The top 24 yachts at the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show

Take a tour of the largest and newest superyachts at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show

By Danielle Cutler, Geri Ward, John Lyon, Rebekah Bell 31/10/2018

Every autumn at the tail end of hurricane season, yachting enthusiasts and industry insiders travel to South Florida to inspect boats big and small from all over the globe. We are, of course, talking about the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show, the largest in-water boat show in the world, scheduled this year for October 31 to November 4. The 2018 edition marks 59 years of this event, which hosts more than 1,500 boats—along 10km of floating docks—1,200 exhibitors, and 110,000 visitors at seven locations around Fort Lauderdale. Not only will visitors find all kinds of vessels—from superyachts and sailing yachts to jet boats and runabouts—but also exotic cars, watersports gear, and everything nautical.

Here are the yachts we think you should not miss.


Abeking & Rasmussen Elandess
Photo: Courtesy of Abeking & Rasmussen

Abeking & Rasmussen Elandess

By Geri Ward

This 74-metre superyacht surprised London last summer when it journeyed up the Thames, just weeks after its launch. Elandess also promises to wow Fort Lauderdale as the queen of the show. Designer Harrison Eidsgaard created a very special gigayacht with German builder Abeking & Rasmussen, including expansive social areas across the interior and exterior that equate to special family moments for the owners. Standout features include an 2.5-by-8- metre swimming pool up on the sundeck, and the Nemo Lounge beneath the waterline that includes a window into the ocean below. The yacht has seven suites, including the master apartment, for 14 guests and crew quarters for 24.


Amels Gene Machine
Photo: Courtesy of Amels

Amels Gene Machine

By Geri Ward

Gene Machine is not a new launch, but its American owner wanted it to be part of FLIBS in order to show the world the possibilities of Amel’s 180 Limited Editions range. The exterior design by Tim Heywood includes a distinctive grey hull with an orange stripe along the water, and a profile that slopes downward as it moves aft. The sundeck is devoted to the sun, with an open space forward, Jacuzzi in the middle, and yet more open space on the aft end. It’s probably the best viewing platform for any yacht its size. Enzo Enea’s interior includes an expansive saloon with floor-to-ceiling windows and a formal dining table in the forward section. Among the yacht’s many distinctive features are a “command chair” that rises above a table and other chairs, like a judge sitting on the bench, in the cockpit area, and a mural of sea creatures, including a grinning shark, in the children’s bedrooms. It’s a fun yacht, designed for spending time in the tropics.


Mangusta Oceano 43 Namaste
Photo: Maurizio Paradisi

Mangusta Oceano 43 Namaste

By Danielle Cutler

Also not a new yacht, but the first hull in the Oceano 43 line that launched last year, the 42-metre Namaste is the first Mangusta Oceano to hit the States and is making its first appearance at FLIBS. Designed inside and out by Alberto Mancini, Namaste is built in steel and aluminium, the long-range tri-deck is built in steel and aluminium. Highlights of Namaste’s exterior include the foredeck glass-bottomed pool, which provides a skylight to the master bath below, and a dedicated beach club, thanks to a forward tender garage.
Inside, sliding-glass doors on each side of the main saloon pull in natural light and sea breezes, and opens up the entire space to the outdoors. Namaste accommodates up to 12 guests in five staterooms, including the master suite with fold-down balcony. Seven crew members are housed in four cabins, one of which is the captain’s. Namaste has a top speed of 15 knots, a cruising speed of 11 knots, and a range of more than 4500 nautical miles.


Custom Line 120
Photo: Courtesy of Ferretti Group

Custom Line 120

By Danielle Cutler

Created Francesco Paszkowski Design, the new Custom Line 120 combines pieces of aeronautical, automotive, and residential design, as well as that of racing yachts, to create a sporty planing superyacht.

A noteworthy feature of the Custom Line 120 is the glass door between the aft cockpit and the main saloon. It rests at a 45-degree angle, and to open it tilts up into the ceiling and also opens horizontally. This makes for a true indoor/outdoor living space. Paszkowski and the Ferretti Group designers created the interior decor. Besides the main-deck master suite, four en suite staterooms reside belowdecks—two VIPs and two singles. Crew quarters are forward and include four cabins.

The flybridge offers up a hot tub and lounging space as well as stairs that lead to the forepeak dining and lounging area. Two garages are located at water level—one at the stern and one forward. All told, the 120 can carry two tenders and a three-person Jet Ski.

The new hull design reduces resistance and, with its pair of MTU 16V 2000 M96L engines, hits a top speed of 25 knots. Its cruise speed is 21, but in the 120’s “economical cruising speed” of 11 knots, the yacht has a range up to 1100 nm.


Adagio’s saloon and dining area.
Photo: Frankie

Horizon 115 Adagio

By Geri Ward

Horizon’s “CC” designator stands for Custom Collection, which means that owners get their new yacht the way they want it, from the exterior and interior layout all the way to the custom decor. In the case of the 35-metre Adiago, which will debut at FLIBS, the client commissioned Cor D. Rover, a noted Dutch superyacht designer, and the builder’s in-house design team to create a Horizon like no other. The designers gave a potentially conventional-looking exterior a more contemporary look by turning most of the foredeck into a sloping social area, adding large windows on the main deck, and creating a softer, less angular stern than most yachts its size. Add to that, a huge saloon with floor-to-ceiling windows, Dessie’s custom designer furniture from Italy, a Listone Giordano wood floor, and large beach club, and the yacht becomes a long-distance haven. The 115 is powered by twin 1200kW Caterpillar diesels that deliver a top end of 17 knots, and it cruises at 12 knots.


Sanlorenzo SL106’s main saloon
Photo: AEB Photo Design

Sanlorenzo SL106

By Geri Ward

Being on a 30-metre-plus yacht that reaches a top speed of 30 knots is a highly unusual experience. Add to that the contemporary design and open space of Sanlorenzo’s SL106 and you get a one-of-a-kind ocean runner. The planing yacht, which makes its US debut at FLIBS, offers two MTU diesel power options. The 1966kW twins, the larger of the two choices, give SL106 a top-end speed of 30 knots. The 1815kW option shaves off four knots, but is still notably faster than most yachts its size. Sanlorenzo’s design team went for an open interior, from stern all the way to the bow, that features a large saloon at the rear and dining room/family lounge in the front of the yacht. The Italian builder’s design team combined wood, marble, linen, and silk with bronzed and polished steel to create a contemporary but quite elegant interior. The SL106 also has opening terraces in both the saloon and owner’s stateroom. Nice touches like transparent side walls on the flybridge and teak handrails on the stern show that Sanlorenzo has thought about every feature on the yacht.


