The Smart, Quiet, Utterly Bizarre Future Of The Luxury Car

Artificial intelligence and fast, cheap algorithmic design will transform the automobile—and it will only get weirder from there.

By Josh Condon 15/04/2020

For as long as anyone could remember, a car was a car was a car. And then, one day, it wasn’t.

Which is to say the notion of an automobile going back a hundred years—a multi-box design on four tires, with a wheel and pedals, aimed by people and powered by orderly little explosions—has been upended by a maelstrom of globalisation, technological revolution, environmental reckoning and a wholesale assault on the ownership model. Such extreme disruption has unleashed a rapid evolution of the automotive species, with strange creatures now roaming the roads: Rolls-Royce SUVs and silent, battery-powered Croatian hyper-cars; Cybertrucks and fin-shaped hatchbacks with gullwings and brains big enough to take the wheel for a spell. It’s like looking around one day and realizing some dogs are now the size of horses and chirp, while others have opposable thumbs, sonar and definite opinions on Brexit.

Take the luxury car. Not long ago the term meant something fairly specific: a large, imperious saloon with a respectably immoderate gas-burning engine and a leathered and carpeted backseat with ample space for raising a family. Now it’s as formless and atomised as the rest of the sprawling luxury universe, which includes collectible sneakers and stiff, terrifying plastic Japanese teddy bears and feeling very ashamed of your jet. Tesla’s austere, vegan-friendly robots are the must-have choice for the Silicon Valley set even as six-figure SUVs proliferate like 2000kg bunnies in the exurbs. Meanwhile, a younger generation of buyers appreciates zero-emissions vehicles but would really rather the automobile had the good sense to go away entirely, like voice mail.

Yet there are signs the automotive industry is finally coalescing around an idea of what a car will be in the future—and down that road lies an interesting potential detour: The luxury car, instead of simply representing a pricier version of whatever the car du jour is, branches off into something else entirely. For the first time ever, a difference not just of degree but of kind, transformed by three interconnected forces: artificial intelligence, the rise of niche manufacturing and increasing rarity.

Aston Martin

New technology will create streamlined cockpits, like in Aston Martin’s Lagonda All-Terrain Concept. Courtesy of Aston Martin

Artificial Intelligence

Two major technological revolutions are shaping the car of the future: electrification and autonomy.

Electric vehicles (EVs) will eventually win out not simply because of an increased focus on sustainability, or because Tesla made them sexy, but because they provide undeniable benefits for an industry that’s become overwhelmingly consolidated, inextricably globalised and massively regulated—and because EVs ultimately pair better with self-driving technology.

Wide-scale EV adoption not only alleviates regulatory headaches over what’s being spewed from the tailpipe—EVs have no spew, and no tailpipes—but the cars are also simpler to manufacture and suited to the type of modular architecture now favoured by the world’s largest automakers, in which a few platforms underpin a wide variety of vehicles. (The Volkswagen Group, which owns 12 brands across seven countries, produces more than 30 different models on its MQB platform alone, from sports cars to minivans.) Plus, the world’s largest car market, China, is pushing a blistering rate of battery-powered EV adoption—more than a million electric and hybrid-electric cars sold in 2018—with Europe, the third-largest market, attempting to keep pace. Regardless of whether the US intends to continue its retrograde love affair with fossil fuels, an increasingly climate-minded global market will ensure the automobile’s plugged-in future.

As for self-driving technology, it’s anyone’s guess when it becomes a widespread consumer reality; it’s not just a question of technological capability but a complex matrix involving legislation, infrastructure and liability. Meanwhile, everyone from Samsung to Uber is spending astonishing amounts of money to ensure a front-row seat whenever the show starts.

“Without a doubt, on our road map is to have privately owned vehicles enabled with our technology,” says Adam Frost, chief automotive and corporate development officer at Waymo, formerly the Google Self-Driving Car Project, now its own entity within Google’s parent company, Alphabet. “And our partners are obviously very interested in that. We’re in discussions with them around, ‘What is that product?’”

Rolls-Royce

Rolls-Royce says its 103EX Concept will be “as unique as your own fingerprint.” Courtesy of Rolls-Royce

But the day when you can Netflix and chill in your Level 4 autonomous ride is years, if not decades, away. For now, companies like Waymo, Cruise and Argo AI have partnered with (or been bought by) automakers to develop fleets of L4-equipped taxis that operate within the confines of certain test cities: Waymo runs autonomous Chrysler Pacifica minivans in parts of Phoenix, while Argo has AI-equipped Fords operating in Palo Alto, Detroit and Pitts- burgh. These vehicles rely on information from onboard hardware such as cameras, sensors, radar and a laser-based system called LIDAR, plus incredibly detailed 3-D maps.

