Scene Cuisine: Mr. Chow, Riyadh

The impresario behind his namesake Mr. Chow restaurant opens his seventh location—his first in the Middle East—in the Saudi capital

By Horacio Silva 21/12/2023

Michael Chow is not one for false modesty. “Before me the only international restaurant was McDonald’s,” he says, with the assurance of someone who knows what he brings to the table and isn’t afraid to share it. “I started the concept of having a high-end restaurant in multiple locations around the world over 50 years ago. I was light years ahead of everybody.”

He may be blunt, but he is not wrong. Since opening the first Mr. Chow restaurant in London, in 1968, Chow has redefined the international fine-dining experience. In short order, the chic Knightsbridge eatery, known for its elevated Chinese food, spectacular service and super-charged prices, became the last word in scene cuisine: the Champagne-fuelled place for the bon ton to go for a wonton.

Michael Chow photographed in front of an Ed Ruscha ‘portrait’ of him, rendered in egg tempura and soya sauce, L.A. in 1974

Presciently anticipating the convergence of the culture and lifestyle industries, Chow hitched his wagon to the fashion and art worlds from the outset. (His first wife, Grace Coddington, a top model in the 1960s before becoming the longtime American Vogue Creative Director, probably made entrées into the fashion milieu a little easier.) A proto-meta-celebrity for the pre-internet age, Chow is famous for being famous among the famous.

“Portrait of Michael Chow” (1985) by his friend Jean-Michel Basquiat.

Now, after successfully opening various outposts in Los Angeles, New York, Miami and Las Vegas, the impish restaurateur has hung out the shingle in the Middle East, unveiling a Mr. Chow in Riyadh in October.

“All the big boys are there,” Chow told Robb Report ANZ of his decision to expand into the region. “So I figured it was time to make the move.”

Besides, he suggests, sitting in a corner of his sprawling Los Angeles studio, Dubai has become a veritable supermarket of options. “It’s like Mount Olympus,” Chow points out, “all the gods are there. Cipriani, Nobu, Zuma. And, unlike Vegas, every brand there is authentic and the standards are very high.”

In addition to wanting to avoid the crowded competition, Chow was also drawn to the relaxing of Saudi policy towards the West. “Before they’d say stay away, don’t come near us,” he says. “But the whole Middle East, particularly Saudi Arabia, has lightened up and is going through a major cultural change. They want to be part of the international conversation. The roads are still being paved, so to speak, but it’s a very exciting time.”

Despite the welcome arms, the new location comes with considerable concessions to local palates and customs. “For starters,” Chow explains, “there is no pork and no alcohol. That’s the biggest change. It’s not like Dubai where you can get alcohol in restaurants and hotels. They’re two different animals in that sense.”

Also absent in the Riyadh chapter is the art on the walls that is part of the DNA at Mr. Chow. “We have a couple of ceiling art projections, including one that resembles a flower opening up over the room,” he offers. “Eventually the plan is to introduce art on the walls, maybe by local artists, but I haven’t got around to it.”

In the tortuous decade prior to opening the London restaurant, Chow, who was born in Shanghai in 1939 and moved to London at 13 to attend boarding school, left architecture school to train as a painter. He wound up at the swinging Robert Fraser Gallery near Grosvenor Square, a beau-monde salon of sorts where the debonair blade, who by then was sporting shoulder-length hair and Yves Saint Laurent suits, met the leading artists of the day, like Peter Blake, Allen Jones, Jim Dine, Patrick Caulfield, Paul Huxley and Clive Barker—many of whom swapped art for a generous tab at Mr. Chow.

As a result, the paintings on the walls (and the artists who dined there) became as much of a draw as the restaurant’s storied Beijing duck. “The London restaurant is practically a Peter Blake museum,” he concedes. A soi-disant name-dropper, Chow is wont to remind people that every major artist has signed his guest book, which is also full of drawings by a slew of luminaries including Andy Warhol, Francesco Clemente, Francis Bacon, and Jasper Johns. “Everyone except Picasso,” he says. Without missing a beat, he adds, “But I had lunch with Van Gough. Just kidding.”

