Sommaire pour March 2022 de Robb Report

Aldis Hodge Aldis Hodge, who wrote a column for this month’s Field Notes (p. 82), is an award-winning actor best known for his roles in Underground, Leverage, Straight Outta Compton and Hidden Figures. He currently stars opposite Kevin Bacon in the critically acclaimed Showtime series City on a Hill. Hodge just wrapped filming this summer’s highly anticipated Black Adam, in which he plays the DC superhero Hawkman. He is an avid horologist and watch designer and sits on the board of trustees for the Horological Society of New York. Eva Vázquez Vázquez is an illustrator based in Madrid. She studied animation and architecture in school, drawing upon both for her commission in this issue of Robb Report, which depicts the nuts and bolts of zero-carbon homes (“The Clean Dream,” p.…

For decades, Barcelona has been Spain’s unassailable city-break destination. But with notable new and reimagined properties from the likes of Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental and Rosewood Hotels, plus upcoming debuts from Edition Hotels and JW Marriott, the long-maligned capital of Madrid now boasts serious luxury-travel clout. The city’s current buzz was never a dead cert. Four Seasons opened in late 2020 in a grand heritage building just steps from Kilómetro Cero, considered the geographic center of Spain. That may sound like a prime location, but well-heeled Madrileños, who had long compared the area—disparagingly—to Times Square, were bemused. And yet Four Seasons’ arrival in the historic district was emblematic of hospitality brands’ nascent interest in Madrid, a vote of confidence in a destination underappreciated even by locals. Plans for the Four…

You could say Karl-Friedrich Scheufele was born to do what he does. His family purchased Chopard, the venerable 162-year-old Swiss watch manufacture, in 1963, and Scheufele, together with his sister, Caroline, took over from their father, Karl Scheufele III, in 2001. But the siblings had already been hard at work for two decades transforming the company into the high-wattage watch-and-jewelry empire it is today. In 1980, when Scheufele was just 22, he designed the company’s first steel sports watch, the St. Moritz, so he’d have something to wear on the slopes of the Swiss Alps. In 2019, Scheufele was inspired to revisit the concept and created a reboot of sorts, the Alpine Eagle. It has done so well that it is “presently facing a shortage of product on the market.”…

If these bed linens don’t hold the key to a deeper night’s sleep, they should at least grant you a more luxurious one. Italian brand Pratesi has recently released a new fabric it’s calling Angel Luxe, loomed of Egyptian cotton. The percale sheets retain their crispness alongside a certain coziness that hints at the softest flannel (minus the overheating), making time spent between them that much more . . . pleasurable. While the embroidered name and pattern are notable flourishes, they speak to style rather than engineering. More important are the practical details: The top sheet drapes fully over the sides of the bed, so there’s no wee-hours tug-of-war with your partner. And the bottom layer truly fits a deep mattress. I didn’t break a sweat while stretching it to…

From light jets to intercontinental biz-liners, supersizing interiors is, yes, the biggest design trend in business aviation. “Maximizing space has become a default expectation for clients,” says Matt Hill, vice president of sales and marketing for Aloft AeroArchitects, which designs bespoke interiors for owners with myriad missions. Aloft works exclusively with Boeing Business Jets, the world’s largest private aircraft converted from commercial airliners. After the aircraft is delivered with its “green” (that is, empty) interior, Aloft begins the cabin completions, a process that can take thousands of man-hours. And while the BBJs seem to have acres of available interior space, Hill compares his team’s challenges to those involved in designing a tiny home: Both share strictly defined dimensions that force designers to think creatively. Increasing usable space is often a…

Leica’s M-System cameras are as famous as some of the iconic photographers (think Robert Capa, Alfred Eisenstaedt and Alberto Korda) who have wielded them. In January, the German brand announced the release of its newest digital rangefinder, the M11, which adds some thoughtful functional updates while improving the camera’s ease of use. Our one complaint about the previous-gen M-Systems was how difficult it was to access the battery and SD cards, but with the baseplate removed from the M11, access is now a cinch. A new sensor, which has a lower base ISO of 64, provides better performance in brighter environments, even shooting with the aperture wide open, with zero overexposure. (The new 1/16,000 shutter speed provides an additional assist in bright light.) The new sensor also helps eliminate digital…

As someone on the verge of closing in on what has been a 16-year-long pursuit of a dream, I must say that my excitement comes in the form of a renewed sense of responsibility. The launch of my watch brand, A. Hodge Atelier, inches closer every day as my manufacturing partner completes the final stages of R&D. The plan is to release my flagship timepiece–a jump-hours model with nontraditional movement composition—later this year. I’ve thought about this moment every single day since I sketched my first watch. Granted, the tasks currently taking up most of my time are finalizing packaging designs, orchestrating my distribution strategy, sewing together a sales team, etc. All of the usual suspects to address when launching a company. But I can’t help but reflect on the…