“We make a Waymo-specific map,” Frost says. “It’s a very deep understanding of the physical environment. It uses a high-definition mapping system that understands where hills are. It can see stop signs, it knows where the traffic lights are, where the lane markings are. It even has the curb edge captured.”

According to Alex Roy, a journalist for The Drive who writes frequently about automation and is an investor in the AV space, the industry’s “geofenced” operating areas and automotive-technological partnerships hint at how the technology could roll out for personally owned autonomous vehicles.

“The artificial intelligence stack has to be taught anew in each city,” Roy says. “You start with one city, then you add more cities, and then, eventually, those cities can be connected. It’s service coverage, like a cell-phone map.” At some point, Roy says, AV companies will have to compete for personal-vehicle customers in overlapping markets. That could mean choosing a Ford over an Audi based partly on the brand, specifications and range of its autonomous technology, like choosing a mobile phone based not just on features like screen size and operating system but service area and call quality. A vehicle’s tech capabilities (autonomous and otherwise) will increasingly become distinct vehicle features, like the engine or stereo system, upgradable for those who want the latest and best—and not just the tech itself, but how it’s deployed.

Google computer

Part of Google’s advanced quantum computer. Courtesy of Google

Consider that, by design, autonomous vehicles are unlikely to ever truly flaunt the speed limit like a human would, no matter how much open road lies ahead. That means, during the period when roads are shared by both human-driven and autonomous machines, getting anywhere faster than the posted limit in an AV might require the opening of a wallet instead of a throttle.

“Luxury cars that have been upgraded in the system as ‘priority vehicles’ could be allowed to travel much faster and overtake nonpriority cars,” Roy says. “For a price.”

And that’s to say nothing of in-cockpit technology. The crazed rush to develop self-driving capability kicked open the auto industry’s door to Big Data. Now comfortably inside, Amazon, Apple and Google have no intention of ceding a massive captive audience—more than 80 million new vehicles were sold worldwide in 2018 alone—that will soon have to figure out what to pay attention to inside a car once driving has been scratched off the list. Ordering the luxury vehicle of the future might entail ticking boxes for gaming and entertainment packages that include the latest Fortnite release and an Amazon Prime video subscription, or a health package with integrated real-time biometric monitoring.

If that sounds far away, that’s because it is. But Big Data is changing the possibilities around the luxury car in more tangible ways, and some of the most incredible are happening right now.

Niche Manufacturing

“To create a vehicle at the moment, whether it’s a run of one or a hundred or a hundred thousand, the investment needed in tooling and man-hours is astronomical,” says Felix Holst, chief product officer and founding partner of Hackrod, a start-up that explores radical new manufacturing applications in the automotive space. “As 3-D printing and robotic metal forming and all sorts of other advanced, automated manufacturing techniques come online, it has the power to put the consumer in touch with manufacturing—in effect, mass manufacturing in the quantity of one.”

Hackrod

The algorithmically generated chassis design for Hackrod’s La Bandita roadster.

This is the bleeding edge of automotive production. Even Tesla’s heavily automated Fremont factory, a vast California facility where whirring robots press and laser and lift car bodies 15 feet onto a rail system with the ease of placing a can of soup on a shelf, relies on an essentially traditional manufacturing process: Designers sketch cars, engineers model and refine the design, and people and machines assemble the parts. But Holst and Hackrod cofounder Mouse McCoy saw that a convergence of advanced technologies—artificial intelligence, virtual reality, algorithmic design, 3-D printing—could flatten the process in the same way that music software like GarageBand turned the labour-intensive process of making an album into something replicable by a bored teenager in his bedroom. Holst, a former vice president for design at Hot Wheels, says the goal was to imagine “whether three kids in their garage could start a car company.”

The result was Hackrod’s La Bandita roadster, built on a chassis conceived not by engineers but by a machine-learning algorithm and brought to life by advanced manufacturing processes.

“It’s generative design,” says Holst. “Which is basically, set your needs and parameters for what you’re trying to achieve and allow cloud processing to give you an optimised structure that solves for those needs.” This type of algorithmic software can already tackle complex engineering problems, such as an engine swap. When staggeringly powerful quantum computers become widely available (as of this writing, there are reportedly only 11 examples online around the world), such calculations could be computed across infinite parallel universes just for fun.