Elevated dining: the high- rise view at Mr. Chow Riyadh

The rest of the signature Mr. Chow experience, from the locked-eyes acknowledgement that greets all diners to the theatrical pyrotechnics of the twice-nightly noodle-making “performances”, remains on display in Riyadh.

“I’m a painter at heart but I also follow my father’s footsteps and he was the king of the theatre,” Chow explains. “Both mediums draw on deep suffering and can transcend the audience to a spiritual level. I turned the restaurant into theatre. Never bore the audience and reach for transcendence and a higher level of communication every night.”

Michael Chow painting in his studio in Los Angeles.

Those not familiar with the Tao According to Chow can now discover his Byzantine history in Aka Mr. Chow, a no-holds-barred HBO documentary (streaming on Binge in Australia) that sheds light, with sometimes brutal candour, on his longtime gambling addiction and his voracious appetite for collecting everything from prestige cars to door hinges, Lloyd Wright–designed houses to ice buckets. “What can I say? I take collecting very seriously, and I am very obsessive,” he offers flatly. “Doesn’t mean I’m a bad person.”

As the documentary illustrates, Chow has also been known to collect beautiful women and he is currently on his fourth wife, Vanessa Rano, with whom the 84-year-old has two young sons. (The rest of the Chow brood comprises China, 49, Maximillian, 46, and Asia, 29.) The film is particularly unsparing in its retelling of the doomed marriage between Michael and second wife, Tina Chow, mother of China and Maximillian, internationally renowned beauty, businesswoman, collector, jeweler, and member of the International Best-Dressed Hall of Fame. Michael and Tina were the Brangelina of their day, but the glamour couple divorced in 1989 and Tina died of AIDS three years later.

Equally uncompromising are the sections of the film that ruminate on Chow’s Chinese ancestry and the vicissitudes of fortune that resulted from being the son of arguably the most famous man in China at the time. Chow’s father, Zhou Xinfang, whom he credits with his creative drive, was a highborn Chinese national treasure and a famed star of Shanghai’s Peking Opera Theatre who went by the stage name Qilin Tong (Unicorn Boy). His mother, Lillian, was the daughter of a Scottish tea merchant who scandalised Chinese society when she ran off with the older, married performer. When government forces began to clamp down on Unicorn Boy’s increasingly nationalistic performances, Chow’s parents sent him off to England. He never saw his father again; his mother visited him once.

“I wish I could say I went kicking and screaming,” Chow says of being banished to Wenlock Edge, a school he has described as Harry Potter without the magic. “But I was too dumb to do that. Basically, my mother wanted me to get out of there, period.” (One of his sisters, Tsai Chin, a former Bond Girl who appears in You Only Live Twice, was also hurried off, to Europe.)

Of his parents, Chow says: “Terrible, terrible things happened to them. They were among the first to be purged in the Cultural Revolution, but I didn’t find out about their deaths till much later.” His life, as he recounts in the film, has been an attempt to reconcile his love for them and their fate with his extant love of China, which he visits occasionally. “It sounds corny, but everything I do is to make China great to the West. But, of course, I have mixed feelings about my homeland because there are some things I can never forget.”

Even in this fifth chapter of his life, as he refers to it, Chow appears as spry as ever. “I’m doing very well,” he says. “I’m getting on, but at the same time, I’m active and very ambitious on two fronts—on my painting and, you know, the rest of it.”

The documentary, which premiered at MoMA in New York (“The cathedral of art,” he gushes) has led to more interest in his painting and he has several works showing during Art Basel Miami Beach this month. There are also new restaurants on the horizon. Having resisted all entreaties to open shop in Dubai, he is finally doing so at the end of next year. And then there are famous people to watch and to namedrop. “Can you blame me?” he asks. “I’ve met everyone. Marlene Dietrich. Marx Brothers. Ginger Rogers. Drake.” As Chow himself says, surmising his future, “The best is yet to come.”

