Bulgari, Hublot, and TAG Heuer Just Dropped Their New Watches for 2024
LVMH’s horological brands headed to Miami to introduced the year’s freshest models. Here’s a look at the best.
LVMH Watch Week kicked off yesterday in Miami. The annual event, which began in 2019 in Dubai just ahead of the pandemic, has meant the luxury conglomerate is the first in the watch industry to launch new releases. It’s a wise and strategic move for the company to flex its timepieces in a major press moment, while the rest of the industry generally waits until Watches & Wonders in April in Geneva.
“The concept was actually founded by Bulgari, by [Jean] Christophe [Babin],” said Frédéric Arnault, the newly minted CEO of LVMH’s watch division, at a poolside cocktail event at the W Hotel. “Initially, it was to really kickstart the year. It started with three brands from LVMH: Bulgari, Hublot, and Zenith. I’m proud to say it grew over time from how successful it was. It’s a great moment for all of our watch brands. It shows the strength and ambition of the group, LVMH. It is such an important category in the luxury world.”
This year, the event included six brands under the watch division: Bulgari, Daniel Roth, Gérald Genta, Hublot, TAG Heuer, and Zenith. Notably absent were Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co., two of LVMH’s largest brands that carry watches. It’s no secret that watches are a big push at both, particularly Louis Vuitton, but rumor has it that they’ll join next year’s edition. As far as this year’s participants go, the releases were mostly subdued with tweaks to existing models in new dial colors or case materials, such as a new green Hublot Big Bang SAXEM or a new sunray blue dial for the 18-karat yellow gold Octo Finissimo. Others, like the Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription timepiece—a tour de force revival of the revered brand—had already been released to the press last year. Nevertheless, the week is more about drumming up a big press moment at the start of the year, ahead of every other watch conglomerate and brand in the industry. And, set against a backdrop of a white-pillared mansion on Miami’s ultra-exclusive Star Island overlooking the city’s turquoise waters glistening beneath the warm sun and 80 degrees in January, it certainly stands apart from the bustling stress of Watches & Wonders in chilly Geneva.
Hublot Big Bang Unico SAXEM Green
Hublot’s well-funded research and development division continues to make good on its commitment to find ways to add new colour to watchmaking’s most high-tech case materials, specifically ceramic and SAXEM, Hublot’s proprietary variation of sapphire crystal. Fans of the exuberantly colorful brand will remember last year’s launch of Sapphire Aluminum oXide and rare Earth Mineral, or SAXEM for short, in neon yellow. It’s a sapphire crystal-like substance that Hublot figured out how to infuse with a combination of minerals to create a fluorescent colour that glows like neon. This year it reappears in green, which is emerging as the year’s hottest color in watches. Like sapphire, SAXEM is transparent, so you can see the movement, the HUB1280 flyback chronograph, through the case side. For contrast, it is openworked and blackened, so the dial contrasts with the green case – calling to mind a popular look in jewellery design, the pairing of green garnet with blackened gold. The difference between sapphire and SAXEM, explains Hublot, is that Sapphire has a trigonal (three-sided) structure, while SAXEM has a cubic (four-sided) form.” Hence the more intense colour, like a gem with more facets. The material does not receive light, but creates the illusion of emitting it. It’s large size – 42mm – enhances the drama. SAXEM was first used in 2019 in a similar shade of emerald green on the Big Bang MP-11. An integrated rubber strap is perfectly matched to the case, as is the green lume on the hands. Hublot will make 100 pieces.
Price: Around$175,000, 100 pieces.
Case Material: SAXEM
Case Size: 42mm x 14.5mm
Hublot Classic Fusion Tourbillon Orlinski
Hublot’s Classic Fusion Orlinski series has had a minimalist and muted aesthetic, with white or black dials and a slightly bolder royal blue ceramic version. This year it has been infused with a renewed sense of colour that doesn’t detract from the artist’s sculptural design so much as transform it. The design is stark and angular, with time only, plus seconds, leaving the faceted dial and bezel to deliver all the drama. This year the drama is in the colour. The Classic Fusion Tourbillon Orlinski appears in scorching-sun yellow or clear-sky blue versions, both infused in ceramic, inching them even closer to the dramatic pop art sculptures created by Hublot’s collaborator on the series, French artist Richard Orlinski. The architectural style of the watch carries over here to the openworked movement, the manually wound HUB6021 tourbillon, with faceted bridges coated in black PVD for the yellow version and silver rhodium for the blue version. There will be 30 pieces of each model.
