How Fashion Houses and Jewelers Are Giving Swiss Watchmakers a Run for Their Money
By snapping up some of Switzerland’s best manufacturers and watchmakers, brands including Chanel and Louis Vuitton are stunning even the most seasoned collectors.
Perched on a couch last April in a private room inside Chanel’s sprawling space at Watches & Wonders, Frédéric Grangié and Arnaud Chastaingt appear positively serene. Outside, the world’s largest watch fair buzzes with energy as press, retailers, and VIP clients gather for a first-hand glimpse of the latest from a wide swath of brands, including the industry’s biggest hitters. Unlike at Paris Fashion Week, where Chanel is perpetually one of the hottest invites in town, here in Switzerland the maison’s iconic logo might actually be a disadvantage. The fashion house must vie for attention with horological heavyweights such as Patek Philippe and Rolex, which dominate the landscape and have catalogs of coveted models dating back hundreds of years. But Grangié, Chanel’s president of watches and fine jewelry, and Chastaingt, director of its Watchmaking Creation Studio, are unfazed. They insist that Chanel’s fresh perspective, combined with an incomparable fashion history and laser focus on savoir faire, actually gives the house an advantage in the world of haute horology.
“When we look at competition—and we are very respectful of them—some of the houses have been there for two centuries, some claim even more, but we are still in that phase where everything that we are creating is actually part of a living patrimony,” Grangié says. “We see the difference in what we are presenting because, of course. The biggest mistake that we could have made is to be a fashion company making watches, as opposed to a watchmaker whose manufacture and craftsmanship is at the service of creation.”
Chanel didn’t enter the watch domain until 1987, but in the short time since, it has become a trailblazer in terms of both innovation and creativity. Its J12 X-Ray, which debuted in 2020, was the first timepiece to feature a case and bracelet made from clear sapphire crystal; typically used to cover watch dials, the material is so hard it can only be machined with diamond-tipped tools. It’s also extremely expensive and difficult for companies to produce. Cutting-edge watch brands such as Hublot, Richard Mille, and Bell & Ross (in which Chanel has a minority stake) had produced the material for some of their special high-end cases, but the J12 marked the first time a sapphire-crystal bracelet had appeared on the market. “We had a competitor, a very important one, come to us here, and when they saw it they said, ‘We tried to do it and it was a nightmare,’” Grangié recalls, chuckling and adding, “I can confirm it is a nightmare.”
Nevertheless, Chanel followed up this year with a version in pink sapphire crystal, even more difficult thanks to the formidable challenge of maintaining colour consistency across the limited edition of 12. It’s just one example of how Chanel—alongside other fashion and jewelry houses from Bulgari and Van Cleef & Arpels to Hermès and Louis Vuitton—is elevating its watchmaking game, giving brands with centuries-old horological history a run for their money in the process.
Watches used to be an afterthought for luxury brands looking to expand their lifestyle portfolios. At jewelry houses, timepieces offered male clients a reason to treat themselves while buying baubles for their significant others, or they were seen as a mass-marketing tool, a means of enticing clients who might not be able to afford a million-dollar high-jewelry necklace or five-figure handbag.
But as social media began luring an entire new generation of watch enthusiasts—a trend that accelerated hugely during the pandemic—luxury houses began taking the category more seriously, seeing the long-term potential of upping the ante on both design and technical movements and increasing their investments accordingly. The result has been some of the most creative and challenging watchmaking happening anywhere in Switzerland—even if collectors have been slow to recognise it.
The race to compete for headline-grabbing horological feats has become fierce, and some of the creations defy belief. Take the ongoing tug-of-war between two houses with jewelry roots, Bulgari and Piaget, over laying claim to the most complicated timepieces in the thinnest possible cases.
Piaget took ultrathin engineering to a new level in 2018 when it created the Altiplano Ultimate Concept, the thinnest mechanical watch in the world at the time, measuring an incredible 2 mm thick; the previous record holder, the Master Ultra Thin Squelette from longtime traditional watchmaker Jaeger-LeCoultre, suddenly seemed hefty at 3.6 mm. Just four years later, Bulgari one-upped Piaget with its Octo Finissimo Ultra, which slimmed down to a mere 1.8 mm thick—a literal hair thicker than a quarter, despite packing 170 components and 50 hours of power reserve. It marked Bulgari’s eighth world record for thinness in the Octo Finissimo line. Some consider it a gimmick, but the race to reduce gave the company bragging rights over elite watchmakers in an industry where it’s hard to stand out.