The implications for vehicle customization are astounding, especially in a future of simplified electric vehicles. A customer could buy a modular EV “skateboard”—a flat row of batteries on motorized running gear—then commission a boutique manufacturer to algorithmically generate a body design to exact performance and safety specifications, crash-tested in virtual reality and printed over the course of days or even hours, and entirely unconstrained by needs like a driver’s seat or a windshield you can see out of.

“We build the entire automotive experience around a steering wheel and pedals, so all cars have a similarity to them,” says Frost. “When you think 30 years down the track, and the Waymo [autonomous] driver being an enabler, it becomes a blank sheet.”

Rolls-Royce

Interior of Rolls-Royce concept Courtesy of Rolls-Royce

And creativity need not stop at the vehicle manufacturing. The interior and exterior could be painstakingly hand-finished using a combination of high-tech and old-school techniques, like contemporary resto-modifiers do today with classic cars. That could mean everything from 3-D-printed seats, designed using personalized body mapping and upholstered by hand, to a carbon-fibre rear wing re-created to the exact, laser-scanned dimensions of the ’95 Le Mans–winning McLaren F1 GTR.

“We really are on the cusp of some very dramatic shifts,” says Holst. “There is a view of the future that is very like the golden age of coachbuilding.”

To make such bespoke vehicles self-driving, imagine AI software and sensor hardware bundled together as an off-the-shelf automotive component the same way you can buy a Ford crate engine or parking sensors from Amazon. Waymo already sells its LIDAR scanning tech to nonautomotive customers, while San Diego– based Comma.AI offers a $930 device called the Eon DevKit, which uses a camera and the brand’s open-source software to enhance the driver- assistance systems of numerous vehicles across brands, like an aftermarket Tesla Autopilot.

Such bespoke and well-equipped machines will not come cheap; they will be the wild exceptions among a herd of increasingly homogenized commuter shuttles—until, of course, they’re not. Citing huge demand for mass-market but customisable 3-D-printed gear from Nike and Adidas, Holst suggests such cars “will very quickly be for the everyman.”

And when such dream machines become available to the masses, where will the luxury car go from there?

The Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla’s Cybertruck brings the post-apocalyptic future to the present day. Tesla

Rarity

There is a future––far away and hardly guaranteed, but possible—in which your average car is nothing but a whizzing electric box powered through inductive charging by the very roads on which it expertly drives itself. A luxury version of such a car is easy to imagine: Just make the box bigger and more sumptuous, an autonomous transport the size of a rock band’s touring bus lavishly appointed by the great interior designers of the time, hung with art and plied with every amenity from sleeping quarters and a gym to climate-controlled wine storage.

But in this same obscure tomorrow there’s another version of the luxury car, one which is considered an astonishing oddity to behold—outlandish, anachronistic, perhaps even deliberately provocative. That car will look, nearly exactly, like the car of today: an utterly servile box and tires, with a steering wheel and pedals, powered by the crude liquefied remains of dinosaurs.

The automobile may be rolling toward an electrified, customizable, self-driving future, but technology trends toward the efficient and the democratic—two qualities the luxury market can’t abide. Just consider the story of the “quartz crisis,” which almost killed off the luxury watchmaking industry as we know it.

In the waning days of the 1970s, the entire horological industry decided it had seen the future, and that future ran on batteries. Quartz-powered watches were more accurate, more reliable and far cheaper to produce than complex mechanical movements. Everyone from Rolex to Patek Philippe embraced the brave new world; brands across Switzerland destroyed their watchmaking machinery, the old ways unceremoniously discarded in heaps of suddenly obsolete tooling.

Bentley concept

Bentley EXP 100 GT concept car Courtesy of Bentley

Then, eventually, the fever waned. Luxury buyers were no longer enamoured of simplicity and efficiency. They wanted instead to absorb themselves in the complex, inefficient, labour-intensive products of human industry, as they did with their architecture and wines and bespoke suits. Powered once again by intricate mechanical movements, the luxury watchmaking industry eventually regrew itself into a multibillion-dollar industry that shows no signs of slowing.

