22 Facts You Didn’t Know About Bugatti
These details elevate the French supercar marque.
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We all know the elemental facts about hypercar maker Bugatti. It doesn’t sell anything for less than two commas. It’s built one of the only cars to ever officially break the 300 mph barrier—although it was a slightly modified, “near-production” Chiron that achieved that feat—along with one of the most expensive new vehicles of all time, the La Voiture Noire. Its Type 57 SC Atlantic Coupe is arguably the most beautiful car ever built and, with a mere three left in existence, demonstrably one of the most expensive at approx. $56 million a piece. With the brand on the verge of a new era after merging with Croatian EV maker Rimac this past summer, what better time to see just how much you really know about Bugatti.
Bugatti built trains during the 1930s, including one that was the world’s fastest.
The Bugatti name may be mainly associated with hypercars in 2022 but it has graced other products over the years, including aeroplane motors and, more recently, pool tables. The company also spent time during the 1930s working on trains, or, as it liked to call them, autorails. These vehicles may have never gone into wide use, but they were still impressive, setting multiple speed records between 1933 and 1936.
Bugatti’s first Autorail prototype in 1931 Bugatti
The Bugatti factory has narrowly avoided burning down—twice.
Founded by Ettore Bugatti in Molsheim, France, Bugatti has been pushing the boundaries of physics and engine capabilities in pursuit of speed since 1909. In 1939, one of its early engines started a sizable fire due to a testing explosion. Reportedly, the surrounding area was in peril of being engulfed as well. In 2001, when testing the first Veyron engine, that 1,200hp mill allegedly generated enough heat that the factory building was in danger of being scorched.
Bugatti has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice.
We all know that Bugatti likes to show off on the test track, but it also used to do the same on the race track. Although the brand hasn’t competed in any major competitions for quite some time, it used to. In fact, Bugatti was a force in racing during the ’20s to ’30s. A privately entered Bugatti won the very first Monaco Grand Prix in 1929, but the marque’s greatest triumphs came at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where cars driven by Jean-Pierre Wimille were victorious in 1937 (along with co-driver Robert Benoise) and 1939 (Pierre Veyron—more on him in a bit).
Bugatti briefly produced a saloon called the EB 112 in the mid-’90s.
Since being brought back from the dead by Italian businessman Romano Artioli in the late ’80s, almost all of Bugatti’s effort and resources have gone toward the development of boundary-pushing hypercars. We say almost, though, because the brand actually briefly produced a saloon called the EB 112 before it was purchased by Volkswagen Auto Group in 1998. Why is the sedan all but forgotten at this point, you may ask? Because the brand only ever built three examples of the vehicle. On the rare occasion one of those hits the market, you can expect it to sell for in excess of $1.6 million.
Bugatti EB 112 prototype Schaltkulisse
The Veyron was a giant pipe dream that nearly didn’t come to fruition.
When Volkswagen’s Ferdinand Piech (grandson of famed Ferdinand Porsche) bought Bugatti back in the late 1990s, he had already been dreaming of a 1,000 hp super machine. His engineers had previously told him this would not be possible. Along came the Bugatti platform and his vision was realized several years later when the Veyron officially launched in 2005.
The Veyron requires 10 radiators to keep its quad-turbocharged W-16 engine functioning.
Three radiators handle the engine, while another trio tackles the air-to-liquid intercoolers, a separate unit for the air conditioning, another specifically modulates the engine oil, and yet another cools the transmission oil. One final radiator is dedicated to the differential oil. Each radiator takes 15 hours to construct, meaning the whole shebang takes nearly four weeks to complete the requisite 150 hours of labour.
A 400km/h (full speed) run in the Veyron would only last 15 minutes and would cost more than $59,000.
Technically, you’d only make it 12 minutes, because the 120-litre fuel tank would be empty at that point. However, even if you had enough road—the Veyron can do 407km/h, meaning it covers 6.7 kilometres a minute. You would need 81.4km of road to keep your foot buried for 12 minutes. But the Veyron’s tyres wouldn’t last. They’re only good enough for running at 400km/h for about 15 minutes. After that, Bugatti would need to swap them for a new set, which reportedly will set you back a whopping $59,000.
Bugatti Veyron EB 16.4 Photo: Courtesy of Bugatti
Bugatti lost a heap of money making the Veyron, reportedly about $8.4 million per unit.