Jeff Bezos and MacKenzie Scott divorced in 2019; since then, each has donated hefty sums to various philanthropies. However, their gift-giving strategies couldn’t be more different: Bezos has focused on big-ticket announcements, while Scott has quietly imparted billions to foundations in just two years, sharing her thoughts on the matter via blog posts. One approach isn’t inherently better than the other, of course—here’s what the two have to show for it so far. Jeff Bezos VS. MacKenzie Scott MADE THEIR FORTUNE By founding Amazon in a Seattle garage in the 1990s. Through the 4 percent of Amazon shares she received in her widely publicized divorce from Bezos. She was the company’s first accountant and helped coin its current name (the original moniker, Cadabra, sounded too much like “cadaver”). TOTAL PHILANTHROPIC…

Geneva is home to Europe’s largest hotel suite, the 18,083-square-foot Royal Penthouse at the Hotel President Wilson. But the Woodward, the latest five-star pile to open on Lake Geneva’s northern banks, just along Quai Wilson, doesn’t bother competing in that department. Each of the 26 rooms is a suite, ranging in size from just under 600 square feet to 3,300 square feet, so every guest gets to be a VIP. It’s a typically glamorous gut renovation from designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, known for London’s Savoy and the George V in Paris. No matter which suite you book (starting from around $1,370 per night) expect dazzling white-marble bathrooms, huge fireplaces, carpets plush enough to feel like slippers and marquetry-style wood paneling that stretches beyond the floor and up the walls. There’s also…

At the north end of the Las Vegas Strip sits the $4.3 billion neon kaleidoscope that is the new Resorts World Las Vegas hotel-casino-restaurant megalopolis. But casinos and eateries are a dime a dozen in Vegas; what you’ll find inside the site of the former Stardust Resort and Casino that you won’t find anywhere else is Eight, a 7,000-foot, indoor-outdoor luxury cigar lounge named after one of the lucky numbers in Chinese culture. Fittingly, guests will encounter eight rooms, including five comfortably furnished smoking areas, two of which can be reserved and enclosed for privacy, as well as multiple HDTVs and an expansive, 2,200-square-foot smoker’s terrace that overlooks the Strip. The temperature-controlled walk-in humidor room is lined with glass cases displaying Eight’s in-house cigar selections of more than 150 brands,…

AIR APPARENT Lucid Air Dream Edition Hammer the throttle from a standstill and the 5,203-pound machine slingshots to 60 mph in 2.42 seconds on its way to a max speed of 168 mph. In positioning itself as the great Tesla disrupter, Lucid Motors made performance claims for its debut-model Air that seemed destined for the vaporware ether. But now that deliveries have begun on the Lucid Air Dream Edition, and after testing some of these claims from behind the wheel, we’re delighted (and somewhat gobsmacked) to report that the Lucid Air is very real indeed. The first thing that will strike you about the vehicle, assuming you’re unfamiliar with the limited-edition four-door’s spec sheet and its 1,111 hp figure, is the exterior design. Its proportions are imposing yet impressively balanced,…

THE RISE IN new-aircraft sales colliding with global supply-chain disruption has caused some interesting trends, including an unseen level of interior customization for smaller jets. Typically, to avoid waiting on delivery, those buyers snap up whatever rolls off the production line—but facing backlogs of up to six months or even a year, owners are seizing the opportunity to design their dream interiors. “Everything from hand-woven carpets to quartz on the galley surfaces to unique quilting, company logos and tailoring on seats” are on various Cessna Citation upgrade lists, according to Christi Tannahill, Cessna’s senior vice president of customer experience. She’s been with the Wichita-based business-jet maker for 23 years and has never seen such a vast scope of remodeling extending across the Citation product line, from the Longitude and Latitude…

The classic-boat market has seen a shift in the past few years, with many seasoned owners selling off prized mahogany vessels as an influx of first-time buyers enters the market. “It’s not so much aging out as age-shifting,” says Herb Hall, president of Sierra Boat Company, a second-generation sales-and-restoration center on Lake Tahoe. “What we’re seeing is a younger, more affluent buyer who wants the really high-end stuff.” As with classic-car connoisseurs, vintage-boat collectors tend to focus on specific periods, seeking out the most iconic models from favored decades. “We’ve found the ‘age window’ is about 30 years,” says Dave Bortner, owner of Freedom Boat Service in Mayer, Minn., the Midwest’s largest classic-boat dealer and restorer. “If someone in their 20s wanted a wooden boat like their father or grandfather…

When Laurie Pitman bought the land where she would build her new home in Oakland, Calif., the former software engineer rejected the idea of erecting a de rigueur sprawling mansion, opting instead to go smaller—and greener. It was a decision that gave her greater peace of mind. “I [had] owned a helicopter company,” she says. “I was feeling guilty about how much fossil fuel I [burned] to carry people around.” Pitman hired an architect and settled on a 2,200-square-foot design, then found a contractor who specializes in eco-conscious projects. The team agreed on a Forest Stewardship Council–certified wood and a type of concrete that emits less carbon for the primary materials and installed 53 solar panels on the roof for her energy source. She even insisted on placing a 16,000-gallon…

