With 24 water villas and one island villa, as well as a great host of features and facilities, the Soneva Jani resort at the Maldives would be opening for business in October. The 25 villas stretch across an area of 5 kilometers and every water villa has exclusive pools opening into their own stretches of the lagoon, with some even providing slides starting from the top deck, for you to make a fun splash into the lagoon below. The villas reportedly flaunt a retractable roof in the master bedroom, so you can revel in the joy of sleeping right under the stars. The resort also features a spa, a dive center, an observatory, a children’s den, an organic garden – and even a special outdoor cinema called the Cinema Paradiso, which is unique in that it is a ‘silent cinema’: every guest will be given Bluetooth earphones while watching their movies so that the wildlife in the area isn’t disturbed! Now that is something truly eco-conscious. For your gastronomical delight, there are five different outlets serving cuisine from all over the globe, with full gourmet menus to choose from. Should you want something completely different, you can have your own special ‘culinary adventures’ all around the lagoon – like having lunch in the organic garden or on the private beach. With all these experiences, we bet you’d be just waiting for October.
Cricket-lovers’ flamboyant favourite Virat Kohli has purchased a super-luxury apartment in the plush Worli area of Mumbai. Worth Rs 34 crore, the 7, 171-sq-ft-sea-view unit is placed on the 35th floor of the building. He would have great company, too apparently, for on the 29th floor of the very same building lives Yuvraj Singh. Kohli’s apartment which will be bare-shell as of now can reportedly be customised into a lavish five-bedroom house. However, the apartment will only be available for possession by mid-2018. The super-star sportsman still has to wait a bit!
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba, snapped up two historic French vineyards for nearly 12 million euros ($13.56 million). The Chateau Guerry and the Chateau Perenne date right back to the 18th century in the heart of the fabled Bordeaux wine-growing region. And now Jack Ma has claimed them for his own. The owner of the two chateaus, French wine magnate Bernard Magrez, confirmed the sale to the AFP after the transaction was reported by the British specialized magazine Decanter. The Chateau Perenne is spread over 64 hectares (158 acres) in the Blaye Cotes-de-Bourg appellation, producing about 500,000 bottles of red and white wine annually. Chateau Guerry is the oldest estate in the Cotes de Bourg appellation, producing 84,000 bottles of red a year over about 20 hectares. The purchases add to the Chateau de Sours vineyard, which Ma bought in Bordeaux’ Entre-Deux-Mers wine region in February. It includes a magnificent 18th-century country house.
THE BRAINY CAR | A fully autonomous zero-emissions vehicle, the Vision Next 100 comes with the ‘Voice of Eleanor’ program that handles the driving and manages your appointments too
Rolls-Royce just took a giant leap into the future with the Vision Next 100. The luxury car firm debuted the Vision Next 100 at a special event in London, echoing something its parent company BMW did back in March with the BMW Vision Next 100, but perhaps Rolls-Royce is even bolder in its vision than BMW itself.
The Vision Next 100 ‘103 EX’ ditches a good deal of the familiar ‘car-like’ trappings in favor of an exterior that feels more like an otherworldly rectangular pod. The Vision Next 100 is a fully autonomous zero-emissions vehicle with absolutely no steering wheel or instrument panel (there is instead a cabin-wide OLED display)… Yet there’s still that iconic Spirit of Ecstasy gleaming at the front, marking it as, unmistakably, a Rolls-Royce.
RIDE IN ECSTASY | The iconic Spirit of Ecstasy sits pretty atop this otherworldly ride
Speaking of the Spirit of Ecstasy, there will be one inside the vehicle too. This would be the “Voice of Eleanor,” a Siri-like smart system named after Eleanor Thornton, the model for the marque’s iconic Spirit of Ecstasy hood ornament. As the car’s artificial-intelligence platform, Eleanor will provide the next generation of connectivity—not only being able to call for the car to pick a person up, but actually handling the driving while getting to the destination in the most efficient way possible. The program will also manage an individual’s schedule, making suggestions on route selection, based on time and traffic, and adjusting accordingly. The virtual personal assistant can be viewed on the visual display in the interior. She’ll track your personal tastes, make recommendations, and run your appointments. All this falls in with one of the basic tenets of luxury, which is to do nothing that you don’t want to do.