“I remember very well when I said, ‘Why does a client today have to buy a Bulgari watch?’ ” says the company’s product creation executive director, Fabrizio Buonamassa Stigliani, recalling the early days when the Octo Finissimo was just an idea. “We are not linked with any path. We don’t follow the sport model. We are not in golf or in polo. We are not in aviation,” he notes. The label did have the Bulgari Bulgari timepiece, a successful branded fashion watch from the ’70s that was revived this year, but he says he began challenging the executive team to green-light more complicated pieces. No one had expected them to be able to create a movement at that level, and yet “we have this manufacture inside, and we are able to create the most ultrathin watches,” so why not use it to their advantage? “We started to use the story of [setting] the record to switch the lights on [in] the watches business,” Buonamassa Stigliani says.
The drive to bring something exciting and original to market is fueling a rush of new ideas, many from overlooked sources. Van Cleef & Arpels, for instance, infuses its 118 years of jewelry expertise into wildly complicated automaton wristwatches and clocks behind intricate facades. Unlike many traditional watchmaking houses, Van Cleef often leads with design and storytelling, with technical development serving as the means to turn its fanciful imaginings into reality.
The company has been creating complex automaton timepieces since 2006; its most recent example, Brise d’Été, boasts a field of grass and violets that appear to waft gently in the wind. A pair of butterflies crossing above indicate time on a retrograde time scale. “What’s interesting there for us—besides the idea of the poetry of time, which is why we call these watches Poetic Complications—is that when we started to work on these projects, we found out that they were technically very, very complex,” says Nicolas Bos, the former global president and CEO of Van Cleef & Arpels who is now the CEO of its parent company, Richemont. Van Cleef spent seven years developing table clocks that presented the same concepts on a much grander scale. The first example, Automate Fée Ondine, came to life in a whimsical scene set with a jewelled fairy resting atop a lily pad. “It required the expertise and inventiveness of around 20 workshops in France and Switzerland to devise this extraordinary objet,” says Bos.
Courtesy of Chanel
Masterminding creations at this level also requires in-house wizards, and many brands have strengthened their teams in order to construct even more advanced timepieces. When Van Cleef & Arpels director of research and development Rainer Bernard joined the company from Piaget in 2011, he was one of just four people hired to accelerate the watchmaking vision. Now, team headcount is at 20. Bernard says the fantastical ideas dreamed up by the house foster new mechanical achievements. “It actually gets us to places, technical places, where nobody has been,” he says. “This is why, for a while, we created between three to five patents every year.” These achievements are not for bragging rights on technicality but rather milestones leading to the creation of museum-worthy pieces. Take for instance the brand’s magnum-opus table clock, the Planétarium—a wonderland of rotating jeweled planets in a piece measuring nearly 20 inches high by 26 inches in diameter—where each sphere moves at its genuine speed of rotation set to a melody created with Michel Tirabosco, a Swiss musician and concert artist. It reportedly had a price tag of almost $10 million. “Since I’ve been here, with all the elements we put into place, we have more tools and more possibilities to really create and be crazy about our stories,” Bernard says. “So, we can do things we only dreamed of a couple of years ago.”
Courtesy of Louis Vuitton
The competition to wow collectors has become so stiff that, for some, hiring internally no longer suffices. Instead, luxury labels are snapping up revered Swiss manufactures whole or investing in smaller independent brands with elite expertise. Bulgari was an early pioneer of the practice, purchasing Gérald Genta and Daniel Roth in 2000. Buonamassa Stigliani joined the company just a few months later and says the acquisitions were key to Bulgari’s watchmaking growth. “It’s true that we found an amazing savoir faire, but it’s also true that we spent a huge, huge effort to achieve these results, because the idea was to have new movements,” he says. “The idea was to buy high-horology manufactures to find our path and to be the owner of our destiny.”
Having to source movements from outside manufactures poses several problems, including a lack of exclusivity and the potential for supply delays. But most importantly, bragging rights are typically reserved for companies that create their own. In-house production is a play for a rarefied, well-versed clientele. “You have to use a different language,” Buonamassa Stigliani says of appealing to serious connoisseurs. “You have to talk about the movement. You have to talk about technical constraints. The collector doesn’t talk with you if you’re talking just about shapes.”
Chanel has followed a similar path, making acquisitions that are both prestigious and technically adept. In 1993 it purchased G&F Châtelain, known for producing high-quality cases and movements, and in 2019 it acquired a minority interest in Swiss movement manufacturer Kenissi, an important supplier of sapphire-crystal glass to the industry. (Rolex is the main shareholder through its subsidiary, Tudor.) Chanel also owns stakes in Bell & Ross, Romain Gauthier—which helped Chanel develop its first complication, a jumping hour, in the Monsieur watch from 2016—and F. P. Journe. In August of this year, the Parisian house announced a surprise investment in avant-garde darling MB&F.