Scene Cuisine is a new column, showcasing the fashionable spots where the elite meet to eat. 

Mr. Chow

Bldg 2.09, Metro Blvd,

Riyadh, Al Aqiq 13519;

T: +966.9200.12658

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How Off-the-Rack Suits Got Sophisticated Enough to Win Over Bespoke Guys

Ready-to-wear tailoring has never been better, and it offers even the most particular dressers a fast, easy platform for experimenting with their look.

By Aleks Cvetkovic 18/02/2025

The world moves fast—and for once, tailoring is moving a little bit faster.

Guys around the globe are rediscovering their love of suits, but many have determined that they can’t stomach the monthslong wait for bespoke. The good news? Ready-to-wear tailoring has never been better.

That’s in part because bespoke makers are beefing up their off-the-rack offerings. Anderson & Sheppard’s shop-in-store at N.Y.C.’s Bergdorf Goodman—the first outpost beyond its London flagship— opened in December with, among other things, a sharp wool-and-cashmere jacket in a delightful shade of teal. Huntsman’s recent fall-winter collection, billed as its most comprehensive assortment yet, offered everything from tuxedos to shooting breeches. Even Leonard Logsdail, Hollywood’s highly esteemed bespoke purveyor, is experimenting with hem-and-go models.

But non-custom tailors are upping the ante, too. Some of the best ready-to-wear suits on the market come from such brands, whose wholly distinctive points of view provide a welcome departure from the rigidity of many bespoke tailors’ house styles. The preponderance and diversity of such high-quality, easy-to-access threads has recast off-the-rack suits as the ultimate way to experiment with your look, not just a way for some to get dressed on the cheap. What’s more, it reflects the new reality that even people who suit up regularly might want to show up looking different on Thursday night than they did on Tuesday morning.

“Life nowadays is much more fluid,” says Chris Modoo, a London-based stylist who once worked as a tailor on Savile Row. “Things happen, invitations appear. You might get an invite for a black-tie party in the South of France for next Saturday.” Ready-to-wear is the obvious solution when you’re in a last-minute menswear quandary, but “it also means you can try new things.”

One maker worth a test-drive is Husbands Paris, founded by Nicolas Gabard, who sees his role as an “archivist of the past.” His look, inspired by stylish men such as Yves Saint Laurent, David Hemmings, and Gary Cooper, is unabashedly striking—think long, fully canvased jackets, broad lapels, structured shoulders, and wide-leg, high-waisted trousers. These wares are made in small workshops in Italy and Portugal, where craftspeople infuse them with high-end details such as hand-sewn buttonholes and silk bar tacks, a form of stitching that reinforces seams and pockets.

Thom Sweeney L.A. store Brett Wood

They’re the kind of touches any menswear enthusiast can appreciate—even if they’re the trees to Gabard’s style forest. Clothes like this are designed as a form of wearable self-assurance, enhancing what Gabard calls a “classically masculine” silhouette: broad shoulders, slim waist, narrow hips.

“Of course, tailoring has to fit well, but it also has to bring something else,” he says. “More and more [Husbands] customers want to be confident, powerful, and sexy in their outfit.”

When you want to look more suave than soigné, turn to the indie Milanese brand Massimo Alba, which is known for its chic casualwear but made its name with easygoing tailoring. “A great suit is not just about the way it fits but about the way it makes you feel,” says the eponymous label’s founder of his relaxed approach. “For me, the essence lies in balance, between structure and softness, elegance and ease. In my opinion, a suit should adapt to the wearer, not the other way around.”

Alba’s creations are cut from plush materials such as corduroy and flannel, featuring natural shoulders and only the lightest of canvasing in the chest, which results in a less-formal look. Which is not to say they aren’t workhorses: Daniel Craig wore one of Alba’s Sloop suits to dodge bullets in 2021’s James Bond film No Time to Die. “I always focus on fabrics that move with the body, details that whisper rather than shout, and cuts that allow for freedom,” Alba adds.