Price: Around $143,000 pieces
Case Material: Ceramic
Case Size: 45mm x 10.6mm
Hublot MP-10 Tourbillon Weight Energy System Titaniu
Hublot is a young brand, founded in 1980, compared to most top Swiss watch brands, which were founded about 100 years earlier. It therefore has a singular claim to post-modern watchmaking and design, free from the shackles of upholding the classical traditions of watchmaking. It has proposed instead to take watchmaking into the future. Its masterpiece line, or MP, thus has one goal: to reinvent existing complications. The MP-10, the brand’s tenth MP takes on the tourbillon. It has no dial, no hands and no oscillating weight (even though it’s automatic). The 592-component movement was five years in development and works on a system of aluminum rollers and a vertical winding system. Time is read from top to bottom on four constantly rotating displays: Hours on top, followed by minutes, a red/green power reserve disk, and lastly seconds, rotating on the 60-second tourbillon. The seconds take prominence over the tourbillon, since the escapement is angled at 35 degrees and thus largely out of sight. In case there is any misunderstanding about which functions are where, each is spelled out on bridges above or below each index. The case is made of two pieces – a middle and a back – in micro-blasted titanium, with a sapphire crystal wrapped on three inclined planes on three axes. Hublot has a patent pending for this configuration, its most complex to date. The rotor is not a rotor at all, since it doesn’t rotate. It works on a verticalised weight principle with two blocks of white gold that move up and down, winding the movement bidirectionally. Shock absorbers prevent them from colliding at each end. The system, which delivers 48 hours of power reserve, is also pending a patent pending. There are two crowns, neither of which rests in the traditional 3 o’clock position. The massive crown at 12 o’clock winds the watch. Time is set using a second crown nestled on the caseback side “to preserve the fluidity of the design,” explains the Hublot release.
Price: Around $400,000, 50 pieces
Case Material: Titanium
Case Size: 54.1mm x 41.5mm x 22.4mm
Hublot Spirit of Big Bang Jewellery
As a modern brand, Hublot has always had an uninhibited sense of the jewellery watch, more red-carpet bling than aristocratic classicism. This year’s Big Bang Jewelry collection includes a can’t-miss-it Rainbow model – the first of Hublot’s signature multi-colored sapphire pieces to appear in the barrel-cased Spirit of Big Bang collection. There are two versions, one in steel and the other in King Gold, Hublot’s proprietary warm red gold alloy. Each set with 493 multi-colored gems. Likewise, there are both steel and King Gold versions of the new Spirit of Big Bang Full Pavé showstoppers. Each is fully set with diamonds on the bezel, case, and dial, with a whopping 479 brilliant-cut gems totaling just over 2 carats. Hublot has even calculated the number of facets which adds up to: 27,782 per watch, with each of those facets reflecting light like a klieg light. They are accompanied by black or white rubber straps.
Prices:
Steel Full Pave: around $52,400
King Gold Full Pave: around $70,012
Steel Rainbow: around$110,200
King Gold Rainbow: $120,000
Case Material: King Gold, steel
Case Size: 32mm x 11.10mm
Bulgari Octo Finissimo
If these two models look familiar, that’s because they were officially launched in the U.S. market last year, but now Bulgari is announcing a global offering. The steel model with the Tuscan copper dial remains the same as the model that was initially released stateside last year in a limited run of 50. The 18-carat yellow gold model, however now comes dressed in a blue sunray dial. Its 2023 release in the U.S. came with a chocolate brown dial.There’s nothing groundbreaking here. This model has already done enough trailblazing—the Octo Finissimo has set eight world records. The steel model is the most appealing with the coolness of the metal paired with the soft warmth of copper, but while yellow gold might seem rather bold on a watch with such a wide bracelet it’s not as overpowering as you might assume in person. A female Bulgari representative who was wearing the piece on her wrist at LVMH Watch Week made a compelling case for the yellow gold version, while also proving that even at 40 mm, this watch’s ergonomics somehow make the sizing work even on smaller wrists.
Price: Around $68,912 in Yellow Gold and $20,143 in Steel
Case Material: 18-karat Yellow Gold or Steel
Case Size: 40 mm x 6.4 mm
Bulgari Lucea
The Lucea collection is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, so Bulgari naturally had to bring an ultra-special model to the table. The most striking new Lucea is the rich malachite dial version which was made with scraps of the stone material leftover from other watch models in the Bulgari manufacture. Instead of throwing away the tiny fragments, the company put them to use in a beautiful marquetry compilation. The varying hues of green create an arresting pattern accented by brilliant-cut diamond hour markers and encircled by a bezel adorned with 56 diamonds. The malachite pairs nicely with the two-tone case and bracelet in steel and 18-carat rose gold, as well as the ruby crystal crown protector. It is, by far, the most outstanding Lucea release of the year (so far).