“Obviously, we are making our own watches, but we are also a supplier to many, many other houses, and that’s always been very Chanel,” says Grangié. “It’s the same thing with couture. The house owns many, many métiers—more than 35 at this point. We work for all the great names.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a luxury showdown without LVMH at the table. In 2011, the conglomerate purchased La Fabrique du Temps, a manufacture founded by watchmakers Enrico Barbasini and Michel Navas, who cut their teeth making ultra-high-end movements for Patek Philippe, among others. Based in Meyrin, Switzerland, the atelier is staffed with designers, engineers, and craftsmen who create timepieces for Louis Vuitton, Gérald Genta, and Daniel Roth. It has enabled Louis Vuitton to make some of its wildest and most inventive watches, such as the recent Tambour Opera Automata—a $871,813 automaton watch, nominated for a Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève prize—that pays tribute to the Sichuan Opera’s Bian Lian tradition with a retrograde-minutes and jumping-hours function. Such over-the-top pieces aren’t for wallflowers, or even the typical watch enthusiast, but there’s no denying the sophistication of their calibers.
Courtesy of Hermès
Meanwhile, Jean Arnault, the 26-year-old son of LVMH honcho Bernard, has been hard at work overseeing the creation of beautifully crafted, if slightly more practical timepieces for Louis Vuitton, where he is the director of watches. Drew Coblitz, a Philadelphia-based alternative-asset-fund manager and seasoned watch collector, says he was interested in the Tambour Automatic when it came out, but talking to Arnault was what convinced him to purchase the timepiece. “You just get the impression that he’s supersmart and detail-oriented and thoughtful product-design-wise—the whole nine yards,” Coblitz says. “And the thing that he’s trying to do, branding-wise, is just really hard. It’s got to be one of the hardest things to do in watchmaking.”
He’s referring to the attempt to shift perception of Louis Vuitton from a fashion house to a maker of bona fide collector watches—and, with prices running from roughly $34,571 to $133,056, clients should expect the kind of top-notch watchmaking the house is delivering. While some of the high- horology pieces are for a flashier clientele, the Tambour and Escale lines are attracting collectors who, like Coblitz, care about finesse and nuance but want a more traditional look. “The amount of little-detail nerd stuff in the Tambour is killer,” Coblitz says. “And that’s before you turn it around, because the movement finishing is very nice.”
Creating this level of finishing on a series-production piece versus a limited edition such as the Tambour Opera Automata, though, is a stretch on resources, which means luxury houses are sizing up more manufactures to add to their rosters. Like Louis Vuitton, Hermès is not content to remain on the sidelines. This year, for example, it debuted the Arceau Duc Attelé, a feat of mechanical engineering that combines a triple-axis tourbillon with a minute repeater—the crème de la crème of complications—with hammers charmingly crafted as horse heads. The latest industry buzz circulating around longtime rivals Vuitton and Hermès, both famed predominantly for their premium leather goods and handbags, is their rumored competition to buy Vaucher, an elite Swiss manufacture known for its high-quality watch movements and components.
This summer, it was announced that niche watchmaker Parmigiani Fleurier and its network of subsidiary suppliers of watch parts, including Vaucher, are collectively up for sale by their parent company, the Sandoz Family Foundation. Hermès, which has owned a 25 percent stake in Vaucher since 2006, may seem like the logical suitor. But the house is now reportedly vying with LVMH for full ownership of the manufacture, which also supplies parts to other high-end watchmakers, including Chopard and Richard Mille; LVMH-owned TAG Heuer also outsources its higher-end movements through Vaucher. Hermès, Vuitton, and Parmigiani declined to comment for this article, but whoever gains control of the prized facility will have leverage over many of its competitors, and could even become their primary supplier.
As luxury brands continue to develop their watchmaking prowess by absorbing and investing in smaller specialised businesses, they pose a potentially significant challenge to the industry. Chanel, for its part, sees the business strategy as an opportunity to push boundaries. “Your competitors, who are also clients, will push you to develop things that you will not do for yourself,” says Grangié. “Then you become better at what you do, and you manage to have a model that will make your business sustainable over the long term, because you have those clients as well. To us, it’s a win-win proposition.” But for more-established watchmaking houses, the creativity inherent to fashion- and jewelry-first houses, backed by Switzerland’s finest horological specialists, could present a major threat.
Some are wise enough to move beyond their comfort zones: Just last month, Patek Philippe launched its first new collection in 25 years, aimed at a younger clientele. But Chanel, for one, is already barreling full steam ahead. “Next year, you will see something extraordinary that took a long time in the making,” hints Grangié. “We are creating an ecosystem to support our business and our future ambitions that relies on either the highest level of expertise or incredible names that we have become associated with first.” With historic houses seeking to attract fresh attention just as the fashion-forward upstarts hit their stride with never-before-seen innovations, we just might be on the brink of a remarkable new era in luxury watchmaking.
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Mauve on Up
Brisbane boutique stay Miss Midgley’s offers a viscerally human experience—especially if you dig pink.
