The Game Changers

Nine firms doing things differently.

Moncler

Founded in 1952 at Monestier-de-Clermont

(the name is a portmanteau) and acquired by Remo Ruffini in 2003, this Italian maker of winter outerwear has moved from its origins protecting workers from the cold into the fashion world, bringing technical fabrics and warmth to couture.

As befitting a modern company with a global vision, Moncler’s sustainable credentials are of the highest order, allowing individuals—including VistaJet crew—to wear their garments with pride.

Blenheim Forge

Fusing Japanese heritage with Western culinary preferences and modern metallurgy, Blenheim Forge creates some of the world’s finest knives. Handmade in London, the blades are forged from Japanese blue-paper steel or Aogami blue-super steel. They’re heat-treated to a Rockwell hardness of 62 (that’s extremely hard) and can include the visually stunning hand-folded Damascus construction. There’s even an option for handles crafted from a 5,500-yearold oak.

Blenheim Forge releases a limited run of around 30 knives each month. Created by one of the three founders, they take around 30 days to produce and sell out in minutes. Rare editions such as their Mega Sets—priced at $45,000 and wielded by Gordon Ramsay—have become collectors’ items.

3 Westone Audio

It’s likely that your favorite musician wears Westone Audio’s custom in-ear monitors on stage. The brand’s artist list reads like a rock-and-roll hall of fame and includes David Bowie, Eminem and Madonna. Westone’s earphones are exceptional, too. The experience journey starts with an audiologist who will take silicone impressions of your inner ear, from which Westone casts your earphones.

The resulting precise fit (around $2,000 per pair) defines the word “bespoke,” and the sound isolation they provide is the best way to safeguard your hearing. Naturally, the audio quality is neutral, transparent and sublime, and their comfort level allows long-term wear. For both work and play, they are the world’s best, most discreet earphone for the audio purist.

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dCS

Pioneering audio company dCS boasts digital-toanalog conversion hardware and software that were first used in radar systems, including for fighter jets. It turns out converting digital ones and zeros into music of the highest order is not that dissimilar from converting a radar signal into the position of aircraft—accuracy, in both instances, is everything. Its proprietary technology has arguably pushed the boundaries of digital audio further than anyone else, and its DACs (digital-to-analog converters) are almost without meaningful competition. dCS produced the first high-resolution DACs for consumers many years ago and has been at the forefront of high-fidelity digital ever since. Its latest APEX generation is precision incarnate and quite at home in the world’s finest audio systems.

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Tempest Guitars

Daisy Tempest is one of the world’s foremost luthiers (makers of guitars). Such has been the clamor for the artistry of her instruments: She has sold every one of her commission slots until 2028. Her bespoke creations are collectors’ items as well as being the last word in playable art. Each guitar takes between 300 and 400 hours to build, and she makes no more than 8 to 10 guitars per year. Daisy even tailors the sound to an individual client’s requirements, choosing tone woods of outstanding rarity and beauty, both aesthetically and musically. And then there’s the artistry and science applied to her sculpting, or “voicing,” of the guitar to extract a rich warmth and personality. These are heirloom creations from a master artisan.

Savoir Beds

We spend around a third of our lives in our beds—and Savoir makes arguably the finest in the world.

This is a brand kept small by its commitment to producing no more than 1,000 beds per year, meaning that demand vastly outstrips supply; 120 artisanal hours go into handmaking each one, and they’re completely bespoke from inception to completion, whereupon each is signed by the master craftsman who made it.

They’re also replete with Egyptian cotton woven in Italian mills and cut in Savoir’s London bedworks. There is no finer, more luxurious place to lay your head.

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U-Boat Worx

U-Boat Worx is renowned for providing the most technologically advanced submersibles to underwater researchers and filmmakers, who use them because the craft are capable of descending to nearly 1,000 feet. So when they unveil a new Super Yacht class of sub for private users, demand reaches fever pitch.

The Super Yacht Sub 3 is an efficient, compact and luxurious submersible. A pilot will guide two passengers in airconditioned comfort, with a Bluetooth sound system for your music and a chiller for your drinks, in a state-ofthe-art submersible with up to 12 hours of dive time in class-leading safety. For adventures below the waterline, this is peerless.

Le Labo

Nestled among the incredible range of fragrances of this ethically minded company—“We believe it is more humane to test cosmetics on New Yorkers than on animals,” states its manifesto—are a few perfumes that have become seismic hits. You may well have heard the names Santal 26 (found aboard VistaJet aircraft), Bergamote 22 and Neroli 36 whispered reverentially among fragrance cognoscenti.

The digits in the names refer to the number of ingredients in the scents, which are as memorable as they are head-turning. The fragrances run along a scent scale from masculine at one end to feminine at the other: The middle ground—the holy grail—is Santal 26.

9 Domaine de la Côte

Located between the Pacific Ocean and the California desert, Domaine de la Côte is the progeny of one of America’s most celebrated sommelier-turnedwinemakers, Rajat Parr. The challenging nature of the terroir produces grapes of stunning quality, if not great quantity.

According to Lewis Chester, DipWSET—whose advice on investing in fine wine can be found on page 42—Rajat is “at the forefront of the new Californian wine movement”: a vigneron whose wines “deliberately and beautifully express the uniqueness of their Californian terroir.” Parr is in the process of converting all his vineyards to organic farming. Readers are strongly encouraged to get on the waiting list for the results.