And freedom is precisely what this newfound inventory of great ready-to-wear tailoring provides. Modoo advises some clients to look to bespoke tailors for investment-level garments, such as morning suits, tuxedos, or the dark, serious stuff you might need for a funeral or odd courtroom appearance. “You know you’re going to wear these for 10 or 15 years,” he says. Let the new class of distinctive ready-to-wear step in when you want to try something that just wouldn’t make sense as a bespoke order. “Your pink-velvet blazer for the Christmas party? How well does that need to fit?”

London bespoke tailor Caroline Andrew is one of many who admits ready-to-wear has its place. Courtesy of Caroline Andrew

Fortunately, with so many options available, the fit is easier to dial in. You can expect most high-end operations to make a long list of changes, from ensuring that the seat of the trousers drapes appropriately to cutting working buttonholes on the jacket. For a peerless experience, you can always reach for garments from one of the many talented bespoke tailors offering ready-to-wear. At Thom Sweeney, such clothes are “all influenced by our bespoke cut,” says Thom Whiddett, who cofounded the brand with Luke Sweeney in 2007. “You try on [our ready-to-wear] jacket, and you immediately get a sense of the proportions and shapes that we put into a bespoke garment.”

That alluring sense of near-instant gratification is the point. For some, nothing will ever replace the distinguished feeling of slipping into a bench-made suit—and plenty are willing to wait for it.

“You have to mentally buy into the process and enjoy it,” says Caroline Andrew, a London bespoke specialist. “The journey is just as important as the finished product.” But ready-to-wear sets the time-strapped tailoring enthusiast down a different path: discovering new facets of your personal style at a record pace.

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Tom Brady Wears a Jacob & Co. Watch Decked in Yellow Sapphires to the Super Bowl

The $740,000 Caviar Tourbillon was an opulent choice for the former NFL star.

By 17/02/2025

Tom Brady was on the field tonight at the 59th annual Super Bowl game, and while the retired NFL hero—a seven-time Super Bowl winner (the most of any footballer in history)—wasn’t playing, he came dressed to impress with a $116,400 Jacob & Co. watch on his wrist.

Brady, who is a notable watch collector, recently sold off several of his timepieces at a Sotheby’s auction called “The GOAT Collection: Watches and Treasures from Tom Brady” this past December. Those timepieces ran the gamut from a Rolex Daytona Ref. 6241 to a unique Audemars Piguet Royal Oak with his name spelled out in diamonds across the salmon-colored tapisserie dial. His Rolex Daytona sold for over $1.5 million, and, in total, his auction raked in around $7 million. So, he’s well-equipped for a new watch purchase.

Whether or not he owns the six-figure sapphire stunner or it was a paid spot, the watch certainly stood out against his conservative but immaculately fit gray suit. “Tom Brady is the epitome of excellence, both on and off the field,” said Benjamin Arabov, CEO of Jacob & Co, in a press release sent out by the company shortly after Brady’s appearance. “We’re thrilled to see him wearing two of our most prestigious timepieces on the biggest stage in sports. The Billionaire Mini Ashoka and Caviar Tourbillon embody the precision, luxury, and innovation that define Jacob & Co. We’re honored to have him represent the artistry and craftsmanship behind every piece we create.”

Like much of Brady’s wrist candy, his 44 by 15.8 mm Caviar Tourbillon is not easy to come by. It is limited to just 18 pieces. It features hours, minutes, and a one-minute flying tourbillon in the JCAA43 movement with 216 components and 72 hours of power reserve. The movement itself is set with 338 brilliant-cut diamonds, while a total of 337 yellow sapphires adorn the case and dial. The clasp is decorated with another 18 baguette-cut yellow sapphires, and the crown comes with 14 baguette-cut yellow sapphires and one rose-cut yellow sapphire. As far as gem setting goes, this is one extraordinary piece, but it certainly seemed like a surprising choice for Brady, who was otherwise dressed like he just stepped out of a boardroom or a Ralph Lauren catalog.