There is no such mass-market future for the loud, brainless, gas-powered automobile, especially when fossil fuel may cost as much as gold and legislation and liability have driven human-powered cars from the road in the name of safety. And as congestion pricing and subscription-based automotive services conspire to hollow out the middle-class ownership model, “the luxury of private ownership is about to become far more rare, especially in cities,” says Alex Roy, with future roads populated by vehicles paid for “by the minute or mile.”

But for those collectors who can afford to house and feed and maintain a fussy, demanding, extravagant curiosity, the reward will be a direct link to one of humankind’s greatest achievements, a remarkably robust and sometimes dazzling beast of burden on whose back we built the modern world.

One will need more than access to gasoline and a dying breed of knowledgeable mechanics. An archaic automobile kept alive in a distant future will require space to roam. And in a world of whizzing boxes depositing us like pre-sorted mail, what savage freedom it will be to take off toward nowhere and let the thing bellow and fart and run where you tell it, as fast as you dare. They’ll call it senselessly dangerous and heretically backward—the kind of outmoded, mostly illegal fun available only to historical reenactors and the very rich.

Which is to say, according to Roy, “the best way to ensure you’ll be able to drive in the autonomous future is to own the road you’re driving on.”

 

This story comes from our latest Autumn 2020 issue. To purchase a copy or to sign up to an annual subscription of Robb Report Australia & New Zealand click here. To stay in touch with all the latest news click here.

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This Italian Company Made Ernest Hemingway’s Favourite Pens. Here’s How It’s Done.

At Montegrappa, a focus on age-old techniques makes for unique, heirloom-quality fountain pens.

By Jeff Buchanen 04/11/2024

In this age of digital supremacy, it’s reassuring to know the pen is alive and well. And nowhere is it thriving quite like it is in Bassano del Grappa, a picturesque medieval village in Veneto, Italy, that has been home to Montegrappa, the country’s oldest pen company, since 1912. The firm specialises in rollerball and fountain pens for the discerning, and its products are still made in its original factory on the banks of the Brenta River. 

Notable actors, athletes, musicians and even popes have used its wares, but the seed for one of Montegrappa’s most significant endorsements came when a then-unpublished author encountered the brand in 1918. Ernest Hemingway, just 19 years old at the time, was serving as a volunteer ambulance driver for the American Red Cross when he was assigned to a station 100 m from the factory. The robust Elmo model, still produced by Montegrappa today, became his writing instrument of choice. 

More than a century later, Montegrappa pens remain renowned for their design and are still largely crafted by hand according to the company’s old-world manufacturing process. And while you can order a model off the shelf, varying levels of customisation are also available. Through the Extra Custom program, you can commission a uniquely hand-painted or burin-engraved style made from sterling silver or yellow, rose, or white gold and have the barrel decorated with an image or motif you select. Such pieces can require several weeks to complete, and prices range from around $2,400 to as high as $67,000—all to create a pen that’s a story in itself. 

Each pen requires at least 36 individually handcrafted components—some considerable, others tiny and delicate. 

As perhaps the most visible component, the pen clip is hand-polished to a mirror-like shine. You can opt to have it set with a small cubic zirconia, as with this sterling-silver example.

Mammoth ivory, ethically recovered from Siberian permafrost, is carefully machine-turned to create the cap. The company also offers celluloid for its caps and barrels, as well as exotic woods, marble, carbon fibre, various metal alloys and a house-made resin called Montegrappite.

The cap band is machine-engraved with the company logo. The process also allows for the back of the band to be similarly etched with your initials in a selection of three fonts.

A burin is used to inscribe a “leaves and scrolls” pattern on the pen’s barrel. The intricate technique can also be used to reproduce photographs or works of art.

Montegrappa uses ebonite, a vulcanised rubber, to make its feeds, which connect a pen’s nib to its reservoir. The material is more porous than hard plastic, allowing for better ink flow. A craftsman precisely cuts the feed’s fins to ensure the best performance.

Montegrappa

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From Striped Hawaiian Shirts to Colorful Ceramics: 4 Luxe Items You Can Buy at Italian Hotels

A handful of Italy’s most beloved family-owned hotels are morphing into luxury brands of their own. Here, four in-house items worth traveling for. 

By Naomi Rougeau 04/11/2024

Hotel Passalacqua, Lake Como 

These days, it takes more than the finest linens and a Michelin-starred restaurant to take the No. 1 spot on a list of the world’s 50 best hotels, which Hotel Passalacqua did in 2023. The spa is stellar, to be sure, as is the pool house, which was decorated in collaboration with J. J. Martin of La Double J. But to fully embrace the villeggiatura and sense of place, even the tiniest details matter. Case in point: the hotel’s signature brass-fish bottle opener (there are also key chains), which will mentally transport you back to Lake Como every time you reach for a cold one. 

