunlop-tyre inner tread.
CHOPARD Mille Miglia GTS 79250 | £6,680
CHOPARD Mille Miglia 2022 Race Edition 79653 | £10,300
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HUBLOT Big Bang Integrated Sky Blue Ceramic 79137 | £19,900 162
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WATCH OUT! Discover the standout timepieces for the new season. From sports luxe superstars to classic designs and boundary pushing models, we reveal the must have watches for this year.
Stylist: Danielle Timperley
Photography: Ian Lim @milianeyes
Models: Mark Ewen @Colours Hair stylist: Florence Neilsen Make-up: Stacy Toner
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HUBLOT Big Bang Unico Sapphire 74935 | £70,000
HUBLOT Big Bang Integral Indigo 79138 | £19,900
JACOB & CO. Palatial 78672 | £7,750
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TAG HEUER Aquaracer Professional 79901 | £2,900
ZENITH Defy Extreme 76547 | £15,300
CHOPARD Alpine Eagle Chrono Blue 79241 | £16,500
HUBLOT Hublot Spirit of Big Bang 76905 | £19,100
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HUBLOT Big Bang Unico Titanium 76880 | £17,300
BOLD AND BLUE Sporty and elegant. Create a splash with a blue sports watch.
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JACOB & CO. Epic X Chrono 78906 | £27,500
A MODERN ICON Unapologetically bathed in vibrant orange. Who says a luxury chronograph needs to come in a predicable palette?
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HUBLOT Big Bang Unico Golf Orange Carbon 78851 | £26,900
ROGER DUBUIS Excalibur Spider Huracán 79524 | £52,500
TAG HEUER Aquaracer Professional 300 79126 | £2,800
HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang Tourbillon 79317 | £153,000
TAG HEUER Monaco Gulf Special Edition 79128 | £6,150
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TUDOR Black Bay Ceramic 76817 | £3,840
HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang Meca-10 74790 | £22,600
ROGER DUBUIS Excalibur Spider Huracán 75727 | £43,000
ZENITH Defy Extreme 76546 | £15,300
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BULGARI Octo Finissimo Chronograph 76465 | £15,400
HUBLOT Classic Fusion Chronograph 74461 | £9,800
TAG HEUER Carrera Chronograph 79746 | £3,950
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HUBLOT Big Bang Ceramic 78796 | £13,300
VISIBLE INVISIBILITY A fusion of the visible and invisible. No special effects required.
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ROX MAGAZINE HUBLOT Big Bang Unico Red Magic 76532 | £23,400
RED HAUTE Discover the boldest watches in the hottest hues. 170
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TAG Heuer Formula 1 Steel 79979 | £1,550
JACOB & CO. Epic X Racing Watch 76145 | £19,800
HUBLOT Spirit of Big Bang Red Magic 79219 | £28,700
ROGER DUBUIS Excalibur Spider Pirelli 77881 | £66,000
ZENITH Defy Extreme Carbon 78846 | £21,100
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HUBLOT Big Bang Integrated 78853 | £40,900 TUDOR Black Bay Chrono 76537 | £4,220
ZENITH Defy Skyline 78839 | £7,100
CHOPARD Alpine Eagle Large 75670 | £12,100
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HUBLOT Big Bang Integrated Titanium 74782 | £18,200
TAG HEUER Carrera 77797 | £2,500
ZENITH Defy Skyline 78841 | £7,100
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WATCH JOURNAL
Hublot Big Bang Integrated Grey Ceramic 76276 | £19,900
BIG HITTERS The integrated bracelet is back. From timeless stainless steel collectibles to the latest ceramic novelties.
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DO RANGE ROVERS
DREAM
OF ELECTRIC JEEPS? Luxury car brands aren't immune to the electric revolution, reports Chris Chilton – they're just in wildly different time zones when it comes to the switch-over.