Hargrave Raised Pilothouse MB3
Photo: Courtesy of Hargrave

Hargrave 100 MB3

By Danielle Cutler

Delivered to its owners this year, the 30-metre semi-displacement Hargrave raised-pilothouse yacht MB3 features exterior styling and naval architecture by Hargrave and a soothing interior from Yacht Interiors by Shelley. Not common on European models, MB3 has a country kitchen with a casual dining space and kitchen counter to watch the chef in action. Four staterooms accommodate eight guests in a full-beam master stateroom with his-and-her bath, two VIP staterooms, and a twin cabin that converts to a king stateroom. A hot tub on the flydeck beckons guests up top to the bar and seating area—or maybe it’s the other way around. And a beach club at water level provides easy access to watersports, as well as a great space for sunning. Two 485kW Caterpillar engines give MB3 a top speed of 23 knots.


Ocean Alexander 90R
Photo: courtesy Ocean Alexander

Ocean Alexander 90R

By John Lyon

FLIBS sets the stage for the world debut of the first yacht in Ocean Alexander’s new Revolution series: the 90R. The 27-metre tri-deck motor yacht was designed by Evan K. Marshall along with Italian firm Arrabito Naval Architects. The flybridge’s upper deck is equipped with an indoor skylounge as well as an open-air bar and grill for cooking up some quick comestibles. Stonework is used extensively throughout the vessel, and on this deck, the bar and cabinet countertops are made from Cambria Berwyn stone. The main deck is home to the saloon, including its expansive views through floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as the master stateroom, which is outfitted with his-and-her closets and a bathroom with floors and walls covered in stonework. A deck below, guests can find respite in two regular cabins and a full-beam VIP stateroom. The lower deck is also home to the beach club, which stands out by not only having a bar area but also a skylight that can bathe the area in natural light or provide a window to the stars at night.


SX88’s saloon
Photo: Leo Torri

Sanlorenzo SX88

By Geri Ward

Sanlorenzo’s new SX88 is called a “crossover” boat because it combines the features of a motor yacht and a much larger explorer yacht. The Italian builder actually raised the new concept to a higher level with clever innovations like a fully open-plan main deck (thanks to the absence of a lower helm station) that stretches the full length of the interior. The design allows the owner to choose between a long, open layout or a forward area with an owner’s stateroom. The SX88 also has an open stern that holds a 4.5-metre tender and personal watercraft for quick deployment. The area also has a sizable beach club. Sanlorenzo worked with Italian designer Piero Lissoni on the first interior and Officina Italiana Design for the quirky exterior. Lissoni’s interpretation for the interior is another choice for onboard living, offering the ambiance of an open sea loft. The yacht has a semi-displacement hull that reaches 17 knots. Its hybrid diesel-electric powerplant allows an owner to use the lighting, systems management, and other non-propulsion systems for up to eight hours in zero-emissions mode. The SX88 is a breakthrough yacht on many levels.


Numarine 26XP explorer yacht
Photo: Courtesy Numarine

Numarine 26XP

By Geri Ward

The 26-metre Numarine 26XP represents the new breed of mini-expedition yachts. Along with its sister ship the 32XP, the 85-foot 26XP has a highly efficient hull, high freeboard and intrepid profile, and a special flybridge that covers about two-thirds of the hull’s length. The bridge has 100 square metres of usable deck space, allowing owners and guests to find their own private areas with space left over on the aft deck for a tender.

The yacht has a generous, full-beam saloon on the main deck, with full-height windows, a dining area, and settees for congregating. Designer Cal Yalman also left abundant space belowdecks for the four staterooms, including the full-beam master suite amidships, where the yacht is widest. A VIP and two twins comprise the other three. Numarine worked with Silent Line to make the yacht as noise- and vibration-free as possible, using techniques that are more often applied to superyachts. The yacht comes in a displacement-hull version, which has a maximum speed of 13.5 knots. At eight knots, its range is 3000 nautical miles. The semiplaning version has larger engines and pushes the 26-metre yacht to an impressive 28 knots.


Sunseeker 74 Sport Yacht
Photo: Courtesy Sunseeker

Sunseeker 74 Sport Yacht

By Danielle Cutler

The new 74 Sport Yacht from British boatbuilder Sunseeker has its US debut this week. Borrowing design and performance features from the Sunseeker Predator 74, the 74 Sport Yacht offers up a huge flybridge, with helm station, seating, dining, and sunbathing spaces. A bimini shade and wet bar are optional. A large sun pad and U-shaped dining area forward of the helm on the foredeck provide an excellent location for a sunset cocktail or a meal with an amazing view.

The 74 Sport Yacht transforms into an open yacht when the weather is nice or a closed yacht when it’s not, thanks to a cockpit door that lowers itself into the sole of the yacht—kind of like a convertible.

Oversized windows and a helm sunroof provide the main-deck areas with all kinds of natural light. Seating and dining areas have unobstructed 360-degree views. A galley and three en-suite cabins are belowdecks: The master stateroom sits aft, a VIP stateroom is forward, and a twin cabin is starboard. A crew cabin is situated next to the garage.

This 22-metre 10-inch yacht sports a 38-knot max speed, a cruising speed of 28, and a range of 330 nautical miles. The tender garage stows an optional Williams 395 SportJet.


Princess F70
Photo: Quin Bisset

Princess F70

By Geri Ward

The new Princess F70 has mated a sporty-looking bridge with a coupe superstructure that gives it a distinctive profile. The flagship of the Princess flybridge line, the F70 is available with the Allure Collection, a package of amenities, finishes, and high-end decor. The flybridge is a showpiece of the yacht, including a U-shaped dining area, full wet bar, aft sun pad, and forward lounges. Inside on the main deck, Princess designed the galley at the rear of the saloon so that owners and guests can eat outside in the cockpit, or if the weather is not cooperating, at a dining table in the saloon. The UK builder’s Allure package includes soft suedes, bronze tint mirrors, Japanese wall coverings, and hand-stitched detailing that give it a superyacht sensibility. The master suite has a private stairway. The F70 is powered by twin 1200kW MAN diesels that deliver a top-end speed of 36 knots.


Ferretti Yachts 670
Photo: Alberto Cocchi

Ferretti Yachts 670

By Danielle Cutler

The Ferretti Yachts 670 debuted in Cannes in September. The flybridge yacht sports exterior design by Filippo Salvetti—his first for the brand—and the Ferretti Group and an interior also designed by the Ferretti Group. The 20-metre yacht sports a 25-square-metre flybridge with loungers, bar, dining table and settee, and a foredeck fitted with lounging space. An open-plan main deck provides a spacious feel, as do the many windows. Belowdecks, guests will find a full-beam master suite, a full-beam VIP stateroom forward, and a twin cabin. An optional version comes with a captain’s cabin. Ferretti offers two engine choices: either a pair of 745kW or 895kW MAN diesel engines, which propel the 670 to either 28 or 32 knots. The yacht’s cruise speed is 25.


Horizon Power Cat PC65
Photo: Courtesy of Horizon

Horizon Power Cat PC65

By Danielle Cutler

The 19-metre power catamaran from Horizon Yachts was created in collaboration with Lavranos Marine, JC Espinosa, Winchester Design Group, the Powercat Company, and Horizon Yachts. Available either as an open flybridge or skylounge, Horizon offers several layout options and custom interiors. Choose either the on-deck master stateroom or the open-plan main deck, with four en-suite cabins, two kings and two queens. The Power Cat PC65 can be used for extended cruising at slow cruise speed or cruising at maximum speeds. You may also choose the yacht three king staterooms and a separate crew cabin, making it eligible to be managed for charter under Horizon’s charter division. All options include luxurious interior finishes and large deck spaces for entertaining.