The total cost to produce the Veyron’s 450 examples amounted to about $2.28 billion, the bulk of which was research and development. Even selling some special versions of the Veyron for as much as $4.2 million per car couldn’t help recoup those ginormous losses.
“Veyron” was a real, pedigreed race driver.
It’s not just a cool-sounding name drummed up by marketers around a whiteboard. Pierre Veyron was a champion race driver between 1933 and 1953, notching plenty of victories, including several for Bugatti (most notably the 1939 24 Hours of Le Mans where he piloted the Type 57S with Jean-Pierre Wimille). Veyron became a test driver for Bugatti in 1932.
The 500-unit Chiron production run sold out in just five years.
The hypercar, by definition, is exclusive. This is especially true of Bugattis, though. In fact, the brand has only built two series production models, the Veyron and Chiron, since it was acquired by Volkswagen AG in 1998, both of which were produced in very limited numbers. Only 450 Veyrons were built during the 10 years it was in production. Amazingly, the Chiron sold through its entire production run, which will include 50 more examples than its predecessor, in half that time.
Bugatti’s “near-production” Chiron that broke 480km/h Bugatti
Michelin had to make special tyres for the Chiron’s 489.2km/h speed run.
The most restricting—and dangerous—element of a top speed trial is the tire the car is running. For the Chiron’s 489km/h sprint, Michelin took its Sport Cup 2 shoes and wove stronger metallic threads into the rubber. Exhaustive testing at speeds of up to 510km/h was conducted long before the shoes were fitted to the Chiron, and each tyre was x-rayed after to find any imperfections.
The Chiron could’ve gone faster if it was tested at a higher elevation.
The modded Chiron’s 489km/h speed isn’t the car’s ceiling. It was actually still gaining speed when test pilot Andy Wallace had to back off the throttle to enter an upcoming turn safely. The run was purposefully completed at Volkswagen Group’s Ehra-Lessien test track in Germany because it’s relatively near sea level. Had the Chiron run in Nevada, where Koenigsegg chose to set a 447km/h record in its Agera RS, the lower air pressure and density due to the higher elevation mean the Chiron would’ve been 24km/h faster—at least according to reps for Bugatti.
There are 3,460,250 kilometres miles of carbon fibre inside one Chiron.
Bugatti claims that if all the carbon-fibre elements of a single Chiron were disassembled down to individual strands and connected end-to-end, it would total 3,460,250 km. For reference, that’s about nine times the distance from the Earth to the moon (384,472 km) or enough to wrap around the Earth 86 times.
Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport Photo: Courtesy of Bugatti.
The surface area of the Chiron’s catalytic converters totals about 25 New York City blocks.
Catalytic converters are required on all vehicles to snag dangerous particulates from the exhaust system. Your daily driver likely employs one, so naturally, the Chiron uses six. If you add up all the surface area of the honeycomb catalyst material in the half-dozen units, you’d have about 230,265 sqm.
The Chiron’s high-tech air conditioning system can cool an entire apartment.
Bugattis are designed to go fast. Really fast. Because of this, the engineers at Molsheim have had to rethink how you build a car. Just look at the cooling system in the Chiron. It doesn’t just have to stop the vehicle’s massive W16 engine from overheating, it also needs to ensure the driver is comfortable as they hurtle towards 480km/h. To do this, the company had to come up with a system that reaches the desired cabin temperature quickly, maintains it and operates as quietly as possible. It takes a powerful A/C to do this, specifically one powerful enough to cool a space measuring 80sqm, or about the size of a Sydney one-bedroom.
The Chiron uses 3-D-printed brakes.
How do you stop a 1100kW, 2000kg Chiron when it’s cooking along at 420km an hour? Phenomenal brakes. Those eight-piston titanium monobloc brake callipers are the first callipers to be produced on a 3-D printer. Not only are they lighter by 40 per cent than traditional aluminium brakes, but they’re also the largest and most powerful brake calliper fitted to a production car.
Bugatti La Voiture Noire Photo by Keno Zache, courtesy of Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S.
Jean Bugatti’s influence extends all the way to the one-of-a-kind La Voiture Noire.
