Luxury cars, SUVs to get dearer as GST Council may hike cess to 25%

Luxury cars and SUVs which had become cheaper with the rollout of GST, are all set to get costlier as the GST Council mulls hiking the cess from 15% to 25%. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated that GST Council in its 20th meeting held on August 5 considered the issue of raising cess after total tax incidence on motor vehicles has come down since the rollout of GST. According to reports, the decision and timeline for implementation of higher cess will be taken up at the Council’s meeting in Hyderabad scheduled for 9 September. The hike in cess on luxury sedans and SUVs could come as a blow for car manufacturers which had cut prices to pass on the benefits to buyers after GST implementation.

Gucci takes over Harrods this month with the brilliant Gucci Garden!

Here’s to the Gucci Garden: an exclusive Gucci pop-up that will be on at Harrods all month, featuring exclusive displays of Alessandro Michele’s new garden-themed collection. Gucci Dionysus bags, Gucci Patched bomber jackets and gossamer gowns on pink mannequins will all be sitting pretty, decking up the Knightsbridge store with the Michele’s signature floral, butterfly and snake motifs. But that’s not even the best part yet: you can get the products customised according to your specifications. Gucci X Harrods is offering ‘the complete Gucci DIY’ service where you can choose from exotic skins, colored horse bits, decorative patches and the Harrods-exclusive butterfly motifs in a variety of colors, to decorate your chosen item. Now isn’t that fun? But wait, there’s more. Harrods will also play host to the debut of Michele’s debut fragrance for women, Gucci Bloom, a heady blend of jasmine, tuberose and Rangoon creeper. And also on sale will be a collection of limited-edition bags, shoes, sneakers, and ready-to-wear for men and women designed by Gucci’s creative director. Stretching from July 31 to the end of August, this pop up promises to be a garden of exclusivity and revelry.

Feast your eyes on the Aquila 44 catamaran from Singapore Yacht Show 2017

The Aquila 44 is a power catamaran recently unveiled at the Singapore Yacht Show 2017, built by the Hangzhou Sino Eagle Yacht Co in China. It is the latest model in the Aquila family and features a spacious 3-cabin/3-head layout that includes an owner’s cabin spanning the full 21’ beam. Instead of having all the cabins down into the two hulls, the Aquila 44 has the master suite situated below and forward of the saloon, slung beneath the bridge deck. The other two cabins are on the same level and accessed to port and starboard in the usual manner. Outside and upstairs, an extremely spacious flybridge provides sun pad seating on either side of the central helm station, an electric grill, and steps down to the bow area, which Aquila terms the ‘revolutionary bridge to bow direct access’. Powered by twin 225-hp Volvo-Penta diesels engines, the Aquila 44 has a leisurely cruising speed of 7 knots with the top speed being 17 knots. The Aquila 44 has an interesting feature that gives it greater speed, higher fuel efficiency and also makes the ride smoother even in choppier waters. And that feature is the bulbous bow, which adds to all the innovations in design that the Aquila boasts of.

Wintergram Marble Machine: A $95,000orchestra that makes music using marbles!

Martin Molin, a 33-year-old musician from Sweden, has created the Wintergram Marble Machine, an orchestra that is made exclusively from 2000 pieces of marble! The hand- crafted complex machine generates music through a simple crank that supports the movement of the many assemblies of marble. The instrument uses a system of wheels, belts, funnels, tracks and carved wooden parts that roll and beat against the built-in vibraphone, drum and bass to create music. The machine is named ‘Wintergram’ after the band in which Molin plays as a multi-instrumentalist, and it took 16 months to be built. You can get this fascinating music creating instrument custom-built for yourself, for all of $95,000. At present this piece of art is being displayed at the Spielklook Museum in Utrecht.

Mercedes-AMG GT Roadster and GT R set for India launch on Aug 21

Mercedes is all set to launch the GT Roadster and GT R in India on Aug 21.The two additions take the AMG GT line-up count to 3 – AMG GT S, GT R and Roadster—and the count of AMG-marked offerings in India to twelve, with five launches in 2017 till date. The Merc-AMG GT R is the most hardcore version of the standard Mercedes-AMG GT yet. Powered by a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 petrol engine, it belts out 585hp of power and 700Nm of torque. Mated to the engine is a 7-speed, dual-clutch transmission that sends the power to the rear wheels only and the vehicle has been made 15kg lighter than the standard car—all of which makes the GT R zip from 0 to 100kmph in just 3.6 seconds, with top speeds of 318kmph. The Roadster, though, has far less power but it gets one up on the style quotient with the advantage of being a convertible. Though powered by the same 4.0-litre twin turbocharged petrol V8, it gets 470bhp of power—about a 100 horses less that the GT R—and 630Nm of torque. Barely weighing over a tonne, the Roadster sprints from 0 to 100 kmph in 4 seconds and reaches top speeds of 302 kmph—a pretty impressive figure in itself. The Roadster gets an aggressive vertically slatted chrome grille that adds menace to the otherwise classic lines of the AMG GT. While the AMG GT R is expected to be priced at a whopping Rs 3 crore, the GT Roadster commands only slightly reduced figures of Rs 2.7 crore.