Le Sirenuse, Positano 

The red cliff-top hotel with sweeping views needs little introduction. Its owners, the Sersale family, were early to embrace the branding potential of the beloved property by launching an on-site boutique, Emporio Sirenuse, in 1993. These days, you can find Le Sirenuse’s clothing and swimwear everywhere from Net-a-Porter to Harrod’s, but nothing matches shopping the collection in person. If there’s only room in the suitcase for one thing, snag the brand’s riff on
the Hawaiian shirt in vacation-ready stripes. 

Borgo Santo Pietro, Palazzetto 

At Borgo Santo Pietro in Tuscany, the focus is on the serene landscape. (The spot was once a healing rest stop for medieval pilgrims.) Naturally, there’s an emphasis on farm-to-table cuisine, but more interesting might be the farm-to-spa treatments. Made in-house, the renowned Seed to Skin range draws on local remedies dating back to at least 1129; expect natural ingredients such as butterfat, thermal water, and raw honey. Grab the award-winning Eye Rescue Duo, a secret weapon for maintaining your post-vacation glow. 

Palazzo Avino, Ravello 

A once-private villa built in the 12th century, Palazzo Avino is one of the Amalfi Coast’s most celebrated hotels. When a former art gallery adjacent to Ravello’s beloved “pink palace” came up for sale, hotelier Mariella Avino and her sister Attilia made an offer. Mariella envisioned the new space, now dubbed the Pink Closet, as a spot to promote homegrown talent, partnering with the Camera Nazionale della Moda in order to provide a platform for emerging designers. We like the colorful, locally made ceramics—perfect for alfresco entertaining.

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Time Flies

Bugatti’s hybrid Tourbillon is the most powerful model in the marque’s history. And the coolest bit? An instrument cluster inspired by the finest Swiss horology.

By 30/10/2024

First there was Veyron. Then came Chiron. Now Tourbillon. Bugatti’s new 1,800 hp (1,342 kW) hypercar delivers even more shock-and-awe than its predecessors. Gone is the famed 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 engine. In its place is a new 1,000 hp (746 kW), 8.3-litre naturally aspirated V16 paired with a trio of electric motors delivering 800 hp (597 kW). That combination makes this the most powerful Bugatti ever.

While the design of the all-carbon-composite body is clearly derived from the signature lines of both the Veyron and Chiron, its roofline is lower, the body lighter and more aerodynamic, and that iconic horseshoe grille more imposing. Yet the likely headline feature will be the car’s all-new interior featuring a skeletonised, titanium-and-sapphire-glass instrument cluster inspired by Swiss watchmaking (for the uninitiated—“tourbillon” refers to the mechanical complication that increases accuracy in high-end timepieces).

The 1,800 hp Bugatti Tourbillon hybrid.
Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S

“Beauty, performance, and luxury formed the blueprint for the Tourbillon. What we have created is a car that is more elegant, more emotive and more luxurious than anything before it,” stated Mate Rimac, Bugatti Rimac’s CEO, to Robb Report during an exclusive preview at the company’s newly opened design studio in Berlin.

He explained that, four years ago, when the Tourbillon concept was on the drawing board, there were multiple suggestions for what an all-new Bugatti might look like. Options included an SUV, a coupe-like crossover and a luxury four-door sedan. Then there was the choice of either a hybrid or all-electric power train. “The proposal to make it electric was the obvious choice. We had our [Rimac] Nevera, that we could easily transfer our technology and re-skin the body. But I felt it was wrong for Bugatti,” said Rimac. “I wanted a successor to the Veyron and Chiron, a true hypercar with a combustion engine. Our customers agreed.”

Comprising more than 600 components, the skeletonized instrument cluster is constructed from titanium and features sapphire-glass faces and detailing that incorporates rubies.
Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S

To create it, Rimac teamed with Cosworth, a renowned British engine builder, to help develop the naturally aspirated V16 mill. Designed to rev to 9,000 rpm, the engine offers a similar output as the original Veyron’s quad-turbocharged W16. To heighten the performance, Rimac and his team used their proven expertise in electric propulsion to pair the V16 with twin electric motors driving the front wheels, with a third at the rear. For battery power, a 25 kWh, oil-cooled 800-volt pack is integrated into the chassis and located behind the passengers. It’s powerful enough to give the Tourbillon a usable electric-only range of around 60 km.