Ettore Bugatti’s son Jean may have passed away more than 80 years ago, but his continued influence can be seen in the one-off La Voiture Noire. That’s because the $26.2 million hypercar is based on one of the most important Bugattis of all time, the fabled Type 57 SC Atlantic, which was designed and driven by Jean in the ‘30s. While the identity of La Voiture Noire’s owner remains one of the marque’s most intriguing mysteries, the oldest may be what happened to the car its based on: That Type 57 SC Atlantic, chassis No. 57453, vanished shortly after the start of World War II and hasn’t been seen since.
The new Centodieci is a modern interpretation of the iconic EB 110.
The EB 110 emerged in 1991 and set the automotive world ablaze. It’s the only series-production Bugatti built in Italy and set four world records, including the fastest acceleration, the fastest series-production sports car, the fastest sports car running on gas, and the fastest series-production car on ice. Bugatti decided to pay homage to that (brief) period when its factory was in Italy, and so the Centodieci (Italian for “110”) emerged in 2019. Unlike traditional modern Bugattis that feature a teardrop design, with an overall swooping line that starts higher in the front and tapers down in the rear, the 1193KW Centodieci—built on the Chiron platform—retains the original wedge shape of the EB 110: low in the front, higher in the rear.
Bugatti Centodieci Photo: Courtesy of Bugatti.
The Centodieci’s taillight took six months to design and build.
Engineers claim that the beautifully detailed and intricate taillight on the Centodieci was the single longest portion of the design and development process, requiring about a half a year. The challenge was creating a three-dimensional effect that was functional and striking.
Bugatti will put diamonds in the speedometer.
If your multi-million dollar Bugatti isn’t expensive nor rare enough, the factory will gladly allow you to check a box to insert one-carat diamonds in the speedometer. If you’re wondering why you’ve never seen a blinged-out Bugatti speedo, we are, too. It’s impossible to find a photo of one online and Bugatti remains mum as to how many customers have actually selected this option. All Chirons come standard with diamonds, though they’re somewhat hidden. Each of the four tweeters in the car’s Accuton sound system features a one-carat diamond membrane in order to offer optimum aural fidelity.
It took two years to complete the paint job on the Divo “Lady Bug.”
You can’t accuse Bugatti of cutting corners. The brand fully commits itself to every single part of the design, development and manufacturing process. Just look at the paint job on the Divo “Lady Bug.” The marque’s designers spent two years coming up with an intricate diamond pattern for the car’s exterior to ensure it looks just like its insect namesake. The process was so time consuming that at one point the team almost gave up. Fortunately, they kept at it, and the resulting car is nothing if not standout, even among the other 39 Divos.
Bugatti Divo “Lady Bug” Ted7/Bugatti
Design experts have deemed the Bolide the most beautiful hypercar in the world.
Bugatti doesn’t just make several of the fastest production vehicles of all time, it can also claim one of the best looking—officially. Last fall, a panel of leading automobile designers named the track-only Bolide the most beautiful hypercar in the world at the 36th Festival Automobile International in Paris. “The Bolide was an entirely different challenge for our design team, and a kind of mental experiment where we stripped the car back to its W16 quad-turbocharged heart and rebuild it with the bare minimum to create the most extreme Bugatti yet,” design director Achim Anscheidt said in statement following the event. “The key for us was to respect the technical requirements of Bolide, focusing first on the function and only then developing the form.
A production prototype of the Bugatti Bolide Photo by Drew Phillips, courtesy of Rolex.
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This Speedy 70-Foot Power Catamaran Is Designed to Cut Through Rough Waters
The 70-foot T-2000 Voyager can hit 60 mph in flat conditions, and then take waves up to 30 feet.
Back in April, Storm Kathleen slammed into the west coast of Ireland as a fearsome Force 10 gale, packing 112 kph winds and 15-foot waves. While locals sandbagged their homes and prepared for the worst, Frank Kowalski decided it was a swell day for a boat ride.
As owner of Safehaven Marine in County Cork, he’d just launched his brand-new, 70-foot T-2000 Voyager all-weather power catamaran. What Kathleen offered was a chance to put the new super-cat through its paces.
“We knew from scale-model tests that she should be able to tackle waves of more than 65 feet high,” Kowalski tells Robb Report. “But you never know until you’re out there. In the height of the storm, she just shrugged off the waves and weather and performed flawlessly.”
Evolved from Safehaven’s 75-foot XVS20 monohull launched in 2018, Kowalski used his expertise in building commercial, work-boat power catamarans to design the twin-hulled T-2000 Voyager to offer speed with stability.