Grand Banks 60
Photo: Billy Black

Grand Banks 60 Skylounge

By Geri Ward

Known for its sturdy trawler-style yachts, Grand Banks has added another dimension to its GB 60 Skylounge. The 18-metres enclosed pilothouse lets the owners cruise comfortably in both hot and cold climates. Instead of an open flybridge, which makes guests subject to the prevailing weather, the area can be heated or air conditioned. Besides the twin helm chairs, it has a large settee for guests as well as a day head. Grand Banks took great care to ensure the enclosed area works aesthetically with the rest of the 60’s profile, while using carbon fiber and other lightweight materials to keep its weight as light as possible. As a result, it runs at an impressive 31 knots with twin 670kW Volvo D13 diesels. At 10 knots, it has a range of 2,000 nm. The 60-footer has a three-stateroom layout that showcases Grand Banks’ high levels of craftsmanship, including golden teak and contemporary fabrics.


HCB Estrella Center-Console Yacht
Photo: Courtesy of HCB

HCB 65 Estrella

By Geri Ward

HCB’s new Estrella, making its debut at FLIBS, now assumes the centre-console throne. Powered by five 466kW outboard engines, Estrella is all yacht.

Estrella has a high-end, carbon-fiber layup and a large cabin with a master stateroom and custom-made Zebrano cabinetry. Besides the luxurious appointments, the interior is surprisingly spacious for this type of yacht. It turns into a nest for the owner and guests.

The real action can be found in the boat’s cockpit, where an owner could take 20 of his friends on an offshore fishing trip. The teak package on the first Estrella includes the decks, tables, coaming boards, and even the steering wheel. The teak dresses up the boat nicely. It also has features like a projection television in the cockpit, plush sofas, and a table for alfresco dining. The foredeck area has seats and a small table as well as a sloping sunbed for two.

Seakeeper stabilisers make Estrella a sure-footed platform, counterbalancing motion while running at speed offshore or trawling in five-foot seas. HCB gave Estrella an 8200-litre fuel capacity for a long range.


Bertram 61 sportfisherman
Photo: Christopher Rabil

Bertram 61

By Geri Ward

Bertram’s 61 sportfisherman makes its official debut at FLIBS. Its egg-shell-blue hull was designed by Michael Peters, whose studio has created many iconic American yachts. Peters gave the 61 a strong, powerful exterior with a traditional Bertram look, including features like tinted, wraparound windows in the saloon and a long, open foredeck. The boat is an important launch for Bertram, a comeback boat for the company after it was acquired by Italy’s Gavio Group in 2015. Gavio, which also revived the legendary Baglietto and CCN yacht brands in Italy, decided to do away with Bertram models from its previous owner and start from scratch.

The thoroughly modern 61 is a fresh departure for Bertram and will go mano a mano with traditional competitors like Viking and Hatteras. The boat’s small centre flybridge is ideal for maneuvering during encounters with billfish, while offering dual helm chairs and lounges along the sides. Below, the teak cockpit is designed for serious fishermen, with wide-open deck space, in-deck fish boxes, transom livewell with an aquarium view, 12-volt electric reel sockets, and many more angling features. Bertram also installed a Seakeeper gyro stabiliser to eliminate roll when the boat is running at top end or, more likely for sportfishing, at slower trolling speeds.

Peters designed the interior with an open-plan saloon and galley, using white decor, dark hardwood joinery, and marble surfaces across the galley. There is no lower helm station, so the area feels more like a waterside apartment than a typical sportfishing yacht, especially with the incredible view via the panexless wraparound windows. The four staterooms belowdecks share the same beautiful joinery, white walls, and modern Italian design, including the stylized sink and shower in the master head.

Like the original Bertram Moppie, which employed the first deep-V hull shape , the 61 was also designed for ocean running, but with a much larger and more complicated running surface and twin 1400kW CAT 32 diesel engines.


Maritimo X60’s beach club
Photo: Courtesy of Maritimo

Maritimo X60

By Geri Ward

Just the name gives an idea of the sporty look and versatile design of Maritimo’s X60. The boat offers an owner’s choice of configurations for its aft section, including a Beach Club version, Queen version with extra VIP cabin, and Regency Suite with an enlarged master stateroom. Or the owner can simply decide to use the space as a tender garage. The Australian builder designed the X60 with a straight-drive shaft and efficient running surface; so efficient, in fact, the boat consumes only 109 litres per hour at 28 knots while reaching a top end of 34 knots with its 690kW Scania diesel engine. It will run even faster with the upgraded 745kW Volvo diesels. The Maritimo has a sleek profile, thanks to the flat-roof coupe design, though the interior remains large and spacious. It features a large saloon and full-beam master stateroom. The X60 will make its US debut at the Fort Lauderdale show, while Maritimo just announced a new X50 version that will launch next year.


Prestige 590
Photo: Jerome Kelagopian

Prestige 590

By Geri Ward

This French-built motor yacht from Prestige, making its American debut at FLIBS, was designed with optimum exterior space, starting up on the flybridge. The forward section features a sunbed, with a twin-seat helm beside. At the rear is a table and lounge for alfresco dining. The cockpit below has another settee that can be converted into a second dining area or sunbed. Just aft, the swim platform connects to a large tender garage. Prestige designed a proprietary Ship Control system that allows the owners to monitor and control separate onboard functions. The saloon is cloaked in leather and tweed fabrics in an open-plan layout that is lit up by large windows on all sides. A private stairway to the owner’s suite at the rear is a welcome rarity on this size yacht. Powered by twin 447kW Cummins engines, the 590 has a top end of 29 knots and cruising speed of 23 knots.


Hatteras GT59
Photo: Courtesy of Hatteras

Hatteras GT59

By Geri Ward

There’s a soft, almost baby-like quality to the new Hatteras GT59. Its all-white hull and the constant curves (around the front section, up on the bridge area, and even the large windshield) create the impression of a simple, elegant boat with no rough edges. First impressions, of course, often need to be revised. Such is the case with this bluewater convertible, designed for fishing many miles offshore in the most inhospitable conditions. The GT59 has all the fishing amenities that a serious angler would want, including a single wooden fighting chair in the cockpit, a bridge with an open stern so the captain can back down on billfish if she or he needs to, and a tall tuna tower for sighting fish in the distance when electronics can’t find them. At the same time, the soft edges turn the new Hatteras into an exceptional cruising machine. In front the helm station, a twin seat has a leg rest that lets guests sit back and relax while the boat is running. The interior has a large saloon, bedecked in wood, with a galley forward and island table with four stools. In the rear section is a large lounge. The GT59 comes in different configurations, all with three staterooms, depending on an owner’s preference for the number of beds. It also has two standard bathrooms, with a third being an option, unless the owner wants a tackle centre. The boat has standard twin 1200kW Caterpillar diesel engines that give it a top end greater than 40 knots.