Price: TBC
Case Material: Steel and 18-karat Rose Gold
Case Size: 33 mm x 9.6 mm
La Fabrique du Temps X Gérald Genta Manufacture Calibre GG-001
Forty years after famed watch designer Gérald Genta first defied the highly traditional watch industry by putting Mickey Mouse on a watch dial, La Fabrique du Temps is resurrecting this playful design as it relaunches the brand. And for those of you who scoff at the idea of a Disney-themed timepiece, kindly consider the type of watch we’re talking about: The new GG-001 is no simple time-only piece, but a minute repeater with a jump hour and retrograde minutes display developed by the horological illuminati at La Fabrique du Temps itself. Housed in a 32.4mm case that measures just 6.91mm thick, it has an impressive 80-hour power reserve and a beautiful dial graved by everyone’s favourite mouse: At 3 o’clock is a magnified jump-hour window, while Mickey’s left arm serves as the minute hand along a retrograde track running along the dial’s periphery. Playful yet subtle, this creative integration of multiple complications is an impressive feat of watchmaking — one that will be appreciated by both die-hard “watch nerds” and those whose taste runs more toward compelling aesthetics. (Not to mention by Disney fans everywhere!)
Price: TBD
Case Material: Platinum
Case Size: 40 mm
La Fabrique du Temps X Daniel Roth Tourbillon Souscription
Since 2000, the Daniel Roth brand has been owned by Bulgari, which was itself acquired by LVMH in 2011. Now, the eponymous maison founded by the famed French-born watchmaker has been revived with the involvement of La Fabrique du Temps, the LVMH-owned movement manufacture founded by star horologists Michel Navas and Enrico Barbasini. The first product to see the light of day will certainly delight Daniel Roth fans: The new Tourbillon Souscription is an homage to the ref. 2187/C187, Roth’s first model. Housed in the watchmaker’s famed double-ellipse case, it takes inspiration from the designs of 18th/19th-century watchmaker Abraham-Louis Breguet, with exquisite finishing and the integration of remarkable complications. Extremely limited in production, the new timepiece features a solid-gold guilloché dial, a new in-house movement, and an impressively thin case depth of just 9.2mm. With its visible tourbillon cage and retrograde display, it’s truly a piece of horological art, and bodes well for the reconstitution of this important marque.
Price: TBD
Case Material: 18K yellow gold
Case Size: 38.6mm
TAG Heuer Plasma Diamant
Just when you think the cutting edge of tool watch design means a tourbillon in your chronograph, TAG Heuer hits you with one of these: A sports watch positively encrusted in diamonds like the bottom of a caïque off the coast of Paros. The new TAG Heuer Carrera Date Plasma Diamant is merely the latest in a series of timepieces featuring lab-grown diamonds, whose uniform colour is achieved via a Chemical Vapor Deposition technology that the brand calls “Plasma.” In this instance, rather than set diamonds throughout the case of a larger 44mm watch such that of as last year’s Carrera Plasma Diamond d’Avant Garde, TAG Heuer has taken its 36mm, time-only version of the Carrera and jazzed it up: Fashioned from white gold, it features a 2.9-carat polycrystalline dial with baguette-cut diamond indices; a yellow gold TAG Heuer shield logo; and a 1.3-carat yellow diamond crown. The interplay between the case material, sparkling dial, and bright pops of yellow is striking without being gaudy — a difficult feat to achieve with this many precious stones.
Price: TBD
Case Material: White gold
Case Size: 36mm
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon
Launching alongside the aforementioned “Dato” model is a similarly teal-colored Carrera Chronograph in Tourbillon form, with a dual-register chronograph layout accompanied by Abraham-Louis Brguet’s famed invention visible at 6 o’clock. Developed by the famed French watchmaker in the early 19th century, the tourbillon is a horological device that places the movement’s escapement and balance wheel in a rotating cage, which helps negate the effects of gravity on a pocket watch movement. Nowadays, the inclusion of a tourbillon is a way for a watch company to show its expertise in movement construction, which TAG Heuer does here to good effect. Joined by 30-minute and 12-hour chronograph totalizers and easily visible beneath a curving “glassbox” sapphire crystal, the tourbillon in question is part of the TAG Heuer Calibre TH20-09 movement, which features bi-directional winding and a high level of finishing. Housed in a 42mm stainless steel “glassbox” Carrera case and paired to a black alligator leather strap, the TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon is a high-end riff on a beloved sports watch.
Price: around $36,4300
Case Material: Stainless steel
Case Size: 42mm
TAG Heuer Carrera Chronograph
Jack Heuer, great-grandson of company founder Edouard Heuer, launched his famous racing chronograph in 1963, naming it after the Carrera Panamericana, a notoriously dangerous road race that took place in Mexico in the early 1950s. (And which also inspired the nickname of a certain Porsche.) Since then, the Carrera has taken on many guises, receiving a complete refresh in the form of the (still relatively new) “Glassbox” references launched in 2023 — just in time for the model’s 60th anniversary. This year, TAG Heuer is reviving a perennial fan favorite in the form of a new “Dato” model, which features a single, 30-minute chronograph totalizer at 9 o’clock and a date window at 9 o’clock. Hearkening back to a moderately rare Carrera variant from 1968, the new chrono marks the first time this unique date arrangement has appeared within the “Glassbox” case, which measures 39mm and features a curved inner flange housing a 1/5th-second track, all of which is enveloped by a gently curving “glassbox” crystal. With its striking, teal green dial and pared-down aesthetic, it’s sure to bridge the gap between fans of vintage Heuer and more casual watch buyers.