“The stability in beam seas is what’s key here,” he says. “While we were out recently in a Force 8 with 40-plus knot winds and 12-foot seas, we were able to stop and leave the boat to drift while we retrieved a drone. It just took the waves on the beam with ease. In a monohull, it would have been rolling so badly you couldn’t have stood on the deck.”
Then there’s the sheer velocity that comes with twin, scalpel-thin hulls slicing through waves. With the T-2000’s pair of 1,550 hp MAN V12 diesels driving France Helices SD5 surface drives, the Safehaven can hit a top speed of 91 kph.
“It’s just the most amazing sight, standing on the stern, watching these huge roostertails behind,” Kowalski adds. “We’ve also incorporated retracting swim platforms so you can see the props spinning on the surface, plus valved exhausts that switch between silenced and straight-through. The noise from those V12s is sensational.”
While Safehaven has been building its Wildcat range of 40-, 53-, and 60-foot power cats for everything from oil-rig support, crew transfer, and even as a military cruiser for Britain’s Royal Navy, they were always pure, no-frills work boats. With this new T-2000, Kowalski is looking to appeal to private buyers searching for something a little different.
His hull No. 1 demonstrator boat has all-diamond-quilted marine leather, well-finished cabinetry, colored LED lighting, and below-deck accommodations for six in three cabins. Hull No. 2—already sold and due for completion in the next 18 months—will up the luxury factor.
“It’s going to a client in the Middle East who plans to use it for just himself and his wife,” says Kowalski. The client has specified a full-width owner’s suite with a central, king-size bed and oversized his-and-hers bathrooms and closets in each hull. “He also wants to go fast—very fast,” Kowalski continues. “So we’ll install twin 2,000 hp MAN V12s, again with surface drives, and a central hydrofoil to reduce drag. The plan is for it to hit a top speed in excess of 100 kph.”
The new T-2000 is also designed to go the distance. With the 10,977 kilogram tanks, it has a range of more than 1,000 nautical miles at 55.2 kph, and 1,700 nautical miles at 28 kph. Throttle back to 19 kph and range increases to 3,000-plus nautical miles.
Much of this is down to the yacht’s symmetrical, semi-wave-piercing hulls, made of a carbon-fibre-composite construction, with inverted lower bow sections and a double-chine arrangement that projects spray clear of the boat. The hydrofoil in mid position also means that, at speed in calmish seas, the T-2000 rides with half its hull length out of the water.
To eliminate waves slamming into the bridge deck windshield, Kowalski moved the pilothouse farther back. It also makes for a sleeker profile, giving the T-2000 the look of a single-hull sportsyacht.
As for creature comforts, the main, open-plan salon features an L-shaped Corian-topped galley, with a U-shaped dinette opposite. To enjoy the action, there are bucket-style, shock-absorbing seats for the captain and copilot, a wraparound sofa on the port side, and a single bucket seat to starboard.
The entire helm area gets flooded with light courtesy of the four-panel, angled windshield and quartet of fixed skylights above. To see the boat’s hydrofoil in action, the bridge has a glass panel in the floor that’s also designed for viewing marine life below at night. Most of the windows have half-inch-thick toughened panels to shrug off cascading water.
In finer weather than typically found on coastal Ireland, the T-2000 has a small flybridge with a helm station and sun-lounge area up top, plus a covered stern cockpit with sofas and table for alfresco dining.
This storm-tested, metallic-red demonstrator is available for around $5 million.
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Six Senses Are Suddenly Everywhere. Inside the Luxury Resort’s Growing Global Empire
With 26 properties now open, another 43 to come, and the U.S. square in its sights, the rapidly growing wellness-focused resort and hotel brand is now asking the hard questions
If someone hit you in the head (hard) just before the pandemic, and you’re only waking up now, in the middle of 2024, you’ll have noticed some changes. For instance, the global proliferation of Six Senses hotels and resorts.
Once a relatively quiet group of wellness-focused Asian resorts for in-the-know Europeans, Six Senses is now in the midst of a breakneck opening spree with the U.S. square in its sights. Since 2019—when hotel giant IHG dropped $440 million in cash to acquire the operator’s then 16 hotels and resorts from private equity group Pegasus Capital Advisors—it’s grown to 26 urban hotels and destination resorts in 21 countries across four continents. (Its Vana resort in India is one of Robb Report‘s 50 best luxury hotels in the world).