World’s longest pedestrian bridge opens in Switzerland

Switzerland just opened the world’s longest pedestrian bridge in the town of Randa. Suspended across a valley between Grächen and Zermatt, this bridge is 494 metres long, beating the previous ‘world’s longest bridge’ title holder from the Hunan province of China, which was 430 metres long and suspended 300 metres above the China’s Zhangjiajie Canyon, with a glass bottom base. Switzerland’s Charles Kuonen Suspension Bridge is suspended 86 metres above the ground at its highest point, and provides breathtaking views of the surrounding peaks, including the famed Matterhorn range along with the Weisshorn and the Bernese Alps. The bridge has done a remarkable job of reducing travel time to 10 minutes from four hours, across the valley.

BMW 320d Edition Sport debuts in India at Rs 38.60 lakhs

BMW just debuted their latest addition to the 3 series in India—the 320d Edition Sport. Priced at Rs 38.60 lakhs (ex-showroom Delhi), the Edition Sport is the fifth trim to the 320d 3 Series in the country, after the Prestige, Sport Line, Luxury Line and M Sport variant. The exterior of the new 320d Edition Sport features sporty looking, glossy black touches at the front on the kidney grille and at the rear. The cabin comes with contrasting black and red sports seats, chrome garnish on the console, contrasting red stitching on the sports steering wheel and gear shift paddles. The red interior theme emphasises the sedan’s sporty aspirations. The Edition Sport also features an electric glass sunroof and a 205W, nine-speaker music system. The iDrive continues with the 6.5-inch display with CD drive, BMW apps, Bluetooth and USB/AUX connectivity, and rear view camera with park distance control. Safety features include six airbags, ABS with brake assist, Dynamic Stability Control including Dynamic Traction Control, Cornering Brake Control, Isofix child seat mounting, run-flat tyres with reinforced sidewalls, electronic vehicle immobiliser and crash sensors. The keys of this latest entrant come designed in red decorative trim, and the Edition Sport itself comes in various colour options: Alpine White as a non-metallic colour and Black Sapphire and Mediterranean Blue as metallic colours. The choice of upholstery includes Sensatec Black/Red highlight, Black and Sensatec Veneto Beige and Veneto Beige. Under the hood is the same turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder diesel engine producing 188bhp of power at 4,000rpm and 400Nm of torque between 1,750–2,500rpm. The engine is mated to an eight-speed Steptronic automatic transmission. It covers the 0-100kmph sprint in 7.2 seconds, and reaches top speeds of 250 kmph.

Louis Vuitton’s new e-commerce website launched in China

French fashion brand Louis Vuitton recently launched their e-commerce website in China, and it will offer everything from leather goods, luggage and shoes to accessories, watches jewelry and the newly launched Les Parfums Louis Vuitton. Louis Vuitton opened its first store in Beijing in 1992, and now this is their strategy to tap the booming online market. The website will be available in 12 cities. It is the 11th e-commerce market for Vuitton since it launched its first site in France in 2005.

Feast your eyes on the Tissot Ballade Powermatic 80 COSC

Swiss master watchmakers Tissot have created a world-first through the Tissot Ballade Powermatic 80 COSC by putting a silicon balance spring on an entry-level watch. Tissot credits the manufacturing capacities of the Swatch Group with reducing the cost of silicon balance springs that made this creation possible. The luxe watch brand is banking on collectors recognising 2017 as a watershed moment in cutting-edge technologies among watches. The 41mm steel watch, which comes in 39mm for women, features a dial with splendid Clous de Paris decoration that elevates the watch to a whole different level. The exhibition case back allows the ETA produced automatic movement to be freely admired. Importantly, the watch is a proper chronometer, with COSC certification and boasts a power reserve of 80 hours. Prices start from CHF870— about US $900— making it the first Swiss-made mechanical watch with a silicon balance spring at this price.

Check out the Converse Jack Purcell Pro Sneakers

The Converse Jack Purcell Pro Sneakers were created as part of Jack Purcell’s collaboration with Swedish apparel brand Polar Skate. The shoe features high-quality suede upper with branding on the heel stay, tongue back, and sockliner while the Polar Skate “Happy and Sad’ graphic is splashed across the license plates.  The dual-density OrthoLite sockliner has a Nike Zoom airbag for ultimate foot loving, it features the trademark Jack Purcell white midsole with a superior-grip traction rubber outsole. The shoes also feature Purcell’s iconic ‘smile’ across the toe—Purcell’s trademark tribute to cheerful style.