Price: Around $9,900
Case Material: Stainless steel
Case Size: 39mm
Zenith Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar
Most watch brands, when they announce the re-issue of a vintage design, are quick to include a note that while the design may be true to the original, the watch now contains a modern, in-house movement. In Zenith’s case, the movement was already there. The high-frequency El Primero calibre contained in the new Chronomaster Original Triple Calendar is a direct evolution of the one designed in 1969. In fact, the original El Primero movement was designed to accommodate triple calendar and moon phase functions right from the very beginning. Zenith made a small series of 25 prototypes in 1970 as a proof of concept, but since the chronograph was more popular, the triple calendar wasn’t produced commercially until later in the 1970s. The homage version is a tribute to the original movement, and its design is true to the signature A386 chronograph case design from 1969. The dial architecture mirrors the chronograph design codes – from a distance, you might have to do a second take to notice the Triple Calendar is not a chronograph-only. Days of the week and months are displayed in subtle windows above the east/west subdials – with small seconds at 9 o’clock and 60-second counter at 3 o’clock. The date window is in the traditional El Primero position at 4:30, and the moonphase display is incorporated right into the chronograph’s 60-minute counter at 6 o’clock. The El Primero 3610, runs at 36,000 vph to deliver a true 1/10th of a second chronograph function. Even with the addition of the complete calendar, it has a power reserve of approximately 60 hours. There are two regular versions, one with a sporty silvery-white panda opaline dial with black counters and 1/100th of a second scale, and an opaline slate-gray dial with silvery-white counters and scale that is directly inspired by the small series of El Primero triple calendar prototypes from 1970. A third, boutique-only variant has a sunburst olive-green dial. All have rose gold-tone applied baton markers and hands, to match the polished rose gold moon.
Prices: Around $21,055 for steel with metal bracelet (including boutique edition) and around $8,847 for steel with calfskin strap (including boutique edition)
Case Material: Stainless steel
Case Size: 38mm
Zenith Chronomaster Sport
Having perfected the El Primero movement over the past 55 years, Zenith is now ready to have a little fun with the design of its flagship chronograph – but not so much that it obliterates the signature look. Two new versions include a first-ever gem-set Chronomaster Sport and an all-green model with a first-ever green ceramic bezel. Both models retain the signature tri-colour subdials of the Chronomaster in the familiar shades of gray and blue. The background dial of the green version is lacquered green to match the ceramic bezel and there’s a green FKM rubber strap to switch out the steel bracelet. The green is a vibrant, almost neon colour that is emerging as a strong watch colour, and it works surprisingly well with the tri-colour subdials. On the jewelled Chronomaster Sport, Zenith leans in even closer to the tri-colour aesthetic by setting the bezel with baguette-cut gems to match the subdials. There are white diamonds, black spinels (which read dark grey), and grey and blue sapphires. The dial is meteorite in the so-called “Windmanstätten” pattern (with long mineral crystals in geometric patterns), treated in a warm golden colour that matches the 18k rose gold case and bracelet. It’s a very dressy version of the Chronomaster Sport that dovetails with the ongoing trend toward dressing up sports watches and sporting up dress watches, which often cry out for definition: are sporty dress or dressy sport watches? The tri-colour chronograph registers, pump pushers, and El Primero 3600 movement tend to emphasise the sporty side of this one, but the precious gems and gold case elevate the watch to somewhere well beyond the race track. It’s your call.
Prices: Around $16,999 for Chronomaster Sport Green on bracelet; TBC for Chronomaster Sport Green on rubber strap and around $149,000for 18k rose gold Chronomaster Sport (boutique only)
Case Material: Chronomaster Sport Green, stainless steel; Chronomaster Sport 18-carat rose gold
Case Size: 41mm
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Omega Just Unveiled 9 Watches in Its New Constellation Observatory Collection
The line-up shows up a bevy of metals and colours, too, as well as two new calibres.
Omega’s latest watch is in a universe of its own.
The Swiss watchmaker just unveiled its new Constellation Observatory Collection today, the next step in its Constellation lineage and the first two-hand hour and minute timepieces to ever earn Master Chronometer certification. And if you were paying attention to any of the dazzling watches spotted at the Oscars this year, you would’ve caught a glimpse of the new line already: Sinners star Delroy Lindo rocked one of the models on the Academy Awards red carpet, giving us a pre-release preview of the collection.
