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Foiler, Enata Marine

Enata Marine’s Foiler will change the way you view sea travel. The Flying Yacht, as it is more affectionately known, is a marvel of technology. Its cutting-edge retractable hydrofoil design, coupled with a sophisticated onboard management system, will have you soaring 1.5m above the water at 40 knots (74km/hr). You’ll get the same enjoyment of speeding through water without the choppiness, bumps and splashes. Of the four cabin configurations available, the new Royale design (from €895,000/S$1,425,435) lets you enjoy the sea breeze from elongated loungers at the beam and stern. The two-seater cockpit at the bow allows you to control the sports yacht with a joystick, and comes with a minibar, plenty of legroom and a full view of the horizon.

Maserati Ghibli Operanera and Operabianca

In any other context, taking an iconic Italian car and dressing it up on a whim can be borderline sacrilege. Unless, of course, you are the godfather of Harajuku and Japanese street culture, Fujiwara Hiroshi, in which case you can do whatever you want. The cultural maverick has added his visual signature to the Maserati Ghibli Granlusso sports sedan and the result is a monochromatic duet – Operanera and Operabianca; black and white. Effectively a showcase for the Maserati Fuoriserie customisation programme, the cars feature Fujiwara’s distinctive touches everywhere, from the front grille and wheel rims to the contrasting silver inserts in the vertical stitching on the livery. Only 175 of these will be made and all will bear the code M157110519FRG signifying the partnership. The cars will be accompanied by a specially designed capsule collection.

Ultimate Jabal Activity Wall, Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar Resort

The Green Mountain is one of the highest points in Oman and Anantara Al Jabal Al Akhdar has seized the opportunity to provide its guests with a breathtaking view of it. The sand-coloured fortress is perched on Saiq Plateau, which is two kilometres above sea level, and promises views of the expansive landscape from every angle. But you’re not encouraged to merely admire the scenery from afar. The resort has gone to great lengths to immerse you in the beauty of its surroundings. Its 90-minute Ultimate Jabal Activity Wall has you coming face to face with the towering, rocky terrain. You’ll scale nearly 200m of cliff faces; ascend the via ferrata, where steel rungs are drilled into the mountain, zig-zagging your way to the top. Don’t forget to turn around and admire the view behind and below, if you dare. Post adventure, return to the resort via a zipline that passes over the vast canyon for the ultimate adrenaline rush. And while their structures may impose, the mountains have the power to soothe as well, offering a stunning panoramic view as you dine on The Royal Edge for the sunset dinner of a lifetime.

Embassy Gardens Sky Pool

What is it with our obsession with pools that have us dangling at the edge? There’s the 150m infinity pool at Marina Bay Sands Singapore, The Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong’s indoor pool that sits almost 470m above ground, and now the Embassy Gardens Sky Pool in London. The 25m pool bridges two apartment buildings at Embassy Gardens in London and has the distinction of being fully transparent on all sides, providing a spectacular sight for all. To onlookers, it’s a floating body of water in the sky; for the swimmers, it’s a thrilling reminder that they are suspended 10 storeys above ground with only a slab of plexiglass preventing them from hurtling down to the streets below.

Excalibur Spider Huracán STO Carbon 45mm

Based on the road-going homologation of Lamborghini Squadra Corse’s one-make Huraćan Super Trofeo EVO race car, the Huraćan STO is as viscerally exciting as it gets in terms of inspiration. As it is with the supercar, the Excalibur’s pulsating heart is the showstopper. Powered by an automatic RD630 calibre with a honeycomb motif, it features a 12-degree angled balance wheel, with a 360-degree oscillating weight that reproduces the same speed effect as the STO’s wheels. Topped with strut bars that closely resemble the ones found on the Huraćan’s V10 powerplant, the performance hyperwatch is finished with Blue Laufey and California Orange accents, both of which reflect the car’s Gulf Oil-inspired racing livery.

Dior Babe

The perennial legacy of magazine editor and socialite Barbara ‘Babe’ Paley lives on in the form of the Dior Babe bag: a refined, emblematically elegant creation, rather like the American fashion icon herself. Dior’s revisitation of the Babe bag makes it possible to place a special order at dedicated events for a bespoke, ultra-personalised version, allowing the bag to be created in two singular formats and a vast variety of colours. A choice of rare and precious skins – Nile crocodile, ostrich, lizard and alligator being some of the highlights – is complemented by a range of clever finishing touches including gradient effects, a Himalaya finish or a hidden mirror.

Hortus Deliciarum, Gucci

There are over 130 unique pieces belonging to Gucci’s newest – and only its second – high jewellery collection, so you’ll need some time to take them all in and select your favourite. For the Hortus Deliciarum collection (Latin for Garden of Delights), creative director Alessandro Michele draws on the sizeable wealth of Gucci’s iconography – lions, tigers and flowers, for instance – and uses the natural world as a visual compass. Dramatic landscapes, coloursaturated skies, gentle rose gardens and untamed animals shape the frames of some truly spectacular jewels, including a 16.36-carat opal, a 60-carat rubellite and a 16-carat Paraíba tourmaline.

Ruby and diamond ring, Van Cleef & Arpels

Even within the perimeters of fiat currency, the jewellery auction market remains in rude health. During Bonhams’ Luxury Week in Hong Kong towards the end of June, there was a marked appetite for red jewels, with rubies, red spinels and red diamonds filling half the list of the top 10 lots. Chief among them was a 3.21-carat pigeon’s blood Burmese ruby and diamond ring crafted by Van Cleef & Arpels, which was quickly snapped up for HK$3.8 million (S$0.66 million) by a Taiwanese collector, well above its high valuation.

The Key 10138

The striking appearance of this diamond at Sotheby’s Luxury Edit sale series in Hong Kong marked yet another milestone in the auction world’s rapid embrace of cryptocurrency. The 101.38-carat, pear-shaped D Flawless diamond – the second-largest of its kind to appear on the public market – was offered in July, with Sotheby’s accepting Ether or Bitcoin through exchange platform Coinbase Commerce. Carrying a pre-auction estimate of between US$10 million (S$13.58 million) and US$15 million (S$20.38 million), The Key 10138 achieved a bid of US$12.3 million (S$16.71 million), setting a new record for the most expensive jewellery piece sold via cryptocurrency.

Written by: Ben Kwok, Charmaine Tai, Justin Choo and Renyi Lim

This story first appeared in the August 2021 issue. Purchase it as a hard or digital copy, or consider subscribing to us here