On a sun-bleached corner of Brisbane’s New Farm, where the scent of frangipani mingles with the clink of coffee cups, stands a building that has lived more lives than most people. Once a premier’s residence, an orphanage, a hospital and a private school, the 160-year-old stone structure now finds itself reborn as Miss Midgley’s—a boutique stay that teaches a masterclass in how to make heritage feel modern.
Designed and run by architect-mother-daughter duo Lisa and Isabella White, Miss Midgley’s captures the cultural confidence of a city in bloom. Nowhere is that new confidence more visible than along James Street—the leafy, slow-burn heart of the city’s fashion and dining scene—where Miss Midgley’s sits quietly at the edge, its shell-pink façade glowing in the subtropical light.
Built of Brisbane’s rare volcanic tuff, the building’s soft mauves and pinks are more than aesthetic; they are its identity. Locals still remember its 1950s incarnation as the Pink Flats, and the Whites have honoured that legacy with a contemporary blush-toned exterior, chosen to harmonise with the stone’s peachy undertones. Inside, those hues continue in dusty terracottas, russets and the faint shimmer of brass tapware. “Design can’t afford to be for the sake of fashion,” Isabella White has said. “It has to respond to what’s in front of you.”
That sentiment is tangible in every corner. Five apartments, each with their own idiosyncratic floor plan, occupy the building. Ceilings bloom with heritage plasterwork, 19th-century wallpaper fragments have been preserved in the kitchens, and tiny hand-painted notes left by the architects point out original quirks: a misaligned beam here, a hidden archway there. It’s a kind of adult treasure hunt for design lovers, where discovery feels personal and unforced.
Even the picket fence, a heritage requirement, has been reimagined in corten steel—a sly nod to regulation turned into sculpture. It’s this blend of reverence and rebellion that gives Miss Midgley’s its edge: heritage without starch, nostalgia without sentimentality.
True to Brisbane’s easy elegance, luxury here is measured not in marble or minibar but in proportion, privacy, and personality. Each apartment—from the Drawing Room and the Assembly Hall to the Principal’s Office—is a self-contained sanctuary with its own kitchen, large bathroom and outdoor space. The ground-floor units open onto leafy courtyards and welcome small dogs; upstairs, the larger suites spill onto verandahs shaded by jacarandas.
At the heart of the property lies a solar-heated pool hemmed with tropical greenery and fringed umbrellas—more mid-century Palm Springs than colonial Brisbane. Around it, guests share a petite laundry, a communal library and that rarest of urban luxuries: a car park per apartment. The atmosphere is quietly collegiate—a handful of travellers who might nod to each other on the stairs but otherwise inhabit their own creative bubbles.
The hotel’s namesake, Annie Midgley, lends the project both its name and its spirit. An ambidextrous artist and teacher, she famously instructed two students at once, writing with both hands simultaneously—a fitting metaphor for the dual vision the Whites bring to the building: one hand rooted in history, the other sketching toward the future. “Not famous, yet known,” goes the property’s understated tagline—and indeed, Miss Midgley’s has quietly become that most desirable of addresses: the one whispered about by people who know.
Sustainability isn’t an accessory here; it’s structural. The adaptive reuse of the heritage building is its boldest environmental act. Solar panels power the property; an electric heat pump warms the pool; recycled decking and tiles frame the courtyard. The metre-thick tuff walls regulate temperature naturally, and the amenities follow suit—refillable bath products, biodegradable pods, Seljak blankets spun from textile off-cuts, and compendiums wrapped in Australian-made kangaroo leather. It’s slow luxury in the truest sense.
In a world of carbon-copy hotels, Miss Midgley’s feels deeply human—a place where history isn’t curated behind glass but lives in the warmth of stone and the flicker of afternoon light. The lesson it offers is simple and resonant: that the most elegant modernity often comes not from reinvention, but from listening to what’s already there.
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My Brisbane…Monique Kawecki
The Queensland capital is carving its own distinctive take on Australian culture. Here, a clued-up local aesthete takes us around town.
It’s almost a given that all globally minded creatives will, at some juncture in their careers, choose a path that leads directly to one of the planet’s vital cultural hubs—metropolises with the cosmopolitan thrum of New York, the lofty elegance of Paris, the futuristic edge of Tokyo.
True to form, Monique Kawecki’s work odyssey transported her to the buzz of London for over a decade, but the editor and creative consultant now admits to “finding a balance” in Brisbane, using the Queensland capital as a base for generating international content. Together with her husband, industrial designer Alexander Lotersztain, she’s proud to call the fast-blooming city her home.
Driven by curiosity, Monique joins the dots between creative communities and helps bring visionary projects to life through her studio Champ Creative, a space she runs with her twin sister in Tokyo. Her work as co-founder and editorial director of Ala Champ Magazine, a print-turned-digital-media platform rooted in design, architecture and creative culture, allies thinkers and makers who are shaping the future.