Azimut S6
Photo: Courtesy Azimut

Azimut S6

By Geri Ward

The S series has always shown the yachting world how innovative, unorthodox, and stylish Azimut can be when it is unchained from convention, and the new S6 promises to be a continuation of that tradition. Stefano Righini, Azimut’s longtime designer, has really made his mark with the S series, and the 18-metre S6 shows that he can reach into the future by embracing the past. The boat has classic cues of the S series, including its muscular profile, large enclosed cockpit, and the six-pane through-hull window in the master suite. On this boat, Righini created a protected upper sanctum with the extended hardtop, an area near the helm where the owners and guests can relax in shade and air-conditioning, but also enjoy the sun with the opening sunroof. The upper area also has a full galley and bar for large social events. For sun worshippers, there is a three-person sunbed on the bow and three more sunbeds on the stern of the yacht, along with a large lounge beneath the hardtop’s overhang. Having the galley on the main deck left Azimut’s interior designer Francesco Guida extra space below for the three staterooms, including the full-beam master in the stern (with two tables and chairs beside the window, walk-in closets, and adjoining bathroom), and a large VIP cabin in the bow area. The third stateroom has twin beds. Guida did a wonderful job, enhancing the interior’s natural brightness with light-colored woods and fabrics. It is modern without being overly formal, something the S Class has excelled at for 15 years. The new Azimut will be powered by twin 522kW Volvo IPS D8 engines, giving it a top-end speed of 35 knots. Its cruising speed is 30 knots. Given its 18-metre length, the boat feels unusually spacious, both on the main deck and in the staterooms.


Palm Beach GT50’s saloon
Photo: Courtesy of Palm Beach Motor Yachts

Palm Beach GT50

By Rebekah Bell

The Palm Beach GT50 (the first in the GT Series from Palm Beach Motor Yachts) promises to be a sleek, easy-to-operate cruiser designed to help owners spend more time on the water. “We designed the systems and built the yacht to be turnkey,” says Mark Richards, the founder and CEO of Palm Beach Motor Yachts. “We want you to step onboard, turn on the engines, and go out and enjoy the water. That’s what yachting is all about.”

Two versions (the Express and the Open) are currently in the works, and both will show off modern finishes and large outdoor spaces. The helm deck will accommodate a large group of guests for alfresco dining or sunbathing, and L-shaped settees in the cockpit will flank a transom door that leads to the swim platform. (The Express model will be outfitted with a sunroof that slides away to provide an open-air experience.)

Belowdecks will be a master stateroom forward, a queen-size berth aft, and a big galley. Choose from wengé, teak, or ash wood throughout.

The GT Series will incorporate a unique hull design (made from vinyl-ester cored e-glass and complemented by a fully infused, 100 per cent carbon-fibre deck and superstructure) that enables the yachts to slice through the water instead of wasting energy by maneuvering on top of it. Initial sea trials met the company’s projection of a top speed of 42 knots and a cruising speed of 35 knots. At 35 knots, the fuel consumption was only 182 litres per hour, and at 25 knots the fuel consumption was 109 litres per hour, making the GT50 one of the most efficient cruisers on the market today.
The first Palm Beach GT50 Express will be on display at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show. And the GT50 Open will be unveiled at boot Düsseldorf in January 2019. Production for the GT60 model is currently underway, with a debut planned for September 2019.

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Home is Where the Art Is

Six standout Australian galleries to know now.

By Belinda Aucott-christie 26/03/2025

Australia’s gallery scene is booming. More galleries than ever before are going on the road to participate in art fairs in scene that is rapidly maturing. Meet the passionate local owners from around Australia who are energising the creative milieu with the abstract, the edgy, the Indigenous and the generally astounding.

Hugo Michell Gallery

The district may not roll off the artistic tongue like Paris’s Montmartre or London’s Shoreditch, and yet the prim hedges of Adelaide’s Beulah Park suburb provide cover to a stealth powerhouse of the Australian contemporary art movement, tucked away in a charming, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it converted Victorian workers’ cottage. Since 2008, the Hugo Michell Gallery has unflappably carried the torch for established and emerging acts with equal fidelity, across a broad sweep of mediums from photography to printmaking, textile to ceramic. “We try not to get caught up in the hype and handle each artist we represent with the nuance required for promoting their work,” says Michell, currently counting 28 artists on his books. One notable on this year’s busy docket is Melbourne-based Richard Lewer, a social realist—already snapped up by the National Galleries of Australia and Victoria, no less—who for a month from April 10th will probe the uneasy relationship between crime, sport and religion. While comfortable in the skin of his homely suburban bolthole, Michell is not averse to braving the rigours of the Australian art fair circuit (“They’re a bit of a circus, but who doesn’t love a circus?) and often undertakes house visits to acquaint himself with the whims of new customers. “One of the things that gives me the most joy is building a collection for a client,” he says. “We have worked with for 16 years, tailoring and sourcing works for them.” More proof that you don’t need a headline location to generate the biggest stories.
hugomichellgallery.com

Cassandra Bird Gallery

The art sphere often challenges the myth that married partners should not become gallerists—see Iwan and Manuela Wirth of Hauser & Wirth fame, among other examples. And so it is that Cassandra Bird and husband Fabian Jentsch are rapidly cementing a reputation as one the Australian art scene’s supercouples with their 2023-acquired Potts Point space, an expansive four-level heritage terrace fizzing with congeniality, making visitors feel like they have popped to a friend’s (expertly curated) home for elevenses. Which is no great shock: the property doubles as the duo’s own home. Bird brings a wealth of experience, and a hefty contacts book, thanks to long, respected stints in the Big Apple and Berlin, and nine years at Sydney’s RoslynOxley9 Gallery; Jentsch, meanwhile, is an experienced artist, exhibition maker and set designer. “We try to enthuse people, get them excited as we are about those we work with,” says Bird. Meander across the property’s wooden floorboards—perhaps diverting for a chat in the communal courtyard that doubles as a social hub and ideas-exchange forum—and you will enter the realm of Perth-born graphic painter Jedda Daisy-Culley, who has a hallway and wall dedicated to her work; venture upstairs and deep dive into locally based experimental photographer Laura Moore; head into the basement and peruse the collective works the Tennant Creek Brio, out of Warumungu Country in the Northern Territory. All 24 of the gallery’s artists unite under the theme of timelessness. “We are into investigating quality and showing transformational and breakout work from artists,” says Jentsch. “The work we choose must have something that is strong value for us.” Here’s to the sanctity of marriage.