Developed at Omega’s new Laboratoire de Précision (its chronometer testing lab open to all brands), the collection houses a set of nine 39.4 mm watches. The watches underwent 25 days of scrutiny there, analysed via a new acoustic testing method that recorded every sound emitted from the timepiece to track irregularities, temperature sensitivities, and more in the name of all things precision. (Details such as water resistance and power reserve are also thoroughly examined.) This meticulous process is all in the name of snagging that Master Chronometer label, meaning that the timepiece is highly accurate and surpasses the threshold for ultra-high performance. The Constellation Observatory Collection has now changed the game, though, thanks to its lack of a seconds hand.
“Until now, precision certification has required a seconds hand,” Raynald Aeschlimann, president and CEO of OMEGA, said in a press statement. “The development of a new acoustic testing methodology has made that requirement obsolete. It is this breakthrough that has enabled us to present the Constellation Observatory, the first two-hand watch to achieve Master Chronometer certification.”
In addition to notching its place in history, the collection also debuted a new pair of movements: the Calibre 8915 and the Calibre 8914, each perched on a skeletonised rotor base. The former’s Grand Luxe iteration will appear on the 950 Platinum-Gold model in the collection, which offers up that base in 18-karat Sedna Gold alongside a Constellation medallion in 18-karat white gold with an Observatory dome done in white opal enamel surrounded by stars. The second Calibre 8915, the Luxe, will find its home on the other precious-metal models in the line, either made with the brand’s 18-karat Sedna, Moonshine, or Canopus gold seen across the case, the hand-guilloché dial, and, of course, the movement itself. (Lindo chose to rock the Moonshine Gold on Moonshine Gold iteration, priced at approximately $86,000, for Sinners‘s big night at the Oscars.) As for the Calibre 8914, it can be found in the collection’s four steel models.
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Colorado’s barely known San Juan Mountains do a fine line in bespoke skiing experiences, luring alpine-sports cognoscenti and billionaire thrill-seekers alike.
“Though no one currently on staff is at liberty to say, billionaire actor Tom Cruise is a very average heli-snowboarder. But although no one currently on staff is at liberty to say, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos—the world’s second richest human—makes up for Cruise’s inability with his off-piste prowess. The pair have been clients of Telluride Helitrax, a heli-skiing outfit operating in the backcountry behind Telluride Mountain Resort, in remote south-west Colorado, since 1982. My source, a former guide who prefers to remain anonymous, admits he’s entertained a host of household-name One Percenters over the years.”
“Power billionaires aren’t going to the popular resorts any more,” he reveals over a happy-hour drink at a Telluride bar. “Luxury skiing these days, it’s all about exclusivity. No one with any clout shares snow, and at every resort, no matter how fancy, you have to share the slopes. But nowhere is more exclusive than the backcountry. That’s your billionaire’s playground. And no backcountry is more exclusive than San Juan backcountry.”
Which is precisely why I am here. Australia’s considerable brigade of free-spending, snow-crazed executives may jet off to Vail and Aspen each northern winter for thrills, but it turns out some of the world’s most choicest ski experiences have been right under their noses—only a short helicopter ride, car journey or private jet flight from said resorts.
Packed into the ultra-rugged southern end of the Rocky Mountains, the San Juans are a little chunk of the Swiss Alps in the US—young, ridiculously spectacular formations known for their steep slopes, deep powder snow and Disney-esque triangular peaks, all bathed in 300-plus days of sunshine a year. And the region is augmented by unique, and select, backcountry options that rival anything currently in the upscale ski orbit.
Case in point: North America’s highest skiing setting, Silverton Mountain. Located in the heart of the San Juans, outside the tiny town of Silverton, the 4,111 m peak boasts 736 hectares of chair-accessible terrain set among what is reputedly the deepest, steepest snow in the nation. It also offers a further 10,000 hectares of private terrain, serviced by heli-ski operation Heli Adventures. This is the Shangri-La of skiing: every slope connoisseur has heard of it, though most wonder if it actually exists.
We arrive via the treacherous Million Dollar Highway, where a disturbing lack of guard rails sometimes causes travellers to plummet into the valley floor (the death toll, grimly, averages eight people per year). Silverton Mountain was bought in 2023 by Heli Adventures’ young co-founders Andy Culp and Brock Strasbourger. While private punters can book the hill in its entirety, starting from around $14,000 per day, plus extra for single heli-skiing runs, the destination is also open to the public from Thursdays to Saturdays through winter.
“Silverton is a bastion for the pure ski experience,” Culp says. “All that corporate consolidation that happened when ski resorts all over the world developed condos and real estate and got super-busy… well, it never happened here. You’re able to access Alaska-like terrain from an old rickety chairlift, but you’re an hour’s drive from a pretty major airport [Montrose]. And you can access snow that’s even better than most heli-skiing straight off your lift.”
There’s no radio-frequency lift passes when I arrive. In fact, I don’t get a lift pass at all. A discarded school bus doubles as the “second chairlift”; it picks me up and returns me to a yurt which serves as a restaurant and bar. “There’s a time and a place to hang out at The Little Nell [Aspen’s legendary après-ski bar] and the world doesn’t need more of that,” Culp says. “This is the new luxury. We also run a heli-ski business out of Aspen [Aspen Heli-Skiing] but this is where we come. You can’t put a price tag on what we have here.”