As you would expect, the Tourbillon has been developed to be blisteringly fast. According to Emilio Scervo, Bugatti’s chief technical officer, early prototype tests suggest a rate of acceleration from zero to 100 km/h in 2.0 seconds, zero to 200 km/h in 5.0 seconds, and zero to 300 km/h in 10.0 seconds. Flat out, the max-speed target is 445 km/h, though with a speedometer that reads up to 550 km/h, we expect there’s more to come. “For us, it was important that the car retained the pure and raw analogue feel of a naturally aspirated combustion engine, while pairing it with the agility and ability provided by electric motors,” said Scervo.

The engine itself sits low in the Tourbillon’s new, super-stiff body structure, which is formed using next-generation T800 carbon composites. It features a forged-aluminium, multi-link suspension—front and rear—that replaces the previous double-wishbone steel setup used in the Chiron. The 3-D-printed aluminium suspension arms and uprights, and AI-developed, 3-D-printed hollow airfoil arm at the rear, are nothing less than pieces of art.

The center console features crystal glass that’s formed over 13 separate stages to ensure strength and clarity.
Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S

For the exterior lines, Frank Heyl, Bugatti’s director of design, explained that styling influences came from three landmark Bugattis of old: the Type 35 racer of the 1920s, the long Type 41 Royale built from 1927 through 1933, and the storied Type 57SC Atlantic from the 1930s. “The design focus was on Bugatti’s iconic horseshoe grille. It’s significantly wider and lower than in the Chiron, and it’s from which all lines of the car originate. It defines the car,” said Heyl, who added that another signature element is “the new central windshield wiper, which continues the line that starts on the hood and flows back along the roof. Just like on the Atlantic.” Set back from the grille are twin rows of wafer-thin LED lights. Between them is a narrow panel on the hood that raises up to reveal a “frunk” big enough for a set of custom-designed luggage.

In profile, the sweeping “Bugatti line” around the doors—a defining feature of both the Veyron and Chiron—looks even more striking with the car’s lowered roofline. At the rear, huge exhausts, a Le Mans–style carbon-fibre diffuser (twice the size of that on the Chiron), and a rolling wave of LED lights featuring illuminated “Bugatti” lettering, add to the visual drama. And to allow onlookers to gaze at that V16 power plant—and for cooling purposes—the engine sits open to the elements.

This prototype example of the Tourbillon, previewed by Robb Report, shows the styling influences that came from Bugatti’s Type 35, Type 41 Royale, and storied Type 57SC Atlantic from early last century.
Robb Rice

Upon opening the dihedral “scissor” doors and entering the cockpit, you’re presented with arguably the new Tourbillon’s most dramatic feature; a skeletonised instrument cluster inspired by the art of Swiss watchmaking. Made up of more than 600 components, it’s constructed from titanium with sapphire-glass faces and detailing that incorporates rubies.

The three-dial cluster is fixed in place, with the twin spokes of the flat-bottom steering wheel rotating around it. The unit is constructed, in-house, to remarkable horological tolerances of 50 microns—the average cross-section of a human hair. The entire cluster weighs just 709 g. Cascading down from the middle of the fascia is the centre console featuring crystal glass that’s formed over 13 separate stages to ensure strength and clarity. The aluminium elements are anodised and milled from a single block.


A close-up of the Bugatti Tourbillon’s 1,000 hp, 8.3-liter naturally aspirated V-16 engine.
The Tourbillon’s 1,000 hp, 8.3-liter naturally aspirated V-16 engine is paired with three electric motors.
Robb Rice

To add a little theatre to firing-up that big V16, there’s a prominent center-console aluminium knob that you pull to start, and push to turn off. It’s another nod to Bugatti models of yesteryear. What you won’t see, however, are any touchscreens. Heyl believes that the primary element that dates a car is an oversized screen. “What was state-of-the-art 10 years ago, is now ugly,” said Heyl. “The Tourbillon is designed to be timeless.”

In Bugatti tradition, the Tourbillon will also be highly exclusive. Only 250 examples are planned, each starting at around $6.3 million. The first customer cars are scheduled to be built at Bugatti’s atelier in Molsheim, France, starting in 2026.