Benjamin Arabov, son of Jacob & Co. founder Jacob Arabov, is now the CEO of the company. The 32-year-old recently took to Instagram to post that he was looking for a rebranding agency with experience in visual identity and packaging. As far as marketing goes, however, with Tom Brady, he’s golden.

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This Vintage Rolex Day-Date Has an Ultra-Rare and Coveted ‘Bark’ Design

The ultra-cool piece from Wind Vintage also comes in pristine condition with a desirable patina.

By Paige Reddinger 17/02/2025

Over the last four years there has been a resurgence in interest for 18-karat yellow gold watches. Much of that is due to fatigue over the long-running craze for steel tool watches, but it is also in part due to the rising value of gold (which shows no sign of slowing), rendering these once undesirable pieces increasingly worth collecting. Add to that the fact that, in some niche and stylish circles, unusual bracelet treatments, gem-setting, and interesting dials are becoming increasingly appealing and you have a new wave of watch collecting emerging. Steel sports watches are still the bread and butter for most dealers, but as pockets of interest in more unusual timekeepers, often from younger and fashion-forward collectors, continue to rise we’re seeing some really fun pieces pop up on the market. Case in point: This 1980s Rolex Day-Date in 18-karat yellow gold with a sapphire and diamond dial from Wind Vintage currently available exclusively on The Vault.

It wasn’t that long ago that dealers had a hard time unloading an all-gold gem-set piece. Eric Wind, the notable dealer and founder of Wind Vintage, says five years ago he would have sold this piece for around $23,000 to $28,000. The asking price today? $45,000. “It is very rare,” he tells Robb Report. “I think that was all clearly hand-done. Funnily enough, bark watches were not very desirable in the past. You know, even five to 10 years ago, they were very, very hard to sell. But, over the last three to five years, there’s been such an emergence and interest in jewellery and watches and work like that engraving and other kind of artistic forms that the watches took.” The style of engraving he is referring to on this watch can be seen on the bezel and middle links of the bracelet that is referred to as “bark” for its rough tree-like appearance.

“Bark” engraving on the bezel and bracelet of the Wind Vintage 1980s Rolex Day-Date
Courtesy of Wind Vintage

And while the bracelet is certainly a notable feature that will stand out in a sea of Submariners and Daytonas, the dial is also worth bragging about. Its diamond minutes track and sapphire hour markers are executed in what is known as a “string dial” because it looks like a string of pearls. “They’ve become very popular,” says Wind. “They were very expensive back in the 80s, just because of the cost of the stones, and there are just not many that exist on the planet.” Likewise, Wind says the canary yellow matte dial is not something he comes across often, having only seen a couple of others.

An up-close look at the patina and “bark” engraving on this 1980s Day-Date from Wind Vintage.
Courtesy of Wind Vintage

Part of what makes this watch so hard to find on the market is that pieces like this often didn’t survive past their ’80s heyday. “A lot of times these watches were so undesirable that dealers would replace the bezel inserts and put on fluted inserts, or smooth bezels or fluted bezels and melt down the bracelets or polish the center link so they looked like a standard Day-Date. Those dealers should have learned that what goes around, always comes around. Now with these interesting Rolex watches on the rise, they’ll become even harder to find.

A Wind Vintage 1980s Day-Date with “bark” engraving and a gem-set “string dial”
Courtesy of Wind Vintage

If you’re interested in the piece and want to speak to Wind about it IRL, he will be at Robb Report’s House of Robb event in San Francsico today during the NBA All-Star weekend.

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Soccer Star Kylian Mbappé Is Now an Investor in Watch Marketplace Wristcheck

Just like Jay-Z.
Published on February 7, 2025

By Abby Montanez 11/02/2025

Kylian Mbappé just went from brand ambassador to investor.

The celebrated French footballer, who currently plays for Real Madrid, has taken a stake in luxury watch trading platform Wristcheck, Hypebeast reported lat week.