Blink again and that number may have doubled. By 2026, Six Senses, now the flagship brand of IHG’s luxury and lifestyle portfolio, hopes to have a shingle hanging in London, Bangkok, Dubai, Lisbon, Napa, and Tel Aviv. There are currently 43 Six Senses in the pipeline, which will extend Six Senses footprint from the Carolinas to Victoria Falls. Many of those new properties will come packed with branded residences.
So is Six Senses trying to conquer the world via ayurvedic medicine, longevity spa treatments, and mindfulness exercises?
“It’s been a hell of a ride,” admits CEO Neil Jacobs. “But the answer is no, and we have a real point of view on that.”
More on that point of view momentarily, but it’s worth pausing to note that despite his protestations, Jacobs comes to Six Senses with 14 years of experience with a hotel group that is arguable much more overtly interested in turning planet Earth into one massive 5-star hotel lobby: namely, the Four Seasons. As senior vice president of operations for the Four Seasons’s Asia Pacific region, he witnessed the company expand from roughly two dozen hotels into the 130-ish-address, Bill Gates– and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal–owned leviathan of luxury it is today. The Four Seasons’s stated goal is 200 hotels. But Jacobs tells Robb Report it’s neither his or IHG’s intention to turn Six Senses into the Michael Kors of opulent wellness resorts.
“We think less is more,” he says of that aforementioned point of view. “Our competitors are all about growth. With Six Senses the conversation is very much the opposite of that. You’ve got to be really careful about what you do and where you go. I mean, we started with eight resorts in 2012. Then there were 11, and we got rid of two or three. Today, there are 26. So we’ve only opened 18 in nearly 12 years, really.”
Still, the Bangkok-based company is hurtling toward 60-plus properties, a number Jacobs says he is “comfortable” with. What happens beyond that is stickier.
“We have four projects in Italy. We could do another five, but why?” says Jacobs. “Instead, let’s move to another country and spread, rather than just inundate the brand in one country, even though there’s places to do it. It’s a continual argument internally. We have some great places coming to Italy, but we don’t have Venice. So then my team says, ‘If we have a Venice deal, are you going to say, ‘Don’t do it?’ Good question. But the answer is, ‘maybe.’”
Whether it’s Six Senses, the Four Seasons, or Auberge (another brand that has seen a similarly rapid expansion), the answer to the question “When does quantity extinguish the spark of quality?” is worth at least a billion. But it’s also a problem that highlights the welcome fact that, despite the current slump, “luxury” is winning; it may have already won.
From fashion to travel, a growing share of businesses have repositioned themselves to serve the high-end consumer, as growing global wealth supports superior margins realized through the relative simplicity of a luxury rebrand. The affordable family resort of yesterday becomes the aspirational seaside playpen of today. As long as demand for luxury everything is here, deep-pocketed hotel groups will grow to meet it.
At the same time, the success of “luxury” creates a clear existential dilemma: If luxury becomes the standard setting, it is by definition no longer an indulgence, no longer a luxury. And as luxury becomes more gray and undifferentiated, the vague, eye-of-the-beholder quality that was once its strength, is now its liability.
It’s a problem that Jacobs feels that Six Senses was uniquely designed to address.
“That sixth sense in our name, we see it as intuition,” he says. “It’s interesting because one of our initiatives for this year in wellness is spiritual wellness. In the past, we’ve done a lot of yoga, we’ve done a lot of meditation, but we haven’t done a lot of overtly spiritual programs. We think the time is right.”
Those programs serving up, non-religious, lightly-woo spirituality on a silver platter roll out later this year and offer a key differentiator for the brand’s fastest growing customer base: Americans.
“Back in 2012, it was predominately a European customer, I’d say 85 percent,” says Jacobs. “There was no business coming from the U.S. Today, the U.S. is our number market, even though we don’t have anything open in the U.S.”
It’s not for lack of trying. Six Senses planned to open in Manhattan along the High Line in a doomed Bjarke Ingles–designed tower that was crushed by a Gambino crime family construction bribery scandal and the subsequent bankruptcy of its developer. Six Senses has since found a new site on 23rd St. between Seventh and Eighth Aves. in Chelsea, but is at least three years out.