I drive away from the mountain, back along the perilous Million Dollar Highway, park my car and disappear into the San Juan National Forest with guide Kaylee Walden. This white-coated outback between Silverton and Ouray, dubbed “the Switzerland of America”, offers swathes of primo backcountry skiing terrain. The ski touring here is often likened to Europe’s iconic Haute Route—an emblematic trail between Mont Blanc and the Matterhorn.
The operator Mountain Trip offers a Colorado version of that feted circuit, on a multi-day traverse between secluded huts. All in all, there’s nearly 8,000 km² of national forest and 2,500 hectares of wilderness to explore, frequented only by the occasional intrepid enthusiast.
A wood-burning sauna is being prepared as I arrive at Thelma Hut, 4,500 m above sea level. Traditionally, US Forest Service huts were humble affairs, with rudimentary bunks, self-service kitchens, and food supplies brought in by skiers. This evening, however, a chef is preparing local bison across from an open fireplace as the sun sets through a floor-to-ceiling window against a horizon of white mountains. As he works, I walk out into the snow to study the twilight sky; beaming planets shine down on me, necklaces of tiny stars sparkle.
Back down to earth, upon my return to “civilisation”, we take a two-hour car ride to Telluride, probing through the San Juans. The small town is picture-postcard pretty, wedged at the end of a box canyon surrounded by Colorado’s tallest waterfalls, and hosts the highest concentration of 4,000-m-plus peaks in the state. Most of its buildings are on the National Register of Historic Places, including a bank that was robbed in 1889 by the outlaw Butch Cassidy.
While the locale offers everything from luxurious on-mountain dining options to 7-km-long runs, it’s the heli-ski enterprise that’s lured me. Telluride Helitrax holds sole rights to over 500 km² of completely deserted ski terrain, a few minutes’ flying time from town. The company runs a range of Eurocopters which guests can charter into Colorado’s best alpine basins, cirques and couloirs. “The range mightn’t be as expansive as Alaska,” says Telluride Helitrax program director Joseph Shults. “But the views, the terrain, the snow depth and quality is as good.”
I’m staying in a privately owned three-bedroom penthouse apartment, where a helicopter takes off each morning for convenience (when I’m done carving clouds, I move a kilometre up the mountain to the seven-bedroom, three-storey mountain retreat Hood Park Haven, valued at around $42 million). Telluride Helitrax uses an abundance of drop-off locations, all above the tree line, meaning everyone from intermediates to experts can be catered for.
During my three-day odyssey, I don’t cross a single other ski track, but it’s the peace that is most startling. In this pocket of montane paradise, there is, literally, not a single sound—a stark contrast to the whirling fury of the chopper that transports me. My experienced guide Bill Allen won’t reveal who’s come before Robb Report. “You’d know their names,” he says, grinning.
And so the San Juans remain a secret to all but a fortunate few. Of all the luxuries the ultra-wealthy enjoy in the skiing ecosphere, the promise of untouched snow is by far the most enviable. Here in Colorado is where the white gold truly lies.
Photography: Kane Scheidegger (heli-skiing); Patrick Coulie (hut); Courtesy of Colorado Tourism Office (Hood Park Haven).
This article appears in the Autumn issue 2026 of Robb Report Australia New-Zealand. Click here to subscribe.
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A modern classic in the making, combining naturally aspirated power with elegant restraint to deliver performance that feels as refined as it is visceral.
In a year when carmakers of all persuasions sheepishly extended hyperbolic electric targets, it’s fitting that the monastic puritans of Maranello—who, lest we forget, won’t finally yield to the sin of battery power until October with the Elettrica—opted to make combustion their major power play.
As an uncertain future of AI omnipresence barrels towards us, the 12Cilindri—an analogue, open-topped tribute to Ferrari’s late-’60s/early-’70s grand tourer, the Daytona—represents a defiant fade into the past, a pause for breath, a fleeting return to The Good Times when nascent technology provoked excitement rather than existential dread.
Guiding this automotive nostalgia trip is, as the nomenclature suggests, a naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 engine, generating an unceasing wave of power as it sears towards the 9,500 rpm redline with relative nonchalance. That’s because the 12Cilindri is not a mouth-foaming attack-dog. It scales performance heights with the refinement of the finest Italian works of art; its “Bumpy Road” mode facilitates comfy al fresco GT cruising, and even the imperious powerplant is mannerly at most speeds.
For all the yesteryear romance, progressive technologies and engineering, such as a world-class 8-speed transmission, advanced electronic aids and independent four-wheel steering, are baked into the deal. The 12Cilindri’s clean, stark design somehow toggles between retro and modern; and while vaguely polarising, one can’t ignore its magnetic road presence.
