I drove a Rolls-Royce Spectre through a super storm December 9, 2024 It’s chucking it down in the airport pick-up zone, the soundtrack a cacophony of announcements, slamming doors, rat-a-tatting wheelie-suitcases, flapping umbrellas and the dull drone of aircraft taking off and landing. The waiting Rolls-Royce’s door closes behind me, and, cosseted inside a shell of black and Tango-orange, things are dramatically different. Rolls-Royce enjoyed record sales [...]
What watch did Elvis wear? Jay-Z? Jimi Hendrix? Find out here December 9, 2024 Back in 2014, former AC/DC manager Michael Browning published a book called Dog Eat Dog, detailing the five years he spent from 1974 taking the band from raw, young outsiders to stadium fillers. In those early days, he had two pieces of advice – don’t wear a watch and never take public transport. In an interview [...]
Japan is taking on the Swiss with a little help from Studio Ghibli December 9, 2024 Next year the sell-out stage adaptation of Hayao Mizyaki’s tale of two girls, a catbus and a forest spirit, My Neighbour Totoro, will transfer to the West End. This year Spirited Away, another Studio Ghibli classic about a girl, a bathhouse for gods, and a boy who turns into a dragon, was staged at the [...]
My favourite watch: Tom Sellers, Seinfeld and Carl Cox December 9, 2024 What do Michelin-starred chef Tom Sellers, top DJ Carl Cox, comedian Jerry Seinfeld and astronaut Don Pettit all have in common? They all need a good watch to do their extremely specific work. Alex Doak takes a look at the most talented people with quality on their wrists ••• The corner of Berkeley Street and [...]
All the latest watch news, from Tudor to Vacheron Constantin December 9, 2024 Tudor x Red Bull F1 While Rolex bows out of Formula One, vacating its seat for TAG Heuer as F1’s overall timekeeper, the sister brand to ‘The Crown’ of Geneva continues to ride shotgun with Red Bull. And appropriately enough for Tudor watches, it’s with Red Bull’s own sister team, ‘Visa Cash App RB Formula [...]
A night at the museum: The amazing Palazzo Previtera, Sicily December 9, 2024 Palazzo Previtera is a Sicilian guesthouse like no other. Steve Dinneen checks in for a stay at this “living museum” in the foothills of Mt Etna ••• I was sitting on my private terrace, glass of local Mt Etna Mascalese red in hand, when the air raid siren went off, its terrible drone bouncing off [...]
Plane weird: How the airport broke my spirit December 9, 2024 I’m not a nervous flyer in the usual sense. Being in a tin can at an altitude of 35,000 feet (that’s half the height of Gary Barlow’s son, for reference) doesn’t really get me rattled. The rational side of me kicks in. You’re more likely to be hit by a car, or die from a [...]
Who killed the Gif? How the dancing banana split December 9, 2024 In a 2021 Twitter (now ‘X’) post, US journalist Jenny Zhang wrote, “Any time I see someone use a reaction gif I immediately know they are above the age of 33”. The replies to the post featured a mix of indignation and applause, but Jenny had a point. Once the quick and easy reaction to [...]
‘It’s about confronting death’: The people paying authors to write their life story December 9, 2024 How do you want to be remembered? It’s a question humans have asked since time began, but have you ever paused to think about it – I mean really think about it? Who do you want to be remembered as, which stories do you want your grandchildren to hear? When you’re dead and gone and [...]
To find the soul of another country, head to the supermarket December 3, 2024 My favourite thing about travelling abroad isn’t the sun, the sand, nor the sea – it’s going to the local supermarket. Walking through the doors of a foreign grocery store is like passing through the looking glass into a place where everything is both familiar and alien, a fairground mirror that reflects a strange, distorted [...]