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lectric cars might give the planet a breather, but they’re giving luxury and high-performance car makers headaches right now. The challenge is to meet the UK government and others’ ban of new petrol and diesel cars by 2030 and bottle their brands’ magic with an all-new formula that ditches pistons for plugs; unleaded for lithium-ion. Manufacturers that play purely in the luxury space, such as Bentley, Rolls-Royce and Range Rover, are better placed. For them, silence, refinement and effortless speed is as deeply embedded in the DNA as Wilton carpets and walnut trim, so it’s a happy coincidence that electric powertrains operate near-silently and with reduced vibration, and serve up generous performance instantly, smoothly, and in one neverending surge uninterrupted by anything so uncouth
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as a gear change. An added bonus is space-efficiency, because e-motors are smaller than engines and attach simply to axles rather than taking space up under bonnets, with the large batteries that feed them hung low beneath the floor. That liberates interior designers to create the full VIP lounge-on-wheels effect, plus the titans of industry/Hollywood/social media who climb from these expansive rear seats can align their brands with the zero-emissions zeitgeist. Winwin-win. The first pure-electric Rolls-Royce production car – the Spectre – arrives next year, Bentley’s as yet unknown contender is due in 2025, while Land Rover will launch a pure electric version of the new Range Rover sometime between. Premium high-performance makers such as Lamborghini, Ferrari and Porsche face a rockier
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road, because excitement (for occupants and onlookers) and driver interaction top their brand-attribute trees. The artistry of internal combustion is key, the intricacies polished over decades with myriad components spinning in perfectly balanced harmony much like a giant watch mechanism. Electric motors are like digital wristwatches in comparison – reliable, efficient, but mass-manufactured and characterless. The latter point is most crucial. The best internal-combustion engines are like fireworks you can use time and again, with performance that builds gently if palpably as you light the fuse, then soaring in a blur of speed and visceral noise when things get moving. Gear changes punctuate the drama, often accompanied by pops and mechanical machinations to make your hair stand on end. Power delivery can be so precise that better drivers balance squeezing the throttle with making the rear tyres slide, a knife-edge dance that’s possibly the best sensation on four wheels. Electric motors often deliver outrageous slugs of performance – EV hypercars such as the Lotus Evija and Rimac Nevera hover around 2,000bhp, easily double most of today’s petrolpowered alternatives – but the motors that power them are blunter instruments. The rousing soundtrack of performance is replaced by increasing wind noise, perhaps a futuristic whizz, the punctuation of gear changes is missing, and power delivery lacks precision finesse. To these negatives we must add the hulking elephant in the room: weight, the enemy of nimble handling, although the 500kg or so extra kilos EVs do carry is in the best place: namely, low down and between the front and rear wheels. Lamborghini is yet to name a date, Ferrari has set a firm 2025, while Porsche already finds itself straddling these two worlds, pleasing late adopters with resolutely old school flat-six engines, and developing emissions-free synthetic fuels with the reasoning that, “it’s not the engine, it’s what you put in it that’s the problem”. Yet early adopters are already cruising around in the pure electric Porsche Taycan sports saloon. And happily, the Taycan is an exceptional car
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Yes, the bite under the bonnet might be AWOL, but it’s incredible how this very alien Porsche faithfully replicates the way other Stuttgart specials make you feel, from the low-slung seating position (not easy with the battery underneath) and the precision of its pedals, to the delectable steering and how it carves through corners, flat-as-a-spirit-level. The Taycan is very much an EV for petrolheads, so no wonder it outsold the 911 last year. There’s more good news, because the UK’s switch to EVs isn’t quite so absolute as it first appears, with a getout-of-jail card for hybrids to 2035. Despite conjuring up images of the Toyota Prius, high-performance car makers have long shown that hybrids can actually elevate petrol performance to another dimension, with extra power
"They could’ve held out as last-gallon fantasies, but both are betting highperformance drivers are ready for electrification." and instant surge filling any pauses left by internal combustion. The result is endless performance and the ability to coast through town on nothing but electricity, even if real-world fuel efficiency remains nothing special. Despite this reprieve, others such as Lotus and (Renault halo brand) Alpine
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are betting all on pure-electric models well ahead of schedule. Both brands are synonymous with low weight, modest performance and sublime handling, the first two of which will be upended by electrification. They could’ve held out as lastgallon fantasies, but both are betting high-performance drivers are ready for electrification, and that they’ll benefit from being ahead of the curve. Lotus has already launched the (well-received if limited-run) Evija hypercar, but a sterner test will come when Alpine replaces its acclaimed A110 sports car with an electric version come 2026, the same year Lotus plans its first electric sports car – cars intended to sell in much bigger numbers and perhaps jointly developed. The stakes will be as high as the voltage.