cassandrabird.com

D’lan Contemporary

It speaks volumes for the international reach of Indigenous art that D’lan Contemporary opened an outpost in New York long before expanding the gallery beyond its Melbourne roots to set up shop in Sydney. Then again, founder and director D’lan Davidson is not afraid of expanding his frontiers as a means of hawking Australia’s most vital cultural outpourings; in 2016, he left the Sotheby’s Australia auction house, where he was ensconced as head of aboriginal art, to launch D’lan Contemporary as the go-to gallery for secondary market First Nations art; and he recently travelled to Maastricht in the Netherlands for the prestigious European Fine Arts Foundation Art Fair, promoting a series of Western Arnhem bark paintings and works by Paddy Bedford, Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Rover Thomas and other. Closer to home, Davidson has surrounded himself with a team brimming with the requisite Indigenous art smarts, including chief curator and gallery director Luke Scholes. From May 8th-July 4th, the Significant exhibition, a mainstay of the Melbourne gallery for the past ten years, will show across all three of D’lan Contemporary’s locations. “Our exhibitions and all our advocacy work seek to further support and develop the burgeoning global interest in Australian First Nations art and artists,” says Scholes. As if further proof were needed of its commitment, the gallery donates 30 percent of its profit back to artists and their communities. Bravo.

dlancontemporary.com.au

N.Smith Gallery

Enter Nick Smith’s compact office and you notice how the walls are studded by the artworks of those he represents; this is a man, you feel, who has a more intimate connection to his stable than the average gallery chief—an instinct confirmed upon discovering that he has invested his entire life savings into the Surry Hills space. When we meet, Smith’s whiteboard is teeming with collaborative projects, hinting heavily at the kind of edgy, thought-provoking artists that his outfit—comprised of five full-time staff—is renowned for nurturing. “It’s constant, but amazing,” says Smith in his typically reserved manner, more studious scientist than reengage gallerist. “I wanted to contribute to culture in my own way.” The gallery’s current ascension allays any empathetic fears of impending financial doom. This past February, Smith—who cut his teeth at Philip Bacon Galleries in Brisbane and Sydney’s Sullivan+Strumpf—collaborated with the Australian High Commission in India to represent Darrell Sibosado at India Art Fair ’25, and throughout the year will be partnering with the Sydney chapter of Soho House to host a series of private viewings and artist studio visits. Even so, he now splits his time equally between private and public projects, often mentoring artists at all stages of their creative journeys. “It’s that forward momentum. It’s that feeling of progressions and going somewhere that I love,” says Smith. Indeed, the only way is up.

nsmithgallery.com

Palas

It is hard—nay, almost impossible—to imagine Palas founders Tania Doropoulos and Matt Glenn frantically trying to scoop up whoever is flavour of the month on Sydney’s perennially shifting art circuit. Here are young gallery partners prone to a slower, more considered approach, instead recruiting a tight roster of internationally famed artists, and choosing to nurture relationships that have been years, sometime decades, in the making. Case in point: video performance maestro Shaun Gladwell, who represented Australia at the 2007 Venice Biennale (a 20-year affiliate), and Melbourne-based artist and noise-musician Marco Fusinato (15 years), who also flew the artistic green and gold at the same festival in 2022. Add to that list Canadian multi-media artist Tamara Henderson and Irish sculptor Eva Rothschild, currently working out of London, and it is clear Palas have a formidable roll call to lean on. “We’re investing a huge amount of time into their processes as art makers,” says Doropoulos. “And I think by extension, we’ve got really good working relationships with other galleries throughout the world.” For its founders, the Palas gallery—which opened in Sydney’s resolutely hipster Waterloo suburb just over a year ago with a silkscreen painting medley by the aforementioned Fusinato—is somewhat of a flag-planting endeavour on home soil: both earned a certain amount of their stripes overseas—Doropoulos as former artistic director of Frieze London and Frieze Studios, and Glenn at Sadie Coles HQ, also in the British capital. Australian art disciples will no doubt be praying for a long domestic residency.

palas-inc.com

Coma

If Sotiris Sotiriou’s consciously balanced ensemble of black Saint Laurent suit, single gold chain and flash of bare chest are anything to go by, the Coma gallery founder wields a sharp eye—a handy attribute to have when your career depends on identifying aesthetic clout, what hits and what doesn’t. From humble beginnings in 2016 in a subterranean road space next to Elvis Pizza on Sydney’s New South Head Road, his enterprise gradually flowered, first to East Sydney, then Chippendale, before fully blooming at his current space in up-and-coming Marrickville, in what was once a coffee factory. The predominantly light-industrial area has witnessed around half a dozen new gallery debuts in recent years, and Coma’s door-fling, filled as it was with hip young Inner West couples sourcing bold, ambitious art for their homes and offices, suggests Sotiriou has timed his arrival to perfection. February’s opening exhibition was hosted by Australian (but Santa Fe based) figurative painter Justin Williams, whose approach riffs on the folkloric traditions of Russian and Polish art, rich with symbolism and psychological details; this work forms a striking counterpoint to the abstract expressionism of other Sotiriou recruits, such as Zara June Williams and her partner Jack Lanagan Dunbar. The Coma head honcho, who had a spell selling to wealthy clients at Nanda Hobbs, says that private clients now make up most of his customer base. This year, as he prepares to attend three international art fairs, he estimates his artistic head count to increase by 30 percent. He can, no doubt, also point you in the direction of a fine tailor.

comagallery.com

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Car of the Year

Always an unmissable highlight of the automotive calendar, Robb Report ANZ’s annual motoring awards set a new benchmark among glorious Gold Coast tarmac.

By Horacio Silva 24/03/2025

Over two unforgettable days, our motoring sages and VIP guests embarked on an exhilarating journey from Surfers Paradise to Brisbane and back again—traversing an irresistible selection of terrain in our exotic rides, from deserted rainforest-lined b-roads to testing mountain switchbacks with dizzying—sometimes heart-in-mouth—views over the southern Queensland peninsula. And as befitting an event starring the crème de la crème of auto marques, we did so while savouring the best in luxury and gastronomy—capped off with an extraordinary superyacht experience at Sanctuary Cove.

 

The ten contenders for the Car of the Year were not the only dream machines on show. The first day’s adventure kicked off at the Langham Hotel and included a midday pit stop at the glorious Beechmont Estate, where our fleet of drivers were greeted by a stunning array of vintage cars exhibited in a concours d’elegance-style display.

 

Concours d’elegance-style vintage car show at the Beechmont Estate.

The sumptuous feast for the eyes on offer at Beechmont, a quaint country village located between the Lamington Plateau and Tamborine Mountain, was followed by a meal for the ages prepared by executive chefs Chris and Alex Norman at the property’s hatted restaurant, The Paddock.

 

Fine dining at The Paddock.

Then, itching to remount our steeds, it was time to hit the road again, with our drivers—all sporting Onitsuka Tiger’s new driving shoes—hightailing it to Brisbane and The Calile Hotel, a property which has been scooping accolades like Jay Leno collects supercars.

 

Rolls-Royce Spectre

After some much needed relaxation by the pool, that evening the drivers and press were joined by local luminaries in the hotel’s private dining room. Over an extravagant banquet they got to compare notes on marvels of engineering and design that they’d had the chance to pilot all day. They were also treated to a showcase of spectacular Jacob & Co. timepieces and Hardy Brothers jewellery and an elegant sufficiency of 40-year Glenfiddich whiskey served in gold cups worth $60,000 a pop. It made for animated discussions and more than a little impromptu shopping.