THE BIGGER THE BETTER | At close to 6 meters in length and more than a meter tall, the two-door Vision Next 100 comes from a future where bigger is clearly better
The Vision Next 100’s form is as impressive as its functionality. Each bespoke, hand-built example will measure a massive 19 feet long and over 5 feet tall and will feature an elongated hood and a hand-cut glass canopy. From the front, polished metal (pronounced on the Pantheon grille) rises over the nose and suspended laser headlights, extending along the doors and around the rear. This artistic element further delineates the two-tone color scheme, contrasting the dark glass upper body with the lower section’s shimmering silver “Crystal Water” treatment. The otherworldly ride rolls on 28-inch covered wheels (crafted from 65 handmade pieces of aluminum) that are complemented by state-of-the-art suspension for an effortless journey.
SHIMMERING ELEGENCE | The Vision NEXT 100 follows a two-tone colour scheme, contrasting the dark glass upper body with the lower section’s shimmering silver “Crystal Water” treatment
Inside, the completely customizable cabin will indeed be a grand sanctuary ensconced in Macassar wood paneling and deep-pile ivory wool carpeting. The Rolls-Royce’s concept of ‘luxury in details’ completely stays. For instance, the car has a finely-crafted analogue clock above the screen. It shows the history of Sir Henry Royce’s humble beginnings as an electrical pioneer and of time as the ultimate luxury.
LUXE IS IN THE DETAIL | Macassar wood paneling and deep-pile ivory wool carpeting enhances the completely customizable cabin
Occupants of this ultra luxe ride will find themselves in a lavish cabin surrounded by a 360-degree glass canopy. Upon arrival at the destination, the canopy will lift, a step will emerge, and the ground will be illuminated for a virtual red-carpet entrance. Yes, this vision of the future comes with a couch because someone at Rolls-Royce was paying heed to all those jokes car writers make about the Good wood firm’s penchant for creating luxury living rooms on wheels.
FUTURE FANTASTIC | As you arrive, the 360 degree glass canopy lifts to let you alight on a step even as the ground is illuminated for you
“The grand arrival of the Rolls-Royce Vision Next 100 boldly points to a bright future for our marque where our patrons’ individual demands for complete and authentic personalization will be met through an exquisite fusion of technology, design and hallmark Rolls-Royce craftsmanship,” said CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös at the concept’s launch. In coming up with the Vision 100, the design team led by Giles Taylor tried to imagine what cars would look like a century into the future. They decided that four key ingredients were important – personal vision; an effortless journey; a grand sanctuary; and the grand arrival.
Well, this is only the beginning. As things develop we can expect more automation, more exclusivity and definitely more pampering.
Goodwood Festival of Speed organizers have confirmed that the latest multi-million-dollar Bugatti creation is coming to this year’s event to be held at Goodwood House, Sussex, England from June 23-26. The vaunted and much-lauded speedster will take on the hill climb course in its first-ever public performance. The new car, unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show just three months ago, has 1,500 horses chomping at the bit (Wikipedia says 1,479) and an insane 261mph+ (420kmh, which is faster than any Formula 1 car ever) top speed. Needless to say, it is one of the rarest and most expensive and potentially collectible cars money can currently buy. Only 500 units will be made and more than a quarter are already spoken for. Oh yes, the expected price is north of $2.6 million. The Bugatti Chiron is going to be put through its paces on the legendary hill climb course at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, and will be racing on every single day of the event. Who knows how many hypercars it will slay over the course of the three-day event? The appearance will be the first time that it has been on British shores since its launch, and the fact that it will be racing, rather than sitting on a revolving stand, is a world first.
The Maldives, home to the world’s first underwater restaurant, is on track to get a second even larger one. It will be the new world’s biggest underwater restaurant…until the next one opens. The restaurant, which only seats 16, is part of a luxury, five-star, adults-only resort. When the Hurawalhi Island Resort opens in November one of its star attractions will be the “5.8” undersea restaurant named after its watery location: the unusual dining destination is set 5.8 meters (18 feet) below the lagoon. Previous reports have this depth listed at 5.2 meters so it got a little deeper, apparently. The restaurant will allow diners to take in their marine surroundings through a transparent, domed ceiling as they tuck into a multi-course tasting menu. This will be the second underwater restaurant after the Ithaa Undersea Restaurant at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island resort, a big sister property to Hurawalhi. Likewise, the Hurawalhi restaurant is being designed by the same architects MJ Murphy, who specialize in aquarium design. Built in New Zealand over 10 months, the 410-tonne megastructure traveled to the Maldives by cargo ship and was carefully lowered into the sea earlier this spring. To enter the restaurant, guests enter a little hut on the jetty and climb down a spiral staircase. Overseeing the resort’s cuisine is executive chef Shannon Batten, a New Zealander who has cooked for Bill Clinton, the British royals, Rod Stewart, Bob Geldof, Neil Young, the Rolling Stones, and foreign heads of state.