EAT
Central
Step underground and you’ll find more than just a Hong Kong-inspired eatery. This vibrant enclave in the CBD is the vision of chef Benny Lam and young restaurateur David Flynn, combining an avant-garde space—designed by up-and-coming J.AR Office—with inventive Asian-fusion plates and a curated Chinese and Australian wine list. Every detail, from the menu to the disco-era soundscape, combines for a memorable experience.
Gerards
A restaurant that has long held its place among Brisbane’s primo venues, and its makeover by J.AR Office has confirmed it is a mainstay in the city. Rich, rammed-earth textures and sleek steel set the stage for the Levantine-inflected fare, where Queensland produce meets Middle Eastern tradition—all served on textured Sally Kerkin tableware that casts the eclectic dishes in an even more visually pleasing light.
DRINK
+81 Aizome Bar
Inspired by the hidden cocktail bars in Tokyo’s Ginza district, an intimate, indigo-hued 10-seater designed by Alexander Lotersztain. The dimly lit space presents drinks served over hand-cut Japanese ice and expertly crafted “neo cocktails” courtesy of mixologist Tony Huang. Champ Creative curated and sourced the artisan-made tableware and glassware from Japan, making sure the experience is as authentic as possible.
Bar Miette
Overlooking the Brisbane River, Australian chef Andrew McConnell has enlisted executive chef Jason Barratt to direct two of his standout dining ventures—this venue and Supernormal—on the waterfront at 443 Queen Street. Both offer stellar dining—the milk bun with mortadella and smoked maple syrup is simple yet sublime—but this is the spot to visit for a glass of wine accompanied by water vistas.
ART & CULTURE
QAGOMA
Together, the Queensland Art Gallery (QA) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) form Australia’s largest modern and contemporary art gallery. Roosting on Brisbane’s South Bank, the establishment showcases exemplary art from Australia, Asia and the Pacific, and, as such, has become a firm favourite among both locals and tourists. By day, world-class exhibitions such as Danish artist Olafur Eliasson’s Presence—beginning December 6th—take centre stage; after dark, expect illuminated theatrics as GOMA permanently projects an intense, multi-hued James Turrell artwork onto its facade.
SHOP
BrownHaus
The experience of entering the luxurious, travertine-clad space is as beautiful as the creations the jewellery studio constructs. The culmination of founder Drew Brown’s 25 years of refining his craft, fine jewels and elevated everyday pieces for both men and women captivate your gaze, each example formed with the utmost intention and care. Moreover, Brown is redefining traditional artisanship and service in a new, modern way, ensuring the flagship store is accessible and exciting in equal measure.
James Street Precinct
For shopping, dining or even just perfecting the time-honoured art of people-watching, James Street is a one-stop hub where fashion, cinema, design and dining converge in Fortitude Valley. Wandering through the streets, discovering fresh, and established, ventures is a cinch. Restaurants sAme sAme and Biànca (from the team behind Agnes and the new Idle bakery) are hard to pass up; next door, be prepared to queue for a cone at Gelato Messina. A recent arrival to the zone is Heidi Middleton’s Artclub atelier, while Australian tailoring brand P. Johnson recently launched its new store, designed by the renowned Tamsin Johnson, across from The Calile hotel.
WELLNESS
The Bathhouse Albion
In Brisbane is home to multiple wellness centres in which one can work out or unwind, such as the five-floor, $80 million TotalFusion Platinum Newstead. This facility, designed by architectural practice Hogg & Lamb, presents a more serene, temple-like experience in the once-industrial Albion Fine Trades district, delivering a communal yet luxe bathhouse with spa, cold plunge, sauna, float, and steam room. With a separate area for hydration spruiking organic TeaGood loose-leaf teas, an hour session ensures a restorative reset.
DAY TRIP
Lady Elliot Island
Visiting one of the most pristine sections of the Great Barrier Reef in one day from Brisbane? Yes, it is indeed possible—and in style, too. With an early start from Redcliffe, around 40 minutes’ drive from the city, take a 90-minute flight to the 45-hectare island and then indulge in a glass-bottom boat viewing, an island tour, and a guided snorkel where you will swoon over mesmerising coral and other-worldly marine life. Lunch is included.
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Tropical Storm
Brisbane’s design-led renaissance is gathering momentum and redefining the city as a destination of distinction.
When it comes to the question of which Australian city can claim to be the country’s epicentre of cool, it’s always been a two-horse race between you-know-who. But challengers to the municipal hegemony do periodically raise their heads above the cultural parapet: Hobart has the world-class MONA in its corner; Perth flexes its white-sand beaches and direct flights to London; plucky Canberra enduringly punches above its weight, wielding a Pollock masterpiece or two at the National Gallery. Now, Brisbane— for decades ironically nicknamed “BrisVegas” as a jibe at its lack of places to see and be seen—is ready to assert itself as a serious contender to break the Sydney-Melbourne monopoly.