Rivera Yachts 6800 Sport Yacht Platinum Edition

And did we mention the luxury yacht experience? After a full itinerary of adventures on the road, the day ended with an invigorating late-afternoon of luxuriating aboard two new Riviera Yacht releases—the 6800 Sport Yacht and the 585 SUV—where our intrepid drivers and assorted press got to literally and figuratively take their hands off the wheel and make a case for their car of the year. As the forthcoming pages attest, they were more than spoiled for choice. But who would take centre stage on the winners’ podium?

OVERALL WINNER

Rolls-Royce Spectre

 

BEST SPORTS CAR

Aston Martin Vantage

 

BEST LUXURY HYBRID

Bentley Flying Spur

 

BEST PERFORMANCE SUPERCAR

McLaren 750S

 

BEST ROADSTER

Mercedes-AMG SL634MATIC+

 

BEST CAR DESIGN

Maserati GranTurismo

 

BEST ELECTRIC PERFORMANCE CAR

Porsche Taycan Turbo S

 

BEST SUV

Ferrari Purosangue

Cruise along to robbreport.com.au/events for more supercars and luxury motoring.

 

Judges sample luxury Jacob & Co. timepieces.

 

 

Aston Martin Vantage

 

 

Graceful egress in Onitsuka Tiger’s driving shoes.

 

The Porsche Taycan retains a timeless demeanour in any company.

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Cool as Ice

Mercedes-Benz’s CEO Ola Källenius is expert at racing a nearly four-tonne truck across a frozen lake. Can he steer the marque’s EV-focused future as adeptly?

By Ben Oliver 26/03/2025

Ola Källenius is standing in a cold, bare workshop just south of the Arctic Circle in his native Sweden. A heavily disguised prototype of the new electric G-Class SUV—not yet launched when we meet—has just returned from high-speed, low-grip testing on tracks cut into the frozen lakes nearby and is being hoisted into the air on a hydraulic lift for inspection. As it drips meltwater onto the concrete floor, Källenius, CEO of the Mercedes-Benz Group, eats his lunch (today, a premade sandwich and a carton of juice) and speaks in fluent German to the mostly Austrian engineers who spend months in this bleak locale ensuring that the company’s new models can cope with the types of conditions in which vanishingly few customers will ever actually drive. They discuss the truck’s handling on ice and the progress of its test program. Källenius compliments them on the car’s dynamics—how stable it remained even at speed, how safe he felt driving it—and asks them how long they’re here.

“There are some harsh realities to this job, and to the car industry,” he tells me later. “But this is what I love doing: spending time with our designers, or driving with you on an ice-lake in Sweden, or talking to these engineers. I wanted to congratulate them on what they’ve achieved. We get to enjoy a nice couple of days here, but they’re here for a long time.”

At 193 cm, Källenius might tower over most of them physically, but there’s nothing in his demeanor that hints at the disparity in their corporate statuses. Nor is this the kind of place you’d expect to find the head of one of the world’s great luxury brands: a man paid roughly $22 million last year to lead the 166,000 employees of a company valued at around $75 billion, whose founder, Carl Benz, invented the motor car and whose genuinely iconic logo has graced the nose of everything from popemobiles and Lewis Hamilton’s Formula 1 racer to the most expensive automobile ever sold at auction. In a recent report, investment analysts Bernstein described Mercedes-Benz under Källenius’s reign as a “four-wheeled cash-generation machine”.

Cold-weather testing.
Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

But the celebrated car marques are not like luxury brands that make watches or couture or accessories or Champagne. Look beyond the alluring badge and bodywork for a moment: the objects Mercedes-Benz and its rivals produce are insanely complex, ever-changing and hugely capital-intensive—and must succeed in an utterly cutthroat market. Their impact on the environment and the economy has always made them perennial hot-button issues politically. But the electrification of the automobile has put these companies in the geopolitical crosshairs like never before, as governments swap tariffs and risk a global trade war to ensure that they keep their respective shares of the car industry, even as it undergoes an unprecedented transformation.

And of course, the cars need to be remade, too. Add the impact of electrification to Källenius’s own manifesto for Mercedes-Benz, and this storied marque is likely to change more in the next decade than it did in the previous 138 years. “It’s a once-in-a-century transformation,” he says. “We are reinventing our original invention.”

So who is the guy steering Mercedes through this tumult? What’s his plan? And what cars will he give us? Källenius has sat for plenty of interviews in his five years as CEO (his second five-year term is set to conclude in 2029), but this is the first time that he has offered anything more. Robb Report was invited to spend the weekend with him in Arjeplog, the tiny northern-Swedish town whose population swells fourfold each winter as the global car industry descends to test its secret new models on the area’s frozen lakes. Spy photographers abound, but to reduce the chance of its future lineup being scooped, Mercedes rents its own private expanse of sheet ice from a local landowner. I watch Källenius as he test-drives the electric G at his empire’s oddest and most northerly outpost, meets local staff and records social-media footage. He drives some other, more secret new electric AMGs that I am definitely not allowed to see, whose debuts are much further off and which, when not on the ice, remain hidden beneath their heavy covers outside the workshop.

Out on Mercedes-Benz’s private frozen expanse.
Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

Källenius has a reputation for being fearsomely intelligent, rational and efficient, but also not the type of hyper-alpha asshole who too often comes to lead a carmaker. Over the weekend, I see that sharpness not just in the logic of his answers, but in the nuance of the English prose, as perfect as his German, in which he delivers them.

I’m not sure I’d want those piercing blue eyes and that high-wattage intellect turned on me in a meeting if I didn’t have my numbers straight, but his non-asshole character dominates. It comes through in the easy egalitarianism he displays with the engineers in the workshop, or how he notices and thanks waitstaff, or the way he’s enjoying a casual dinner and a beer with a long table of employees of all stripes when I first arrive at the unglamorous Silverhatten hotel where he’s staying—a glorified bunkhouse for the United Nations of engineers and test-drivers who flock here. This is clearly a leader who sees the obligations of his office as clearly as its privileges: an attitude underpinned by a natural Nordic modesty and reserve.

SNOW DAY | After a session of cold-weather testing, the SUV gets an inspection.
Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

“I guess your personality is something that forms in younger years, and I’m not sure you can fundamentally change it,” he tells me over coffee one morning. “There is a Swedish core in the way I act, and maybe most Swedes are not kick-the-door-down types. I believe this should be true for anybody who is at Mercedes or has the privilege to lead Mercedes: We are custodians of that star for a brief moment. It’s my job to hand it over safe and in better condition. The person is not the brand.”

Perhaps not, but the brand will look very different by the time this person is done with it in 2029. And you can add loyalty to that list of his qualities: Källenius has never worked anywhere else, having joined Mercedes-Benz in 1993 straight out of the Stockholm School of Economics, where he founded an American football team called the Traders, for which he was captain of the offense. True to form, he studied tapes of the Chicago Bears and New England Patriots in order to write the team playbooks. At Mercedes, he was a finance guy at first; an early posting took him to Alabama, to help set up the Mercedes factory in Tuscaloosa, where he became—and remains—a Crimson Tide fan.