Dubai-based Z Tyre has designed a shimmering set of tyres encrusted with ‘specially selected’ diamonds and 24-karat gold leaf. Starting with a set of four Z1 high performance tires, Z Tyre sent the rubber to Italy, where artisan jewelers studded them with specially chosen diamonds. The tires were then sent to Abu Dhabi, where they were covered in gold leaf by the same craftsmen involved in building of the new royal palace there. Once back in Dubai, the tires sold for $600,000 (2.2 million Dubai dirhams), earning these luxurious runners the title of ‘world’s most expensive set of tyres’ by Guinness World Records. Harjeev Kandhari, CEO of Z Tyres told Gulf News that Z Tyres is donating the proceeds from the tire sale to charity. “In keeping with the spirit of the holy month of Ramadan, Z Tyres will donate all profits from the $600,000 sale to the Zenises Foundation, which focuses on improving access to education across the world.”
Sirin Labs has officially unveiled a $14,000 super secure high-end Android smartphone, which they dubbed as the “Rolls Royce” of smartphones. Solarin aimed to target the 1% luxury handset market that has been single-handedly dominated by Vertu for many years. Tag Heur and Porsche have tried to penetrate the market but failed. Now, an Israeli startup company plans to change the playing field by launching a smartphone to beat all other luxury smartphones. The $14,000 Android Smartphone has strong specifications such as a 5.5-inch IPS LED display with 1440x 2560-pixel resolution and a 2k screen. It uses the super secure Corning Gorilla Glass 4 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor with 4 GB Ram powered it. Since the company’s focus is phone security, Sirin Labs has collaborated with KoolSpan for the integration of chip-to-chip 256-bit AES encryption, providing email encryption as an as added protection. It also features a finger print sensor and waterproofing, among others. Solarin also offers a good selection of cases including Fibre Black Carbon Titanium, Fibre Black Carbon Yellow Gold, Fibre Black Carbon DLC and Crystal White Carbon DLC. The smartphone is available online and at the company’s newly opened boutique at Mayfair.
One lucky Northern European client is now the proud owner of the very first Numarine 32XP superyacht. The model joins the Explorer series — other models in the series are the 24- and 40XPs. The client, too, is no stranger to the yacht manufacturer, having been listed as a repeat client. Designed by Can Yalman, the superyacht boasts Numarine’s signature striking lines and attention to detail. The 32 meter yacht is able to house 12 guests in its six cabins, which also includes a full-width owner’s cabin while featuring a host of luxurious amenities and three crew cabins. With a steel hull and two CAT C18 Acert engines, the yacht has a top speed of 14 knots and a cruising range of 3,000 nm. The interior of the 300-tonne yacht provides guests with total peace and quiet, as the Numarine 32XP uses the latest insulation technology from Dutch company Silent Line Group in sound absorbing and blocking, keeping noise to a minimum. The manufacturer, founded by Omer Malaz, built the Numarine 32XP in its high performance motoryacht shipyard based in Istanbul.
The opening date of the Louvre Abu Dhabi is looming (though it has yet to be confirmed) and the team behind the project is moving towards completing the structure. In a move that marks another step towards the completion of the museum, the contractor has begun removing temporary sea protection walls to allow the sea to integrate with the museum. “This delicate process is the result of months of planning and preparation to ensure that the inflow of sea water takes place in a controlled manner around and within strategic places in the museum,” said TDIC chairman Ali Majed al-Mansoori. Built at a cost of half a billion euros, the design by French architect Jean Bouvel will span an impressive 9,200 square meters (100,000 square feet). Back in 2009, when construction on the structure first began, more than 4,000 steel and reinforced concrete piles were driven into the ground to form a base. The main outer dome, measuring 180 meters, stretches out over the water. It is perforated with designs that will project light patterns of palm trees onto the space below. To sit surrounded by the sea, the structure uses a water system that is derived from ancient Arabian engineering, allowing water to flow between the enclosed galleries and outer areas of the museum. Amongst the works that will be on display, are several loans from some of France’s grand museums such as the Louvre, the Musee d’Orsay and the Palace of Versailles. It will be part of a 30-year collaboration costing one billion euros. The opening of the museum will be followed by the Zayed National Museum and Guggenheim Abu Dhabi.