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WOKING GOT WOKE McLaren’s blistering Artura flings the doors wide open for a new climate-conscious era of British sports cars. Words by Chris Chilton.
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he boss of a rival luxury car maker once described McLaren Automotive as selling different lengths of the same sausage; all its supercars used essentially the same ingredients of carbonfibre chassis, midmounted V8 engine, seven-speed dualclutch gearbox… only, the packaging and pricing was different. It was cruel, but true. McLaren’s new Artura is a whole new sausage, even if its (particularly striking) design suggests a gentler evolution of its 570S predecessor. The British brand’s most affordable supercar, the mid-engined Artura starts from a still significant £189,200 and is built on new carbonfibre foundations, deploys a new twin-turbocharged V6 engine and a new eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. There’s a new hybrid bit too, not only bringing a nice parallel to Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 car, but a 94bhp slug of extra performance / and/ some planet-friendliness.
Fire it all through the rear wheels and you can confound climate protesters with up to 19 miles of zero-emissions cruising, then – when they’re not looking – uncork 671bhp, blitz the 0-62mph dash in a mind-scrambling 3.0 seconds and keep your foot pinned to 205mph flat out. Despite being a hybrid, it’s not even that heavy, because the Artura’s carbonfibre underpinnings help offset the bulk of the battery to keep weight as low as 1,495kg, around 75kg lighter than the aluminium if otherwise technically similar Ferrari 296 GTB (though the Italian competes with pricier, more powerful McLarens). The problem with so much newness is the inevitable teething troubles, and the Artura is pretty toothy – the original press launch was cancelled at the eleventh hour late last year, and cars on the recent rescheduled event were glitchy. Hopefully new boss and ex-Ferrari man Michael Leiters can help iron out the issues sharpish, because fundamentally there’s much to be excited about, here.
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ROCKS STAR The latest to join Land Rover’s forecourt redux, the all-new Range Rover Sport is equal-parts speed and sophistication, reckons Chris Chilton.
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and Rover’s new-model blitz means the inside of a dealer showroom in 2022 is a very different place to what it was even three years ago. After replacing the iconic but agricultural Defender with a modern off-roader of the same name, the British marque updated its Range Rover flagship last year, and now it’s the smaller Range Rover Sport’s turn to regenerate, Doctor Who-style. The careful styling evolution doesn’t initially offer much clue to the presence of a brand new electricready platform hiding underneath, but a closer look reveals countless elegant
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detail improvements like the flush door handles, slimmer grille, horizontal rear light clusters and a stunning new interior that together make this third-generation Sport the most glamorous car in the class. Other Land Rover products, however, are more spacious; the new Sport doesn’t offer a third row of seats like most of its siblings do. But as the name suggests, the full-size Range Rover’s more dynamic Sport brother is less worried about practicality and traditional mud-plugging, and more focused on matching the Porsche Cayenne’s blend of on-road speed and luxury.
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The Sport can still cut it in the rough, of course, thanks to its sophisticated terrain response driving modes and ability wade through almost three feet of standing water. But the new twochamber air sprung suspension promises to improve those normally competing masters, ride and handling, and a rearwheel steering option claims to improve agility in the urban environments where these cars spend so much time. A plug-in hybrid model with up to 48 miles of electric range is bound to be popular for the same reason, though mildhybrid petrol and diesel, and muscular twin-turbo V8 variants delivering 523 hp are also on a menu whose prices start at £79,125, and will include an all-electric Range Rover Sport come 2024.