The Queensland capital is booming, buzzing and bougier than ever. In the past twelve months alone, Brisbane has seen the addition of $80 million ultra-luxe members’ wellness club TotalFusion Platinum, and earned a place on Condé Nast Traveller’s Hot List for hosting the second outpost of Andrew McConnell’s renowned restaurant Supernormal—both designed by Sydney-based multidisciplinary studio ACME. Since the latter’s opening, the upscale dining scene in the CBD—once steeped in starched white-tablecloth tradition—has come into its own with high-concept, slick and scene-y establishments you’ve likely already seen on Instagram.
Among them is Central, named Australia’s best-designed space at this year’s Interior Design Awards. The subterranean late-night dumpling-bar-meets-disco, designed by one-to-watch local firm J.AR Office, is bathed in bright white light and features a DJ booth built into the open, epicentral kitchen. A 10-minute walk along the river towards the Botanic Gardens reveals Golden Avenue, a buzzy collaboration between J.AR Office and Anyday, the Brisbane hospitality group behind some of the city’s most beloved restaurants of the last decade (Biànca, hôntô, sAme sAme, and Agnes). A skylit oasis where palm fronds cast slivers of shade over tiled tables laden with bowls of baba ganoush and clay pots of blistered prawns, the Middle Eastern-inspired eatery feels like Queensland’s answer to Morocco’s walled courtyard gardens.
That design-forward premises anchor much of the buzz around Brisbane’s new pulse points should come as no surprise. After all, this is an urban centre whose perception and personality were transformed in the 2010s by the brutalist breeze-block facades of the then-burgeoning James Street Precinct. Financed by local developers the Malouf family, and designed by Brisbane’s architecture power couple Adrian Spence and Ingrid Richards, the zone has become a desirable, nationally recognised address for flashy flagships and big-name boutiques (just ask Artclub’s Heidi Middleton and The New Trend’s Vanessa Spencer, who each unveiled plush piled-carpet stores along the strip in October).
But it wasn’t until the 2018 opening of The Calile Hotel that Brisbane truly shed its “big country town” image, staking its claim on the international stage. The Palm Springs-inflected urban resort—which, by now, surely needs no introduction—landed 12th in 2023’s inaugural World’s 50 Best Hotels ranking, ahead of Claridge’s and Raffles.
“That was really quite massive for the optics of what Brisbane has to offer the rest of Australia,” says Ty Simon, a born-and-bred Brisbanite and one of the four visionaries behind the Anyday group, along with his details-driven Milanese wife Bianca, executive chef Ben Williamson, and financial backer Frank Li. From that point on, the use of elite architects and designers became de rigueur across the enclave, weaving a sense of permanence into the local fabric. “We believe in what’s happening here,” says Marie-Louise Theile, creative director of the James Street Initiative and PR executive behind many of the city’s primo spots. “And we’re digging in.”
For in-demand Australian interior designer Tamsin Johnson, the mastermind behind some of James Street’s most carefully curated properties—including her husband Patrick Johnson’s P. Johnson Femme showroom, which opened in September—this momentum is “a wonderful thing”. Idle, Johnson’s August-launched first project with Anyday, is a prime example of what she calls a “contemporary sleekness” that feels intrinsic to the new mood taking hold in Brisbane. A modern-day answer to Milan’s 140-year-old gourmet emporium Peck, the site is a study in how mixed materials—glass, concrete, stainless steel and terrazzo—can create a sense of freshness with a 20th-century overtone.
It’s this dialogue between old and new, so intrinsic to Johnson’s work, that makes Brisbane such a compelling canvas for the Melbourne-born, Sydney-based creative. “I think Brisbane is striving hard for its own identity and voice in Australia, and it is clearly working,” she says. For Johnson, that evolution is also “a process of recognising what you have”, a nod to the strong bones the city has to work with and revisit. From the airy stilted Queenslanders to GOMA’s riverside glass pavilion and the subtropical modernism of Donovan Hill’s landmark C House, Brisbane’s design heritage is a quiet yet potent force, infused with what Johnson calls “the subtle memory of bucolic Australia”. Brisbane’s best contemporary architecture reflects what Richards and Spence described when designing The Calile as “a gentle brutalism”. It incorporates the style’s characteristic heaviness—concrete, rigid geometry and cavernous interiors—but, in response to the climate, does away with barriers between outside and in, and welcomes light, air and a feeling of weightlessness that creates spaces that feel open, relaxed and intimately connected to their surroundings.