Off the filed, the 26-year-old soccer star is a known timepiece collector and has served as an ambassador for Swiss marque Hublot since 2018. With this new partnership, the forward joins a growing group of influential backers, including Jay-Z. The rapper and business mogul took an equity stake in the Hong Kong-based company last summer as part of a recent funding round of $7.9 million.

“I’m thrilled to join Wristcheck as an investor through Coalition Capital,” Mbappé said in a press statement. “As a Hublot ambassador and someone passionate about watches and innovation, I see Wristcheck as a platform that truly understands the next generation of collectors. They’re reshaping the watch industry with a forward-thinking approach that blends technology, transparency, and creativity.” Mbappé did not immediately respond to Robb Report‘s request for comment on his new business endeavor.

Kylian Mbappé is an investor in online watch shop Wristcheck.
Tnani Badreddine/DeFodi Images via Getty Images

Launched in 2020 by renowned horophile and Instagram personality Austen Chu, Wristcheck offers a platform for collectors to buy and sell pre-owned watches that have been authenticated by Swiss-trained watchmakers. Since it was founded, the company has raised more than $21.6 million in funding from investors including the Alibaba Entrepreneurs Fund, Gobi Partners GBA, and K3 Ventures.

Mbappé, meanwhile, has achieved remarkable success in his soccer career. He won the 2018 FIFA World Cup with France, becoming the youngest player to score in a final since Pelé. At PSG, he has secured multiple Ligue 1 titles and domestic cups. Individually, Mbappé has earned the Ligue 1 Player of the Year award and regularly features in top European scoring charts. And in 2020, he was ranked the world’s highest-paid player, surpassing rivals Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.

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Sotheby’s Will Put on the Largest Auction of Breguet Watches in Decades This Fall

To celebrate the revered watchmaking house’s 250th anniversary, the sale includes rare collectibles belonging to living Breguet family members.

By Paige Reddinger 11/02/2025

Interest in Breguet has experienced a quiet resurgence among savvy collectors who appreciate the brand’s deep-rooted watchmaking heritage. This growing enthusiasm will soon take center stage with an upcoming auction that shines a significant spotlight on the storied Maison.

Founded in Paris 250 years ago, Abraham-Louis Breguet was one of the most influential watchmakers in history, best known for inventing the tourbillon and the automatic winding system—along with many other groundbreaking innovations. His legacy continues to inspire modern masters such as F.P. Journe and Philippe Dufour. You can see Breguet’s influence pointedly in pieces like F.P. Journe’s famous Chronomètre à Résonance timepiece, voted one of Robb Report‘s 50 Greatest Watches of All Time.

Now, Sotheby’s has announced “the largest sale of Breguet timepieces in three decades.” Though the auction won’t take place until November, the auction house is already working to build anticipation. In the meantime, it might be wise to brush up on the most coveted Breguet references.

Breguet 1827 Perpétuelle à Tact watch made for King George IV Breguet

What may pique collectors’ interest is the sale is being curated in conjunction with Breguet and Emmanuel Breguet, the vice president and head of patrimony, who happens to be a descendant of the original Monsieur Breguet. So far, the only timekeeper publicly associated (at least visually) with the auction is the 1827 Perpétuelle à Tact watch made for King George IV. Still, it hints at the historic level of pocket watches, wristwatches, and clocks that will be on offer. Abraham-Louis Breguet was a frequent supplier of high-end and state-of-the-art timepieces for royalty, including Marie Antoinette, Napoleon Bonaparte, and King George III.

Other highlights include an open-faced montre à tact (a watch that replicates the internal hour hand on the cover of the pocket watch via an arrow so that time could be read via touch) with a calendar and moonphase indications that was the inspiration for the Ref. 3330. A pendulette with alarm, perpetual calendar and repeater, and a two-color gold open-faced tourbillon watch is said to be a part of the sale, although no images were provided as of press time. More info on what will be in the sale will come this spring.

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