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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
CONNECTED X PORSCHE EDITION TAG HEUER
The power of progress, the latest connected watch from TAG Heuer, features a larger crown and redesigned push buttons to provide enhanced ergonomics and a thinner 42mm bezel for more elegant styles, or 45mm for a rugged sporty look.
2
MAC STUDIO APPLE
Mac Studio is an entirely new Mac desktop. It packs outrageous performance, extensive connectivity and new capabilities into an unbelievably compact form, putting everything you need within easy reach and transforming any space into a studio. And it all starts with your choice of the ferociously fast M1 Max or the all-new M1 Ultra — the most powerful chip ever in a personal computer.
3
SIGNATURE LG
A new generation of hyper start TV technology! The ultimate in viewing pleasure combined with next level aesthetics.
4
WHOOP 4.0 WHOOP
No screen. No notifications. Nothing but nonstop data collection. Designed to be worn 24/7, the advanced WHOOP 4.0 is lightweight and minimal so nothing gets in the way of a snatch, swing, or stride.
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GIFTS FOR HIM
GIFTS FOR HIM
You may not need convincing to spend that cash on a flashy musthave, but just in case, here’s a selection of treats to tempt you.
GUCCI Interlocking G Enamel Ring 79096 | £250
ETTINGER Lifestyle 4oz Hip Flask 79674 | £90
GUCCI 25H MD34 Bracelet 77694 | £1,170
COMMON PROJECTS Leather-trimmed sneakers
TUDOR Ranger Strap 79701 | £2,170
CREED Aventus eau de parfum
ROX Adore Diamond Ring 0.70cts 76178 | £4,295
WOLF Axis Single Watch Winder 73325 | £509
ETTINGER Capra Triple Watch Roll 79676 | £395
ROX White Gold Wedding Ring 74879 | £595
TOM FORD Leather Belt
TAG HEUER Connected Calibre E4 79119 | £2,200
LOEWE Linen-Blend Beanie
GUCCI Cube Bracelet 73190 | £350
BOMBERG Bolt-68 Heritage 75354 | £990
BRUNELLO CUCINELLI Polarised Glasses
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GIFTS FOR HER
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.
CHOPARD My Happy Hearts Red Ring 79262 | £1,120
ROX Adore Diamond Bracelet 0.60cts 76903 | £1,750
TOM FORD Padlock Leather Sandals
ROX Honour Diamond Earrings 78588 | from £995
ROX Diamond Hoop Earrings 0.47cts 77764 | £895
GUCCI Interlocking G Pendant 75147 | £1,340
TAG HEUER Aquaracer Professional 200 79560 | £2,400
GIVENCHY L'intemporel Firmness Boosting Oil
ROX Cane Silver Gold Pendant 76353 | £60
BALENCIAGA Hourglass XS Bag
ROX Cascade Stud Earrings 0.28cts 79360 | £960
ROX Luxe Champaca Rhum Candle 75935 | £35
ROX Diamond Inital Bracelet 77064 | £395
ROX Diamond Dress Ring 0.15cts 71016 | £650
MAISON FRANCIS KURKDJIAN Baccarat Rouge 540
ROX Diamond Necklace 0.20cts 77787 | £950
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GUEST LIST Back to what we do best! This year we've hosted some fabulous events, from an afternoon with the legendary Carl Cox, an evening with Jamie Carragher in Liverpool and our annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe showcase! And there's so much more to come…
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KEEP UP WITH THE DIAMONDS & THRILLS Follow us on social media for the latest product drops and jewellery trends.
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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 2022). 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 2022
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BIG BANG UNICO 18K King Gold and ceramic case. In-house UNICO chronograph movement.