It’s having a better, if not altogether easier, time with the 236-acre farm in Hudson Valley in Upstate New York. The site of a failed “secret hotel” project, Six Senses snatched up the land for $20.2 million in 2022, making it some of the only real estate the brand owns (as with many brands, outside investors typically carry the deeds). Although it would be the first five-star flag in the region, the project has faced community opposition that could scuttle yet another attempt to create a footprint in the U.S.
“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Del LaMagna, whose property shares a border with the site, told the Hudson Valley Pilot. “[IHG] decided they wanted to be here, they started hiring good local people to figure it out, but this whole idea of exclusive resorts for rich people just doesn’t work up here.”
That’s a matter of opinion, but Six Senses plans for the U.S. extend far beyond the town of Clinton. Besides urban hotels in New York, L.A., and Miami, it will open a series of resorts, starting with a 500-acre estate on the edge of Napa and a multi-island project off the coast of South Carolina spanning Hilton Head, Daufuskie, and Bay Point. The gargantuan scale of those properties will eventually facilitate the festivals and retreats that the brand has been recently investing in.
“It’s a lot of yoga, a lot of spirituality, a lot of fun, a dance, a lot of movement,” he says. “Those kinds of festivals resonate with people.”
So if you’re just waking up, welcome to a world where Six Senses is everywhere all at once. But Jacobs hopes that by selecting “extraordinary properties” and by “demonstrating our values in a highly meaningful way” that the resorts will fit into the ecosystem like redwoods in a pine forest. Call it a sixth sense.
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Rolls-Royce Debuted the New Phantom Scintilla at Monterey Car Week. Here’s Everything We Know.
Limited to 10 examples, each car has an interior defined by “painting with thread,” and a rumored price of around $2.6 million.
Visitors to the fabled Louvre Museum in the heart of Paris might remember an exquisite marble sculpture standing proud at the top of the main Daru staircase. Named the Winged Victory of Samothrace, this eight-foot-tall headless goddess—with gossamer wings—dates to 190 B.C.
What has it got to do with Rolls-Royce’s new Phantom Scintilla Private Collection limousine, unveiled during this year’s Monterey Car Week? A lot, in fact. Rewind to 1910 and Rolls-Royce’s managing director at the time, Claude Johnson, who reportedly commissioned well-known sculptor Charles Sykes to create a hood ornament to define the new Rolls-Royce brand. Apparently, Johnson had seen the statue during a visit to the Louvre and fell in love with it.
While a change in direction saw Sykes create the Spirit of Ecstasy, inspired by Johnson’s former secretary, English actress and model Eleanor Thornton, the Louvre statue was always considered by Goodwood to be the original inspiration for its now iconic emblem.
So, when Rolls-Royce designers looked for a muse for a 10-car, Phantom-based Private Collection series to be called Scintilla—derived from the Latin word for “spark”—the marque went back to the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue and its Mediterranean roots.
You see that influence in the car’s Spirit of Ecstasy figurine which, for the first time, features a translucent white, marble-like ceramic coating. It also carries over in the car’s two-tone paintwork—Andalusian White for the upper body, and powdery Thracian Blue, inspired by the color of the Med, for the lower section. A subtle metallic flake in the paintwork is said to mimic the sparkle of sunlight off the water.
Yet as with most bespoke and special-edition Phantoms, it’s the interior where Rolls-Royce craftsmanship is truly exhibited. In this case, the theme is exquisite embroidery or, as the automaker calls it, “painting with thread.”
For Scintilla, the embroidery work involves over 850,000 individual stitches. And at night, illuminated perforations in the material give the doors a wave-like glow. In Phantom tradition, there’s a Starlight Headliner in the roof, but here, more than 1,500 fiber-optic illuminations twinkle in sequence to mimic silk billowing in a breeze.
The centerpiece of the interior is the Phantom’s dashboard gallery ahead of the front-seat passenger. Named “Celestial Pulse,” it comprises seven metal ribbons, each individually milled from solid aluminum and given the same finely grained ceramic finish as the Scintilla’s Spirit of Ecstasy.
Rolls-Royce will build only 10 examples of the Phantom Scintilla, which had its public debut at the Quail, a Motorsports Gathering on August 16. Of that already small number, three will come to North America and, like the other seven, have already been sold. While there’s no official word on pricing, the figure $3.8 million has been reported.