Production is scheduled to begin in 2026.
Bugatti Automobiles S.A.S

“Yes, it is crazy to build a new V16 engine, to integrate it with a new battery pack and electric motors, and to have 3-D-printed suspension parts and a real Swiss watchmaker instrument cluster,” noted Rimac. “But it is what Ettore Bugatti would have done.”

Bugatti

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For Dubai, the Time Is Now 

The bustling Middle Eastern city is emerging as an important hub for serious watch collectors

By Paige Reddinger 30/10/2024

Tucked away in a corner of the Dubai International Financial Centre, near the Ritz-Carlton, is Perpétuel Gallery, an unassuming 1,200 m² boutique displaying some of the world’s most important independent watchmaking. During Dubai Watch Week—a biannual event run by the Seddiqi family, the most prominent watch retailers in the UAE—the shop, just a few minutes’ walk from the fair in the DIFC, held its own exhibition that was filled to the brim with the watchmakers themselves, from Roger W. Smith to Simon Brette to Rémi Maillat of Krayon. There, holding court, was Hamdan Bin Humaid Al Hudaidi, a distinguished collector who founded Perpétuel in 2021, in the middle of the Covid pandemic. 

“I never thought I would take my passion professionally, ever,” he tells Robb Report. “Everyone was against the idea because they were very certain this would fail.” How wrong they were. Instead, Perpétuel has become one of the most significant global players in connecting and brokering deals between collectors and their indie idols. As a serious client himself, Al Hudaidi has unique relationships that allow him to create limited editions exclusive to the gallery—quite a feat when you consider the waiting lists for some of the watchmakers in question are a decade or more long. A recent collaboration of 15 limited-edition Krayon Anywhere watches with desert-orange accents sold out to clients—not just in the Middle East, but also in Australia, the US and South Africa. 

The Perpétuel Gallery in Dubai
Courtesy of Perpétuel Gallery

It’s proof positive of the area’s booming and influential watch scene. Many credit Dubai Watch Week—and by extension the Seddiqi family—for the fervent local interest in watch collecting. When the event launched in 2015, it was small, hosting just 15 brands, mostly independents. “It was really a project to give back to the industry,” says Hind Abdul Hamied Seddiqi, director general of the event and CMO and communications officer for Ahmed Seddiqi & Sons, “but also to educate the general public that the watch industry is not as intimidating as you think.” It’s a strategy that has paid off. Last year’s edition ballooned to 60 brands, including big-name players such as Rolex, Audemars Piguet and Van Cleef & Arpels, along with nearly 24,000 attendees, the largest crowd to date. 

Despite the draw, the five-day-long public event has an easygoing appeal that other watch fairs often lack. One can spot Philippe Dufour perched outside a pavilion smoking a pipe, Kari Voutilainen enjoying an alfresco lunch, or Rexhep Rexhepi in line for an espresso. It’s an exceedingly rare chance for collectors to mingle with the masters in a relaxed space where everyone is in a jovial mood thanks to the casual atmosphere and balmy weather—and Seddiqi plans to keep it that way. “I worry if we go bigger, we’ll lose this feeling of intimacy,” she says. “I have a lot of people asking me to commercialise the show, but it’s just going to ruin the whole vibe.” 

A Roger W. Smith Series 5 Open Dial watch at Perpétuel Gallery
Courtesy of Perpétuel Gallery

The explosion of interest isn’t just for new timepieces: vintage is also having its moment. Historically, the Middle East hasn’t been receptive to “used” goods, but recent years have reflected a shift in perspective. Tariq Malik, cofounder and managing partner of Momentum, also located in the DIFC, just a three-minute walk from Perpétuel, was an early pioneer in the area when he opened shop in 2011. In the beginning, he says, it would be common for someone to look at his wares and ask if he was selling “used” watches. “I said, ‘It’s vintage,’ and they said, ‘Oh, wow.’ When I would say ‘vintage’ they would start pulling out their camera and taking photos. We brought vintage to Dubai, so it was a new thing.” He’s now sought-after by clients both in the UAE and internationally for his allotment of rare Rolexes, with a specialisation in Day-Dates and hard-to-find Stella and stone dials. 

Al Hudaidi also dabbles in vintage, predominantly ultra-rare Pateks—one might walk into Perpétuel and find him casually pulling a full-set Ref. 2499 third series from a coffee-table drawer. Naturally, that watch has sold along with two other full-set 2499s, but a unique Patek Philippe Ref. 1491J chronograph from the ’40s is still up for grabs (at press time, anyway). It was made by the Stern family for Jimmy Powers, an American boxing commentator during the era. 