Johnson will explore this language further in Anyday’s most ambitious venture yet: a four-level dining destination within the colonial-era Coal Board Building, just across from Golden Avenue. Its debut concept The French Exit—a wood-panelled brasserie with half-height curtains and a 2.00 am licence—is set to be unveiled by year’s end, ensuring the once-sleepy heart will beat well into the early hours.
Luring big names to lend the city their cool factor for one-off projects is one thing, but perhaps the most profound sign that Brisbane still bursts with promise is the fact that so many creative forces are choosing to stay, rather than take their talent elsewhere. “I never thought I’d still be in Brisbane,” laughs J.AR Office director Jared Webb, a local-for-life who started the firm in Fortitude Valley in 2022 after a decade spent working under Richards and Spence. “Trying to entice people to stay and see Brisbane as a city to live in, and to visit, is a big undertone of all our work on a much broader scale,” says Webb, whose designs rely heavily on steel, concrete and stone, both as a means to temper the tropical climate and evoke an aura of continuity he believes Brisbane’s built environment has lacked. (Once dubbed the demolition capital of Australia, the municipality lost more than 60 historic buildings during the ’70s and ’80s under former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen, whose two-decade rule was recently revisited in a dramatised documentary available to stream on Stan).
Translating Brisbane’s current buzz into something lasting seems to weigh on the minds of many of the city’s creatives. Vince Alafaci, who forms one half of ACME with his partner Caroline Choker, shares this sentiment when reflecting on their design for Supernormal. “It’s about creating spaces that evolve with time, not ones that date,” he says. “We wanted every element to feel timeless—grounded, honest and enduring.” That pursuit of longevity is something Tamsin Johnson recognises, too: “It’s the people pushing for it that excite me the most. They’re committed,” she says, reflecting on the city’s creative ambition. “I think our designers, the most committed ones, want to leave landmarks and character, bucking against the trend of mundane, short-term and artless developments that all our capitals have experienced. And perhaps Brisbane is leading this mentality.”
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Holiday Gift Guide
The supreme Christmas wish-list awaits—maximum impact guaranteed.
Consider this your definitive shortcut to Christmas morning triumph. From museum-grade jewellery to objects of quiet obsession, this is a wish-list calibrated for maximum impact and minimal guesswork. Each piece in this round-up earns its place not through novelty, but through craft, heritage and that elusive quality collectors recognise instantly: desire with staying power. There are icons reimagined (Piaget’s Andy Warhol watch, a masterclass in pop-era permanence), feats of mechanical bravado (Jacob & Co.’s globe-trotting tourbillon), and indulgences that turn ritual into theatre—whether that’s a Hibiki 21 poured just so, or a Rolls-Royce picnic staged like a state occasion. Fashion, design, fragrance and fine drinking are all represented, but united by a single premise: these are gifts that signal intention. The kind that linger on the mantelpiece, wrist or memory long after the wrapping paper is cleared. The stocking at robbreport.com.au, as ever, is generously—and ingeniously—stuffed.
[main image, top] Tiffany & Co. Blue Book Collection Shell Green Tourmaline Brooch, POA; tiffany.com
Top Tip
Montegrappa limited edition 007 Special Issue fountain pen, $2,850, at The Independent Collective; theindependentcollective.com
Clear Winner
Alchemica ‘Transparent’ glass decanter, $1,000; artemest.com
Holding Court
Celine Halfmoon Soft Triomphe lambskin bag, $5,500; celine.com
Beauty and the Feast
Rolls-Royce picnic hamper, $59,676; rolls-roycemotorcars.com
Minutes of Fame
Piaget limited-edition Andy Warhol Watch Collage with 18-carat yellow gold caseback, $128,000; piaget.com
Fancy That
Graff High Jewellery fancy intense yellow oval, white oval and round diamond necklace, POA; kennedy.com.au
Momentos in Time
Christopher Boots Thalamos Keepsake trinket box, $859; christopherboots.com
Strapper’s Delight
Roger Vivier La Rose Vivier sandals in satin, $2,620; rogervivier.com
Sun Kings
Rimowa x Mykita Visor MR005 Aviator Sunshield, $940; rimowa.com
Take Your Best Shot
Hibiki 21 Year Old blended whisky, $1,399; kentstreetcellars.com.au
Making Perfect Scents
Creed Aventus, $559; creedperfume.com.au
Earth Hour
Jacob & Co. The World is Yours Dual Time Zone Tourbillon, $464,750; inspire@jacobandco.com.au
Glass Acts
Fferrone May coupe, $445 (set of two); spacefurniture.com
Fferrone May flute, $375 (set of two); spacefurniture.com
Worth the Wait
Masterson 2018 Shiraz. $1,000; available to order from the Peter Lehmann Cellar Door by calling (08) 8565 9555.
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Radek Sali’s Wellspring of Youth
The wellness entrepreneur on why longevity isn’t a luxury—yet—and how the science of living well became Australia’s next great export.