“With every collection, we aim to tell the story of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and provoke our clients’ imagination, letting them know our Bespoke designers’ artistry is greater than they can envision,” stated Martin Fritsches, president of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars for the Americas, when asked for a comment by Robb Report. “We can’t think of a better way to tell this story than through the history of our idol, the Spirit of Ecstasy.”
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Astonishing Nature, At Its Most Magnificent
Scenic Eclipse hones 6-star ultra-luxury around Antarctica’s raw nature.
Picture this. You’re sitting at the Sky Bar on the Scenic Eclipse II. It’s freezing outside, but you’re warm and dry, sipping a delicious glass of pinot noir as you watch a colony of penguins play on the ice sheet. Is this a dream? Or just another incredible moment from the 6-star ultra-luxury discovery yacht Scenic Eclipse?
It may sound too good to be true, but Scenic has over-engineered their two major Polar ocean-going vessels (Scenic Eclipse & Scenic Eclipse II) to offer up mind-blowing opportunities to connect to untouched nature. While the White Continent continues to hold pride of place on most people’s bucket list, few will ever experience it in such refined style.
With just 200 guests on board in Antarctica for more landing opportunities, Scenic has decked out their vessels out with 6-star hotel facilities, and equipped them with luxury tech toys to satisfy even the most restless traveller.
They offer an impressive close to one-to-one staff-to-guest ratio, up to 10 dining experiences , as well as two state-of-the-art on board helicopters^, Zodiacs and a custom-built submersible^ for further discovery in the destination. Paddle boards and kayaks are deployed regularly (conditions permitting), and guests are provided with polar boots for land-based snow treks.
This is not a floating hotel but a discovery yacht for the discerning traveller. Daily plans are shaped around the weather and sea conditions. A typical day can include a leisurely breakfast and visit to the 550sqm Senses Spa#, morning and afternoon discovery excursions, lunch in your venue of choice or in your suite, and a delicious on board culinary experience for dinner before heading to your spacious suite with verandah to unwind.
When not out with the expert polar Discovery Team relax in the Observation Lounge or indulge in a sauna and massage in the 550sqm Senses Spa# wellness retreat. For your daily entertainment there are whales, penguins, orcas and seals to observe and document.
The two major trips that depart for East Antarctica from our part of the world in the next several months are Mawson’s Antarctica: Along the East Coast, which leaves from Queenstown, New Zealand in December and Antarctica’s Ross Sea: Majestic Ice & Wildlife which leaves from Dunedin in January 2025.
The first itinerary celebrates one of Australia’s national heroes, Sir Douglas Mawson, who occupies a place on the $100 note. This itinerary allows guests to follow in the footsteps of this intrepid explorer, retracing his travels across the continent in the name of scientific research. The trip takes in remote bays and ravishing coves, placing guest in breathtaking landscapes where wildlife reigns supreme.
Led by the expert polar Discovery Team, guests can also opt to dive below the depths of the polar waters in the custom-designed submersible Scenic Neptune II, or take to the skies in the two on board state-of-the-art helicopters (for an additional cost). Guest on this voyage will enjoy a heli-shuttle directly from the discovery yacht to view the remains of Mawson’s Hut. The Mawson 25-day all-inclusive itinerary departs from near Queenstown to Hobart on 15 December 2024 and 13 December 2025 and is priced from $39,270pp* with savings of $13,000pp* and a 50% off the Deluxe Verandah Suite upgrade.
The Antarctica’s Ross Sea: Majestic Ice & Wildlife is voyage of a similar length, 24 days, but here the journey has a very end-of-the-earth feel to it. Striking ice landscapes offer vistas of gem-like glaciers, views to towering icebergs and jagged mountain ranges that form the backdrop to epic wildlife displays.
For nature lovers, the Ross Sea represents a holy grail, one that’s absolutely teeming with whales, orcas, penguins, seals and migratory seabirds. Day trips and land excursions here are all crafted in response to weather, by the expert polar Discovery Team and Captain who know the terrain.
These are side trips and excursions that are well designed to take advantage of the close access to truly life changing experiences and each one is a show-stopper.
Once again guests can opt to book the helicopter^ excursion for an extra cost to fly off and land in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, a place like no where else on earth where the snow is void or take a dive in the submersible^ to see what lies beneath.
This all-inclusive ultra-luxury, 24-day itinerary, departs from Dunedin, New Zealand on 31 January 2025 and 29 January 2026 and the voyage starts from $38,970pp* with savings of $13,000pp* and a 50% off the Deluxe Verandah Suite upgrade .
