How Swatch hopes to recapture the MoonSwatch magic with new Blancpain collab September 5, 2023 The groundbreaking, plastic-fantastic, injection-moulded Swatch watch was a fashion-forward crutch for Switzerland’s ailing giants 40 years back. It bolstered household names like Omega, Longines, Rado, Tissot et al, all desperately consolidated by the late Nicholas Hayek following the devastation wrought in the Seventies by cheap, electronic quartz tech’ from East Asia. Ironically, at the hands [...]
El Fuerte is proof that Marbella is now a luxury destination September 4, 2023 For decades the Costa del Sol has been a byword for Brits abroad. However, after years of hen and stag dos, accessible package holidays and cheap flights, it has reinvented itself as a contemporary getaway for the Insta-smart traveller. At the centre of it all is El Fuerte, a stunning property dating back to 1957, [...]
Jordan Bespoke: The coolest bags on the circuit August 31, 2023 Sometimes good things really do come to those who wait. If you’re looking for the perfect present for someone this Christmas, now might be the time to get the process started. Take fine Italian leatherware producer Jordan Bespoke – each of its creations are hand made, with an impossible amount of detail going into everything [...]
Nobu Shoreditch is back, now with ultra-chic new rooftop rooms June 5, 2023 The weekend: Like most London hotels, Nobu Hotel London Shoreditch was forced close in March 2020, due to the pandemic. It reopened some two years later, having taken advantage of its time out of the spotlight to upgrade its offering. Found in a quiet street in what is London’s most creative corner, just off Great [...]
Radio star: The incredible story of the Panerai diving watch almost lost to the sea April 26, 2023 In the nineties, you didn’t have Patagonia gilets, quarter-zip sweaters or Logan Roy logo-less baseball caps – you had ‘oversize’ watches. They were status symbols you could drive right into the boardroom, unlike your 911, and style statements to mark you out in a sea of suits. The sea is an appropriate metaphor, as the ur [...]
Top women’s watches, from Cartier to Jaeger-LeCoultre and Chanel April 25, 2023 It’s been an incredible Spring for wristwear and women have been catered for impressively by the giants of horology. Here are some of our favourite women’s watches hitting stores now. CARTIER BAIGNOIRE ALLONGÉE This latest Baignoire looks simple (the Francophone among you are correct: it really is named after its bath-like shape) but its creation [...]
What’s ticking: All the latest watch news, from Geneva and beyond April 25, 2023 Aston Martin and Girard-Perregaux prove it ain’t easy being British-Racing green, Dr Rebecca Struthers makes a similarly convincing ‘case’ for British watchmaking, while George Bamford doubles down in W1K. A round-up of the coolest new watches. A brief biography of time Books on clocks and watches are usually authored by men of a certain age [...]
From a surprising new Rolex to a Muppet in the month window April 24, 2023 Cross the (tastefully appointed) maximum-security threshold of Watches and Wonders and the hierarchy is instantly apparent. There’s Patek Philippe with its parked-up spaceship, conveying its blue-blooded, dyed-in-the-metal pedigree. And then there are 30-something other Swiss watchmakers all clamouring to make a noise in the revitalised, post-Covid white noise of horological newness. This is an industry [...]
Working 9 to 17: Patek Philippe’s stunning Calatrava Travel Time April 24, 2023 A 24-hour-display dial takes a bit of adjustment to read as instantly as your usual 12-hour. But not as long as you’d think. Patek Philippe’s Calatrava Travel Time was the blue-eyed posterboy of the resurgent Watches and Wonders event, Geneva’s luxury watchmaking fair, which took place earlier this month. A consolidation of the now-defunct ‘Baselworld’ [...]
YSL splashes out record rent on Bond Street as luxury sector shrugs off cost of living concerns April 23, 2023 Luxury goods company Kering is set to pay a record rent for the UK, after agreeing a lease for Bond Street’s Yves Saint Laurent store. Market sources told The Sunday Times that Kering will cough up £13m a year for the six-storey West London store, beating Ralph Lauren’s previous record of £11m. The luxury group [...]