In 2003, at the age of just 34, he was put in charge of the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren supercar project; two years later, he was given control of Mercedes-Benz High Performance Powertrains, the firm’s in-house Formula 1 engine-maker. After a year as vice president and CEO of Mercedes-Benz US International back in Tuscaloosa, he was recalled to Germany in 2010 to become vice president and managing director of AMG, Mercedes’s high-performance road-car division. Then came two board positions to prove his breadth of ability—sales and marketing, followed by research and development—before he ascended to the top job in 2019 at the age of 50.

The electric G-Class we’re about to drive together (now officially if awkwardly named the “G580 with EQ Technology”) is a neat encapsulation of many of the things Källenius has tried to do at Mercedes. First, it’s an EV, which fits his initial plan to make everything electric—“where market conditions allow”—by 2030. Second, it’s expensive, with a starting price in the US of $161,500 (around $257,000, though likely to cost more in Australia). Another critical if controversial part of his manifesto is to shift Mercedes upmarket; he spun off the truck business early and is currently in the process of dropping high-volume, low-margin models including the A- and B-Classes. And lastly, he wants new models to still feel like Mercedes vehicles, even if the design that underpins them is radically different from what came before. And the G-Wagen—with its gloriously anachronistic overengineering that you can feel and hear every time you clunk a door shut—epitomises the Mercedes ethos whether the vehicle is gas or electric.

Other new Mercedes EVs go much further in their innovation, gaining greater advantage from their electric drivetrains given that they were designed as EVs from the outset. They use Mercedes’s new MB.OS operating system with built-in AI and receive fresh design cues inside and out—not least the mad, vast, almost full-width hyperscreen user interface—rather than the same upright, rectilinear lines first sketched out to suit the needs of farmers and soldiers when the G-Class was introduced 45 years ago

But as shorthand for old Merc meeting new, the electric G is perfect, and it’s pleasing to be driven in it by the CEO on whose watch it was conceived and executed. “Yes, this is an electric G,” he says as he drifts it across the glassy frozen lake, “but it’s 100 percent G. The most important box for any G-Class to tick is the Schöckl mountain in Austria, to earn that Schöckl-proven plaque they all have. I did five trips up and down it in the electric G in the autumn, and not only can it do the Schöckl, I felt it could do the Schöckl best of all.”

SLIP ’N SLIDE | Mercedes-Benz and other carmakers bring their secret new models to frozen northern locales every winter. Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

His stints at AMG, in Formula 1, and with McLaren have turned this “spreadsheet guy” into a skilled driver, though most Swedes seem to have the ability to safely slide a car on ice coded into their DNA. Even with the G sideways at around 110 km/h, a plume of snow and ice billowing high behind it, Källenius has enough spare mental-processing capacity to adjust the screen settings while telling a funny story about the very first time an electric G even crossed his mind.

He was at the Detroit Auto Show in 2018, when the company was first showing the revised G-Class. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to the unveiling and asked Källenius’s predecessor, Dieter Zetsche, if an electric version was in the cards. “Dr. Zetsche said, ‘Yes, of course,’ Källenius recalls. “I was head of R & D at the time, and one of my colleagues turned to me and said, ‘Do we even have an electric G in the plan?’ I said that I guessed we did now.”

Those less keen on electric cars than Arnie and Ola might be pleased by the fact that the ambition to be battery-only by 2030 has fizzled fast. Mercedes now predicts that EVs and plug-in hybrids will account for only half of its sales by the late 2020s, and the company is refreshing its range of gas engines to keep them relevant and selling deep into the 2030s. This is a systemic issue and no reflection on Mercedes products; Källenius has always averred “where market conditions allow”, and market conditions currently don’t. But the retreat is still slightly awkward.

N THE DRIVER’S SEAT | Källenius at the wheel
Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

“The early adopter phase is over,” he tells me. “Now we need to convince every customer. I think it would be a mistake to say, ‘Okay, electric is growing a bit slower, let’s sit back, wait, and not do anything.’ Because if you put product into the market that is so convincing that most customers go, ‘Yeah, maybe I didn’t have iPhone 1, but iPhone 4 looks pretty good,’ you can get very quick, even exponential growth. And if you were the one that said, ‘I’m not going to set sail here; let’s wait and see what the weather does,’ all the other boats would be out on the ocean, and you’d miss the race.”

But if buyers are going to be sold on EVs by the technology rather than by brand power, what does Mercedes’ 138 years of history count for? With customers attracted to new EV marques that are able to innovate unconstrained by precedent—and one of those brands having a market cap 7.5 times that of Mercedes, despite selling a few hundred thousand fewer cars per year—does heritage become a liability rather than an asset?

“We also do unconventional things,” Källenius insists. “With blow-your-mind–type features like the crazy hyperscreen in the EQS and the EQE, a lot of people are looking at Mercedes who perhaps didn’t look before. We are one of the biggest automotive sponsors in e-sports. Formula 1 is off the charts; 53 percent of F1 fans are between 15 and 35, and 37 percent are women. When we do crazy things like the G-Class collaborations with Moncler or the late Virgil Abloh, you go beyond the traditional auto crowd to one that buys from other luxury brands. My test is if one of my kids sends me a picture and goes, like, ‘Dad, what is this?’ I got their attention.”

I wonder how the former finance guy now handles running one of the world’s great luxury brands and to whom he looks for inspiration. He acknowledges that he meets with Bernard Arnault at LVMH and Jean- Frédéric Dufour at Rolex but is coy about the nature of their discussions.

“We also reach out to people in other luxury businesses to understand how they think,” Källenius notes. “I had the good fortune to meet Brunello Cucinelli, and he invited me down to Solomeo, the hamlet which he has helped to restore. It’s one of the most beautiful villages I’ve ever seen. I learned a lot about fabrics, quality, stealth luxury, sometimes not emphasising the brand so much. A fine gentleman like that has a very clear understanding of what luxury means in his business. We brought some secret new-vehicle designs to show him and to get his input.”

The CEO talking with writer Ben Oliver.
Courtesy of Mercedes-Benz

“Maybe you can’t compare a high-intensity, high-engineering, high-capital-investment good like a car to a piece of clothing,” he adds. “They are different businesses. But good chefs eat in each other’s restaurants even though they have a totally different style of cooking, just to see what the others are doing. But when you go back into your kitchen, you’re still the chef, and you put together the recipe.”

I sense a slight frustration from the hyperrational Swede—perhaps that he believes he has gotten the recipe right but has to wait a bit longer for diners’ tastes to catch up. In many cases, judged on any objective criteria, the new Mercedes EVs will be the best cars the company has ever made, including the electric G. The customers, though, are as busy trying to get their heads around this brave new world as the automotive CEOs are.