Australian wellness pioneer Radek Sali is bringing his bold vision for longevity and human performance to the Gold Coast this weekend with Wanderlust Wellspring—a two-day summit running 25-26 October 2025 at the RACV Royal Pines Resort in Benowa. Sali, former CEO of Swisse and now co-founder of the event and investment firm Light Warrior, has long been at the intersection of wellness, business and conscious purpose.
Wellspring promises a packed agenda of global thought leaders in biohacking and longevity, including Sydney-born Harvard researcher David Sinclair, resilience pioneer Wim Hof, performance innovator Dave Asprey and muscle-health expert Gabrielle Lyon. From immersive workshops to diagnostics, tech showcases, and movement classes, Sali aims to make longevity less a niche pursuit for the elite and more an accessible cultural shift for all. Robb Report ANZ recently interviewed him for our Longevity feature. Here is an edited version of the conversation.
You’ve helped bring Wellspring to life at a moment when longevity seems to be dominating the cultural conversation. What drew you personally to this space?
I’ve always been passionate about wellness, and the language and refinement around how we achieve it are improving every day. Twenty years ago, when I was CEO of Swisse, a conference like this wouldn’t have had traction. Today, people’s interest in health and their thirst for knowledge continue to expand. What excites me is that wellness has moved into the realm of entertainment—people want to feel better, and that’s something I’ve always been happy to deliver.
There are wellness retreats, biohacking clinics, medical conferences everywhere. What makes Wellspring different?
Accessibility. A wellness retreat can be exclusive, but Wellspring democratises the experience. Tickets start at just $79, with options up to $1,800 for a platinum weekend pass. That means anyone can learn from the latest thought leaders. Too often in this space, barriers are put up that limit who can benefit from the science of biohacking. We want Wellspring to be for everyone.
You’re not just an organiser, but also an investor and participant in this field. How do you reconcile passion with commercial opportunity?
Any investment I make has to have purpose. Helping people optimise their health has driven me for two decades. It’s satisfying not just as an investor but as an operator—it builds wonderful culture within organisations and makes a real difference to people’s lives. That’s the natural fit for me, and something I want to keep refining.
What signals do you look for in longevity ventures to separate lasting impact from passing fads?
A lot of what we’re seeing now are actually old ideas resurfacing, supported by deeper scientific research. My father was one of the first in conventional medicine to talk about diet causing disease and meditation supporting mental health back in the 1970s. He was dismissed at first, but decades later, his work was validated. That experience taught me to look for evidence-based practices that endure. Today, we’re at a point where great scientists and doctors can headline events like Wellspring—that’s a huge cultural shift.
Longevity now carries a certain cultural cachet—its own insider language and status markers. How important is that to moving the field forward?
Health is our most precious asset, and people have always boasted about their routines—whether it’s going to the gym, doing a detox, or training for a marathon. What’s different now is that longevity practices are gaining mainstream recognition. I see it as something to be proud of, and I want to democratise access so everyone can ride the biohacking wave.
But some argue that for the ultra-wealthy, peak health has become a kind of luxury asset—like a private jet or a competitive edge.
That’s short-sighted. Yes, there are extremes, but most biohacking methods are accessible and inexpensive. Look at the blue zones—their lifestyle practices aren’t costly, yet they lead to long, healthy lives. That’s essential knowledge we should be sharing widely, and Wellspring is designed to do that in an engaging way.
Community is often cited as a key factor in healthspan. How does Wellspring foster that?
Community is at the heart of it. Just as Okinawa thrives on social connection, we want Wellspring to be a regular gathering place where people uplift each other. Ideally, it would become as busy as a Live Nation schedule—but for health and wellness.
Do you worry longevity could deepen class divides?
Class divides exist, and health isn’t immune. But in Australia, we’re fortunate—democracy and a strong equalisation process help maintain quality of life for most. Proactive healthcare, like supplementation and lifestyle changes, isn’t expensive. In fact, it’s cheaper than a daily coffee. That’s why we’re one of the top five longest-living nations. The opportunity is to keep improving by making proactive health accessible to everyone.
Some longevity ventures are described as “hedge-fund moonshots.” Others, like Wellspring, seem grounded in time-tested approaches. Where do you stand?
There’s value in both, but I’m more interested in sensible, sustainable practices. Things like exercise, meditation, and community-driven activities are proven to extend life and improve wellbeing. Technology can support this, but we can’t lose sight of the human elements—connection, balance, and purpose.
Finally, what role can Australia—and Wellspring—play in shaping the global longevity conversation?
The fact that we can put on an event like Wellspring, attract world-leading talent, and already have commitments for future years says a lot. Australia is far away, but that hasn’t stopped great scientists and thinkers from coming. We’ll be here every year, contributing to the global conversation and, hopefully, helping more people extend their healthspan.