Cartier, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Patek Philippe have long crafted clocks to adorn the tables, walls and desks of the world’s toniest addresses. But unlike the throwback vibes of those big-name counterparts, the creations coming out of the workshops of Clockwright, Miki Eleta and L’Épée are objets with personality—think monsters, space-age apparatuses and giant wooden structures that could pass for sculpture. Paige Reddinger and Carol Besler Clockwright The brainchild of Rick Hale, a forklift driver turned self-taught clockmaker based in Kalamazoo, Mich., Clockwright is known for its conceptual wooden wall clocks with swinging pendulums. But while at first they may appear to be a wild new take on Germany’s famous cuckoo clocks, these handmade, one-of-a-kind pieces are inspired by Hale’s heroes: Enlightenment-era clock and watchmaking masters such as John Harrison, Thomas Tompion…

FURNITURE DESIGNER Maximilian Eicke’s residential compound in Bali serves as both a home for him and his parents and a testing ground for new concepts. Before a lamp, chair or glass tumbler is made available for purchase via his brand, MAX ID NY—which is building a studio on the island—it often spends time within Eicke’s own four walls so he can observe how it performs during daily use. Even his bedroom is part laboratory and features several pieces that have not yet come to market. H.M. ➤ Bed The designer wanted his bed to look like it was floating, so he started with a black frame made of lacquered plywood, then topped it with a slab of solid teak. As with most of his furnishings, there are no metal accents…

THERE MIGHT NOT be a more prestigious address available in the City of Light right now. Beside the new Bulgari Hotel on Avenue George V sits a serene two-story penthouse with views of the Eiffel Tower. Sunshine floods both floors through an expanse of windows that rise to the roof. Another major draw of this apartment—beyond its location within the desirable 8th arrondissement, a short walk to the Champs-Élysées and the Seine—is its recent makeover, courtesy of designer-in-demand Stéphanie Coutas. She regularly makes the top 100 international designers lists for her chic and elevated, but not splashy, aesthetic. Her furnishing collaborations include projects with Promemoria and Baccarat, but many of her spaces feature custom pieces, such as in this George V unit. All the made-to-measure furnishings, rugs, lighting and accessories…

DATING BACK to the late 1800s and contests such as the 10-stage Bordeaux-Agen-Bordeaux race, enthusiasts have long sought to integrate travel and sport via the rally. Often combining skills tests with “regularity stages” that mandate a specific travel time and average speed, rallies have just enough competition to keep things interesting and are a perfect excuse to enjoy several days of epic roads. And with these four upcoming events, you can expect the accommodations and amenities to equal the world-class driving. April 1-3 The 12th Flying Scotsman Vintage Rally Departing from Northumberland, England, participants in the 12th Flying Scotsman Vintage Rally, hosted by the UK’s Endurance Rally Association (ERA), will pilot a cadre of prewar and early-postwar cars (pre-1948) on a three-day foray into the Scottish Highlands. For about $5,800…

The most beautiful piece of furniture at the National Business Aviation Association’s recent Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition show was an executive desk—referred to as a “monument” in airplane parlance—from Bomhoff Limited in Tucson, Arizona. Built on a subtly curved composite frame, it had a quarter-sawn American-walnut veneer with five coats of proprietary finish as well as leather-lined drawers and hidden door tracks on the sides. “The details are what I really enjoy about this work,” says Russ Bomhoff, whose family has been crafting aircraft interiors for three generations. He launched the firm last October to focus on bespoke jet furniture. “On a Rolls-Royce, the interior’s all about the curves. Even on a $90 million jet, where the interior costs a million, you typically get a cookie-cutter floor plan that’s…

IN THE YACHTING world, self-defense has gone on the offensive. Roman Abramovich’s 533-foot Eclipse is rumored to have an antimissile defense system, while the 165-foot Thunder could potentially launch missiles of its own, thanks to Australian builder Oceanfast’s military pedigree. “Its multi-fin stabilization system was designed to keep the deck level for firing projectiles—even in big seas, the boat doesn’t roll,” says former captain Max Burgazli. “Another plus is that nobody spills their drinks.” Other gigayachts have reportedly incorporated safe rooms, and the current demand for submersibles includes those who consider them potential escape pods. For pleasure cruisers, such high-stress considerations might seem counterintuitive, but yacht owners are increasingly adding security to onboard must-have lists, even on smaller yachts. If missiles are too extreme, perhaps bulletproofing is the way to…

One of the most buzzed-about destinations of 2022 is barely developed and widely misunderstood, starting with the fact that it isn’t, strictly speaking, real. And yet despite that existential disadvantage, the metaverse has managed to attract some of the world’s biggest brands, from Sotheby’s to the NFL, who’ve set up shop in the virtual universe to drop capsule collections, mint NFTs and auction off multimillion-dollar digital artworks. Along the way, the metaverse also became the hottest concert venue of pandemic-struck 2021, with A-list performances by Ariana Grande, Lil Nas X and Justin Bieber, all in avatar form. Which is all fine, but what is it? The term itself, coined in Neal Stephenson’s 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash, is already headed for middle age, while the technological capability to actually create…