“This is definitely the most transformative decade since the inception of the company,” Källenius agrees. “But we’ve always done this. The Swabian engineers who founded Mercedes didn’t look at the horseshoe and think, ‘How do we make this lighter to make the horse run faster?’ They wanted to get the horse out of the equation and do something new. That attitude hasn’t changed. We’ve always looked through the windscreen, not in the mirror.”

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Men at Play

Two restless entrepreneurs build a Belizean island paradise especially for those “aha! moments”.

By Katie Kelly Bell 26/03/2025

Though he’s supposed to be in what he calls his “play years” now, Knoxville-based real-estate entrepreneur Steve Hall still finds himself working on vacation. After a trip to Belize, he got the itch to build something new and started meeting with developers. Hall hit it off with David Keener, CEO and owner of Vision Properties, and together they acquired an isolated tract on Placencia Caye, a private island just five minutes by boat from the mainland.

After two and a half years of work, they’ve recently started welcoming guests to Prana Maya, a secluded, wellness-focused retreat that enjoys expansive views of the Caribbean Sea, the island’s lagoon and the Maya Mountains. “We designed everything to inspire people,” Hall says of the property. “Every aspect of the resort is intentional. Every service we offer is designed to create that ‘aha! moment’ that will rock someone’s world.”

The property includes seven three- and four-bedroom villas featuring locally carved wooden doors. The breezy, secluded structures are sited to prioritise views of the water, and each has its own plunge pool. Rooms at the Inn—a collection of 10 airy, light-filled suites—face the ocean. Each guest has an assigned butler, and every bed at the resort is fitted with a custom grounding mat, designed to replicate a connection with nature; some studies suggest they promote mental and physical well-being. 

Belize’s tropical landscape is the catalyst for getting outdoors. Its unique saltwater flats give sport-fishing aficionados a bucket-list opportunity: catching what the International Game Fishing Association calls the Grand Slam—permit, tarpon and bonefish—all in one day. So Hall and Keener recruited High Adventure Company, a global outfitter with 30 years of guiding expertise, to take guests on exclusive angling excursions. The resort will also offer cave-tubing, jungle-trekking, zip-lining and diving trips.

The resort is a high-end haven for committed fishermen; its bars and restaurants use produce from a private 10-acre farm.
Courtesy of Prana Maya

If you’re in search of less rugged activities, head to the spa and wellness centre. The design team placed it on prime real estate: the Inn’s top floor, which has 360-degree water views and 5 m ceilings. Here, you’ll find a yoga studio, five private treatment rooms and a sound-therapy space. You can also enjoy Prana Maya’s private beach, the only sandy stretch on the island that isn’t shared with another property.

At The Grill, the open-air restaurant, executive chef Liesel Kirste cooks with indigenous ingredients—many sourced from the resort’s four-hectare farm. The menu includes elevated fare such as locally caught lobster, grilled and served over fresh pasta. Even components of more casual dishes are made from scratch: at the Island Club—with its outdoor kitchen, lawn games and forthcoming palapa-shaded pickleball court—the ketchup and mayonnaise are made in-house. That gives the culinary team the flexibility to design a bespoke menu, upon request, to suit your nutritional needs.

The property occupies the northern tip of Placencia Caye, five minutes via boat from the mainland. Courtesy of Prana Maya

Ultimately, Prana Maya is the expression of a million small details (down to the reef-safe spa products, curated by a Belizean supplier) and the location’s natural majesty. “When you get out to the island site, see the spectacular views of the Caribbean, turn another direction and see the beauty of the Maya Mountains, it is such an awesome and almost overwhelming feeling,” Hall says. One he is determined to share with everyone who visits.

Top image: Benedict Kim/Courtesy of Prana Maya

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How to Use Your Dress Watch to Nail Casual Style This Autumn

The dress watch is back and more laid-back than ever. Here’s how to rock your Cartier and Piaget pieces with casual looks

By Paige Reddinger 24/03/2025

After the seemingly never-ending hype around steel sports watches, dress watches have been making a comeback. But it’s not just the average 42 mm dress watch that’s sparking interest (although, those too, are in the running), but also funky vintage diamond-accented timepieces or small-sized, almost feminine pieces are trending. Recently, actor Paul Mescal was spotted on the red carpet of the Annual Academy Museum Gala wearing a Cartier Tank Mini with his tux, while sports legend Dwyane Wade wore a 28 mm diamond Tiffany & Co. Eternity watch with his black tie ensemble to the same event. While these guys were wearing dress watches in their intended setting, here we show you how to make a dress watch work for casual weekend wear too.

Try dabbling in unexpected pairings like an army green Ghiaia safari jacket with a vintage Chopard Happy Diamonds timepiece or Breguet Classique Ref. 7147 (the ultimate dressy timekeeper) with a Louis Vuitton sweatsuit and a Brioni overcoat. Anything goes these days and the more unexpected the timepiece, the stronger the statement. It’s good news all around—for your wardrobe and your investments in the vault.

Above: Blancpain 39.7 mm Villeret Ultraplate in 18-karat red gold, $69,675; Tod’s faux-shearling and denim jacket, $5,6859; Tom Ford cashmere and silk turtleneck, $2,535.

PHOTOGRAPHED BY MATALLINA. WATCH EDITOR, PAIGE REDDINGER. FASHION DIRECTOR, ALEX BADIA. STYLE EDITOR, NAOMI ROUGEAU.

Jaeger-LeCoultre 40 mm Reverso One Duetto Jewellery in 18-karat pink gold and diamonds, $79,560. Right: Chopard 32 mm vintage Happy Diamonds in 18-karat white gold and diamonds, $19,930, analogshift.com; Ghiaia cotton safari jacket, $1,426; Eton cotton T-shirt, 358; Hermès denim trousers, $1,674.

Audemars Piguet 34 mm vintage automatic ultrathin watch in 18-karat white gold and diamonds, $9,300, classicwatchny.com. Right: Cartier 41.4 mm Tortue in platinum, $35,600, limited to 200; Gabriela Hearst hand-knit cashmere sweater, $2,500; Officine Générale cotton-poplin shirt, $315.

Breguet 40 mm Classique Ref. 7147 in 18-karat white gold, $37,468; Brioni wool and cashmere overcoat, $12,233, and silk knit crewneck sweater, $2,224; Louis Vuitton wool track pants, $2,120, and wool hooded jacket, $5,002. Right: Patek Philippe 39 mm Calatrava Ref. 6119R-001 in 18-karat rose gold, $52,791.

Piaget 45 mm Andy Warhol in 18-karat rose gold, $69,198. Right: Rolex 29 mm vintage King Midas Ref. 4342 in 18-karat yellow gold, $28,301, classicwatchny.com; Brunello Cucinelli denim shirt, $1,586; Tom Ford cotton chinos, $1,259; Berluti leather belt, $1,132.

Model: Arthur Sales
Grooming: Amanda Wilson
Senior market editor and casting: Luis Campuzano
Photo director: Irene Opezzo
Photo assistant: Alejandro Suarez
Prop stylist: Elizabeth Derwin

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