Philippe Narbel Skel-1 in steel.

“I got goosebumps when I heard his voice on YouTube,” says Al Hudaidi. “I was like, ‘Oh, my God—that timepiece was his. And his name is engraved on the back!”

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6 Ways Technology Will Transform Your Private-Jet Experience in the Next Decade

Extreme leisure or full-throttle engagement? The private-jet cabin of the future will offer both.

By Daniel Cote 30/10/2024

Within a decade, private-jet cabins could make even today’s cutting-edge interiors seem ancient by comparison. From digital skylights and smart seats to eye-tracking functionality and immersive soundscapes, the array of innovative amenities could transform even the longest flights into time well spent. Here, six areas in which technology will take the onboard experience to new heights.

Screen Time

Within three to five years, some private jets may have select windows replaced with curved, high-definition 4K OLED displays connected to live video feeds from the aircraft’s exterior. Imagine a cabin ceiling that morphs into a conservatory with a spectacular view of the moon, or full-height windows that present the landscape below with incredible fidelity. Information overlays are easy additions, but consider that these built-in visual portals could also double as insane gaming screens.

Seat Change

E-textiles will transform the next generation of jet seats into intuitive in-flight spa recliners. Sensors within the fabric will note your size, weight, pressure distribution, and body temperature, then rely on their A.I.-driven processors to, say, heat the seat before you realise you’re chilly or massage that kink in your back without being asked. Powering themselves by converting body heat into electricity, the chairs might also know to widen and recline when you nod off.

Seeing the Light

Chronobiological lighting to mitigate jet lag will comprise organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panels, capable of creating 16.3 million different light combinations, to reset a passenger’s internal clock as they traverse time zones. Eventually, such panels will migrate from light fixtures to smart fabric on the ceiling, resulting in more diffuse illumination that allows for near-infinite options across the colour spectrum.

And there are many other applications. For example, OLED displays, as wide as a piece of paper, can be used to digitally transform the entire wall of the cabin’s colour, texture or scene. It is called projection mapping, and it will make changing the wall color from hot pink to a textured crocodile leather as easy as changing your computer screen saver. As Ingo Wuggetzer, vice president of cabin marketing for Airbus, explains, light literally creates spaces, giving cabin designers a highly versatile and easily customisable digital canvas.

Higher Management

The ability to access basic audio or video from your smartphone is here, but imagine faster, streamlined connectivity that lets you manage video conferencing, heating, mood lighting, window shades, service requests, even a steriliser—from a single app. According to Airbus’s Wuggetzer, next-gen digital architecture will turn personal spaces into individual “ecosystems” controlled by each passenger. Tim O’Hara, director of completions research and development at Gulfstream, notes that eye-tracking technology could allow you to interact with the app via virtual screen, meaning you don’t even have to lift a finger.

Breaking the Sound Barrier

Rosen Aviation has developed a new onboard audio system with Laurence Dickie, designer of the famed Bowers & Wilkins Nautilus loudspeaker. According to Rosen’s Lee Clark, the goal is to go from today’s audio equivalent of “a 1970s eight-track” to what he refers to as “Elvis, six feet away, singing to you”—a soundscape that only you will hear, delivered by headrest speakers and haptic drivers in the seat. Meanwhile, Bongiovi Aviation intends to employ transducers embedded in the jet’s interior side panels, eliminating the need for traditional speakers altogether. The advantages are numerous, and it allows airframers to reduce cabin weight and fully utilise space while eliminating traditional speakers from the design.

Bringing movie-theater audio quality to aviation is already available. Dolby Atmos puts you inside the movie or song as it is playing. In collaboration with Dolby, SkyCinema Aviation was the first to create an Atmos-enabled processor built for business jets to compensate for cabin altitude and jet noise. The result? You will clearly hear the car approaching from a half mile away in that famous scene of the 1959 Hitchcock classic North by Northwest, just as the director intended.

Hands Free

With full showers, skylights, and large vanities gracing the lavatories of the most luxe business jets today, what could be next? The smart lavatory is evolving into a nearly completely hands-free space by incorporating sensors to activate everything from faucets to showers. Using an AI algorithm, Diehl Aviation has taken it a step farther to add more functionality with voice-controlled commands for opening and closing the door, turning on lights, and activating water. Hologram light switches will eventually keep the lavatory completely hands free, while smart mirrors can multitask by providing an interactive display of digital content.

 

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