In terms of aesthetics, Ferrari describes the 12Cilindri as being “ready for space”; in many ways, a fantasy vehicle that transports users to another dimension is probably what the world needs right now.
The Numbers
Engine: 6.5-litre V12
Power: 610kW
Torque: 678 Nm
Transmission: 8-speed dual-clutch auto
0-100 km/h: 2.95 seconds
Top speed: 340 km/h
Price: From $886,800
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High and Low
At Le Bernardin, Aldo Sohm oversees one of the most formidable cellars in fine dining. But on the beach, he’ll happily drink a cheap rosé. The world-class sommelier explains why taste—and humility—matter more than price.
Aldo Sohm is one of the most accomplished sommeliers in the world. The 54-year-old Austrian heads up an oenophile’s empire on New York City’s West 51st Street, where he both serves as wine director at Michelin three-star Le Bernardin and leads his namesake wine bar, just across the road from the fine-dining institution. (He spends his time literally running back and forth between the two.) So it may come as a surprise that this man, who sips prized varietals all day, admits to the joys of a glass of Whispering Angel, a ubiquitous rosé that retails at stateside Target stores for US$22.99 (around $30) a bottle.
The context here is important; the aptly named Sohm is quick to clarify that he’s not about to start serving Whispering Angel as one of the pairings with chef Eric Ripert’s US$530 (around $750) eight-course tasting menu. But during a trip to the Caribbean for the Cayman Cookout food festival, Sohm’s wife requested a glass of rosé on the beach. When he went to fetch it, she specified that she wanted a cheap drop, not the fancy stuff that he likely would have grabbed. “I felt kind of gobsmacked, right?”
Sohm says as we’re sitting in the tasting room at Aldo Sohm Wine Bar. “Now, rather than just criticising, I have to admit: I got out of the water, and I tried Whispering Angel, too. It was delicious.”
Unlikely as it may be, this humility is perhaps the key to Sohm’s success. His lack of self-seriousness makes him an anomaly in the oftentimes highfalutin world of fine wine. Rather than shaming you for your preferences, Sohm will indulge your desires. Maybe, as in the case of his wife, you’re going to be right. More likely than not, you’re going to be wrong. He won’t simply tell you that, though; he’ll use his encyclopedic knowledge of wine to subtly steer you in the right direction, allowing you to come to that conclusion on your own. “You just wake up from your dream—and mistake—and realise that, ‘Oh yeah, he’s right,’” says Ripert, who has worked with Sohm for almost two decades.
Sohm intended to move to New York for only 18 months. Growing up in Innsbruck, in the Austrian Alps, he wanted to be a helicopter pilot. Like many childhood fantasies, that didn’t come to fruition, and he settled on something more practical, becoming a teacher at a hospitality school. Having overcorrected—“That was way too boring for me,” he admits—he switched to the more public-facing side of the industry, getting a job as a restaurant server. It was then, when he was about 21, that Sohm fell in love with wine. (Prior to that, he was a self-proclaimed Bacardi and coke guy.)
After studying wine on his own time, he began his formal sommelier education in 1998. He rose quickly through the ranks and was named the best sommelier in Austria in 2002, a title he defended the following two years and reclaimed in 2006. Amid that stretch, he sojourned to New York in 2004 with the goal of improving his English to compete in international competitions. It paid off: four years later, he won the top prize from the World Sommelier Association. But more than the accolades, Sohm had discovered a career. By then, he had joined Le Bernardin after stints at Wallsé, Café Sabarsky and Blaue Gans—all Austrian restaurants in Manhattan.
“Back then we had a very strong French sommelier community, and they controlled everything,” he says. “And it was an uproar because how come an Austrian sommelier came to one of the most French restaurants?” He proved his bona fides, and in 2013 Ripert and Maguy Le Coze, the co-owners of Le Bernardin, approached him with the idea of partnering with them in a wine bar. It was Ripert who suggested putting the connoisseur’s name on it.
Aldo Sohm Wine Bar debuted the following year, with a team that Sohm handpicked. Sarah Thomas was part of that opening crew, after meeting Sohm during a fateful dinner at Le Bernardin with her cousins. When her relatives divulged to him that she was a sommelier in Pittsburgh, he proceeded to serve a blind tasting to Thomas. “He didn’t say what I got right or wrong. He didn’t care about that,” she tells me. “He just wanted to hear me talk about wine, I guess. So I did.”
When he offered her a job at the end of the meal, she laughed. Sohm didn’t. Thomas promptly packed up and moved to New York. After she spent about nine months at the wine bar, Sohm promoted her to Le Bernardin, where she worked for another five years. When she decided to start her own business—Kalamata’s Kitchen, which aims to teach kids about other cultures through food—Sohm was one of her earliest investors. He may have found full-time teaching to be too banal, but it’s still a huge part of what he does now, identifying the next generation of stars and giving them the guidance to grow into their own—whether that takes them into the upper echelons of fine dining or beyond the white tablecloths altogether.