To learn more, visit: scenic.com.au
*Terms and Conditions apply.
^Flights on board our two helicopters and submersible experiences are at additional cost, subject to regulatory approval, availability, weight restrictions, medical approval and weather, ice and tidal conditions.
#Spa treatments at additional cost.
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The Small Dress Watch Is Back
Drawer the Daytona—a small, slim dress watch is the discerning wristwear of the moment.
For the first time in decades, dress watches—from simple, three-hand Patek Philippes to flamboyant Cartiers—are running circles around sports watches with regard to both desirability and style.
“In terms of taste, things have changed,” says David Hurley, deputy CEO of the Watches of Switzerland group, a retailer with 30 multi-brand and 25 mono-brand partnership stores across the U.S. While until recently demand “was all about the steel sport timepiece, ” he says, “now we’re seeing dress watches and brands such as Jaeger-LeCoultre”—long esteemed for its formal models—“performing well in our stores.”
The genesis of the shift dates back to the early days of the pandemic, when secondary prices on blue-chip sports watches such as the Rolex Daytona, Patek Philippe Nautilus, and Audemars Piguet Royal Oak began clocking staggering monthly increases; by early 2022, some pieces were fetching five times retail value. Then, in May of that year, the crypto collapse triggered both a decline in secondary-market values and an exodus of speculators who were only in the game to make a quick buck. Genuine enthusiasts who had been lured to sports models by the prospect of a rapidly appreciating asset were also free to return their attention to timepieces that better reflected their tastes.
“People who got priced out of these sports models suddenly realised they could go into a Patek Calatrava at retail price,” recalls Eddie Goziker, president of the pre-owned dealer Wrist Aficionado. “The market pushed them in that direction. And once they got there, they saw the value in it and stayed.”
With the vogue for smaller cases already in full effect, the clamor for slim, classic styles presented on a leather strap is now at a crescendo, according to vintage dealer Mike Nouveau. “The Patek 96, the first Calatrava ever, is 30.5 mm, and they made that watch for 40 years,” he says. “I’m buying and selling them like crazy, both for my personal collection and for clients.”
“There’s a ton of interest in Calatravas, vintage Vacheron Constantin, obviously Cartier,” says Eric Wind, owner of Wind Vintage in Palm Beach, Florida. “The steel sport watches used to be an ‘if you know, you know’ watch,” he says, explaining the aesthetic about-face. “The Nautilus 10 years ago used to be unknown. Now everybody on the planet knows what it is.”
And that, he notes, includes thieves, further helping the trend toward smaller, simpler, more discreet timepieces. “I know two people who had Patek Aquanauts stolen off their wrists, and another client had a gold Rolex Day-Date stolen in Brussels,” Wind says. “People don’t have the same connotation if you’re wearing an old dress watch—it’s more of a quiet luxury.”
But in the enthusiast world, of course, the quietest luxury can also be the loudest flex, and for dress watches, that includes the strap. Wind notes that bands by Paris-based leather-goods maker Jean Rousseau are afforded particularly high status. “A baller move is getting a Jean Rosseau with a single punch, just for their wrist,” he adds.
And the tremendous breadth of dresswatch designs, from simple three-hand models to ultra-complicated wonders, is a boon for collectors. If your tastes run to sober, sophisticated German watchmaking, a Saxonia by A. Lange & Söhne is just the ticket. A devoted minimalist? You can’t go wrong with the latest Toric collection from boutique maker Parmigiani Fleurier. Fans of more obscure brands would do well to consider the Patek-inspired (and typically sold-out) timepieces by Kikuchi Nakagawa, in Tokyo. Nouveau, for his part, recommends vintage Piaget and Breguet.
Even traditionally sporty brands are getting in on the action. At the end of May, Audemars Piguet introduced the [Re]Master02, a minimalist, asymmetrical homage to a 1960 model, from its extra-thin hour and minute movement to its matte-blue alligator strap, that’s on trend for the current dress-watch moment.
For yet more proof, consider Rolex’s increasing emphasis on its new 1908 Perpetual collection. Introduced in 2023 and expanded earlier this year with a 39 mm platinum model featuring an ice-blue guilloche dial and a brown alligator-leather strap, the 1908 is as sophisticated and gentlemanly as the brand’s iconic sports watches are rugged.