Overseeing two teams, at two very different spaces, feeds Sohm’s prodigious ambition. He’s on a mission to completely reshape the world of wine, from what’s in your glass to the glass itself to what you enjoy it with—say, Champagne with eggs. Along with his day jobs, he has partnered with the Austrian brand Zalto to create his own wineglasses. “As a sommelier, you criticise only, but you make nothing,” Sohm says. So, he also now wears the winemaker hat, producing a Grüner Veltliner under the Sohm & Kracher label, a relatively accessible quaff that’s a collaboration with his fellow countryman Gerhard Kracher. And in 2019 he added author to his résumé, releasing Wine Simple, a “totally approachable guide”, as the book’s subtitle puts it. He followed that up with Wine Simple: Perfect Pairings, to help you pick the right bottle for the right meal and the right moment.
“In wine pairings, you have three possible combinations,” Sohm says. “There’s the perfect pairing. Then sometimes you have flavours just going along… it’s like humans—they talk, they interact, but they never connect. And then there’s conflict.” It’s that first one he’s after every time.
“Sohm fell in love with wine when he was about 21. Prior to that, he was a self-proclaimed Bacardi and coke guy.”
Outside of the restaurant, the wine bar and the cellar, Sohm is an avid cyclist who owns six bikes, a number he admits is excessive—especially in New York City. Riding is what he credits with keeping him healthy, when so much of his time is spent eating and drinking—and drinking some more.
Still, despite the 18-year career at one of the world’s best restaurants, despite the top honours from his peers, despite the wine and the wineglasses and the wine books, Sohm doesn’t consider himself successful. Every day, he’s trying to figure out how he can self-correct. “I like what I do, so I go back home that night, think of things which I can improve,” he says. “I get annoyed when I make a mistake, but I improve the next day.”
His quest for perfection may never be over, but Sohm does concede that he’s happy—its own type of success. Sometimes he finds that happiness while sipping a glass of 1980 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche, a bottle now so rare and coveted that he calls it “unattainable”. And sometimes, if to his chagrin, he finds it while drinking a mass-produced rosé on the beach.
Photography by Tori Latham
This article appears in the Autumn issue 2026 of Robb Report Australia New-Zealand. Click here to subscribe.
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Going For Gold
Available in a range of shades and intensities, this metallic tone is still a first-place choice.
Above: Awakening 02, Sebastien Durelli Designed exclusively for StudioTwentySeven, Sebastien Durelli’s Awakening 02 floor lamp is available in a limited run of eight examples. Handcrafted in Italy from cast patinaed bronze, the striking piece takes inspiration from the naturally sculpted landscapes of Iceland, specifically the country’s glacial lagoons. The organic boulder-esque shade is rugged and elemental—like an exploded rock wrenched apart by seismic activity—while the base is sleek and symmetrical, providing visual balance in a deep bronze finish. From around $65,300
Above: Orion, De La Espada When it comes to the Orion dining table, the draw is in the details. Designed by Anthony Guerrée for De La Espada, this piece features a central base crafted from a series of overlapping wood slats—a textured moment that creates visual equilibrium with its smooth, curved-brass counterpart. A bona fide visual anchor, the Orion can be paired with thin-framed chairs for a sneak-peek view or heftier seats that provide a surprising reveal when guests sit down to dinner. From around $20,870
Above: LS35A, Luca Stefano This showstopper by Milan-based designer Luca Stefano is all curves. A sexy lounge sofa, seen here upholstered in Pierre Frey mohair with canaletto walnut details, the LS35A is available for customisation, but we think that this mossy-gold hue is incredibly chic, evoking the muted desert tones popular during the ’60s and ’70s. Around $66,280, as shown
Above: Jazz, Tom Bensari Part of master woodworker Tom Bensari’s Manhattan collection for StudioTwentySeven, the Jazz bookcase is an ode to the designer’s love of music. With edges that curve like brass instruments and shelves that skip like riffs, this unit is meticulously hand-built in Poland from oak and olive wood, with custom veneered interiors according to the client’s preference and a glowing finish that takes on a golden tint in just the right light. Around $29,320
Above: Sleeper, Lucas Simões Last September at Christie’s in Los Angeles, Brazilian artist Lucas Simões unveiled his first furniture collection, Colendra. Presented in Lightness & Tension, an exhibition curated by roving gallerist Ulysses de Santi, Simões’s work is rooted in material exploration, as seen in the Sleeper chair, a curving steel form that suggests Brazilian midcentury modernism. A unique patina—which imparts the shimmery, rainbow-esque look of an oil slick—gives the piece a contemporary, artistic feel. Around $22,440
This article appears in the Autumn issue 2026 of Robb Report Australia New-Zealand. Click here to subscribe.
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05/06/2026
By Staff Writer
27/05/2026
