Innehållsförteckning för March 2025 från Robb Report

Though it has been a year since Joshua Gaynor took over as president of Lugano, he still can't help but marvel at the differences between this company and the one he came from. After seven years at Bulgari's New York City office, where he rose through the ranks to become managing director of high jewelry for North America, he was poached last March. And while the job required a move to Lugano's headquarters in breezy Newport Beach, Calif., he says the most notable change is not the laid-back West Coast lifestyle. It's Lugano's approach to finding and engaging customers. “The vast majority of clients here were not high-jewelry clients before Lugano,” he tells Robb Report. “And that is something that, in my experience, is very, very unusual in the industry.”…

THE BOWLESS BELGIAN Despite being a mainstay, the Belgian loafer is also one of menswear's most divisive styles. Not into bows, candy colors, or contrasting trim but love the ease of a slipper-like shoe? Look to newcomer August Special, founded by ex-Ralph Lauren designer Joseph Pollard. The brand's Augie style has all of the genre's hallmarks without any unnecessary flourishes. THE REFINED SANDAL If 2024's overabundance of menswear choices taught us anything, it's that sometimes the humblest option is the best. Take raffia. First embraced by shoemakers when leather was scarce during World War II, the tightly woven palm fibers are ideal for warmer climates, which Canary Islands native Manolo Blahnik surely knows a thing or two about. THE STREAMLINED SNEAKER The oversize-sneaker trend is finally on the wane—and its…

What do Cristiano Ronaldo, Glenn Close, and ex–Dire Straits front man Mark Knopfler have in common? They all belong to Membresía la Tenada by Valduero, a single-winery club in Ribera del Duero, Spain, that bills itself as the world's most exclusive. If you haven't heard of it, you likely know one or two of its membership roster, which includes a veritable who's who of acclaimed chefs, as well as Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi and novelist Ken Follett. The club has grown slowly, by word of mouth, from 10 members at its founding in 2004 to about 300 today. But it's no secret why such a vaunted group would want to join. While many top-tier American wineries are known for offering astounding VIP perks, Bodegas Valduero is among only a handful…

The motorcycle as a canvas for artistic expression will once again be celebrated as the Handbuilt Show returns for its 11th consecutive year. From March 28 through 30, the 100,000-square-foot Austin American-Statesman, in Austin, Texas, will display a field of more than 150 custom bikes and, for the first time, automobiles—all presented in partnership with sponsor BMW Motorrad. The curated assemblage reflects the passion of event founder Alan Stulberg, whose own atelier, Revival Cycles, is known for making world-class, one-off machines. The exhibition, showcasing the creative work of independent builders from around the globe, will include choppers, café racers, and even some radical contraptions for which no generic description applies. Says Stulberg, “This year, we're not just pushing boundaries—we're redefining them.” Here, a few leaders of the pack. 1 BIKE:…

Superyacht designers have begun to navigate the cultural preferences of their clientele by redefining yacht interiors in subtle but significant ways. Twenty years ago, European shipyards thought a mah-jongg room was the only accommodation needed to satisfy Chinese buyers. These days, designs targeting the Asian market—where yacht ownership has grown 30 percent in five years—require more sophistication and understanding. “They tend to use their boats for family gatherings and social or corporate events, so service is at the highest level with extensive crew,” says François Zuretti, who designed several of Benetti's largest superyachts for a Hong Kong client. “Privacy must be respected.” As do the customer's needs: There have been yachts delivered to China without engines because the owners had no intention of ever leaving the dock. Italian shipyard Rossinavi…

While the speed at which artificial intelligence (A.I.) is pervading mainstream society could seemingly break the sound barrier, aviation authorities are taking a slower, more cautious approach to its potential applications in the cockpit. After all, the implications of a sophisticated A.I. system acting as copilot raise serious questions-such as, will it second-guess or even stop the human pilot from flying if the computer perceives an imminent emergency, which may or may not exist? The answer is not yet definitive. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) have both published papers acknowledging A.I.'s future in aircraft operations, emphasizing that safety needs to be the primary criterion for certification. EASA forecasts a three-stage implementation: A.I. first assisting human pilots with information, then human and A.I.…

For Greg Habib, a banker-turned–event producer in Brazil, the pandemic was almost career-ending, spiking most of the large-scale music-festival gigs in which he specialized. When big gatherings were once again permitted, he resolved to reinvent his business, inspired in part by his love for Burning Man. “Why not bring together a nice group of people, with some amazing DJs, somewhere that's out of their comfort zone, to try something new?” he tells Robb Report. “It's way more interesting and intimate to do something with 100 people, where everybody is friends, than with 10,000.” He distributed invites to friends, and friends of friends, ultimately bringing 60 like-minded people together for five days at a custom glamping site in Chile, atop the ideal spot to watch December 2020's looming solar eclipse. It…

Everybody likes a good-news story, particularly one that involves overcoming a disaster. And the all-new Signorello wine estate is just such a tale. Back in October 2017, the Atlas Fire consumed more than 50,000 acres of Napa County in 16 days, killing six people and wiping out almost 800 buildings. Among the structural casualties were the winery and tasting room of Signorello Estate. Founded 40 years earlier by the father-son duo of Ray Signorello Sr. and Ray Jr., the estate was built upon 100 acres in Napa Valley. The pair originally planted Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, introducing Cabernet Sauvignon some years later. But despite losing his home and much of the family winery to the devasting 2017 fire, Ray Jr. came to terms with the loss, vowing to rebuild using…

From 1920s-style cruisers to superyachts with an ‘80s edge, retro-inflected builds are burgeoning. A common practice in the world of fashion—incorporating the best design elements from a bygone age—is now making waves in the yacht industry, where the term “retro” is becoming as coveted as Grandpa's wooden 1950s Chris-Craft. “The aesthetic can create feelings of comfort and timelessness,” says Jim Dixon, creative director of yachts and aviation at Winch Design. “The designs inspired by iconic periods add character, spirit, and fun to superyacht living.” Such influences are increasingly prevalent, from Picchiotti's heavily stylized Gentleman's Yacht and Codecasa's Vero (both recently launched 78-footers by Luca Dini Design and Architecture) to details as small as the mahogany instrument panel on the Winch-designed 203-foot Sea Owl. “A successful retro design is likely to…

Jason Hill has spent most of his career attempting to redefine the rotorcraft, and his futuristic HX50 chopper now looks like it may indeed establish another helicopter category. With its all-new design, from turbine to touchscreen the sleek flying machine incorporates a high-inertia three-bladed rotor system that should deliver a cruising speed of 160 mph with an 800-mile range. And while it's purported to fly well above its light-helicopter competitors in terms of avionics, styling, and interior space, what's perhaps most impressive about the five-occupant whirlybird is its intended starting price of approximately $798,000—about a third less than what a comparable rotorcraft might cost. “The machine is designed to feel like a supercar,” says Hill. “It's also geared to make everything about helicopter flying simpler than ever before.” The HX50's…

The vintage hi-fi market has never been more active, with some historic components—namely vacuum-tube amplifiers and horn-loaded loudspeakers—now commanding exponential multiples of their original prices. Meanwhile, listening bars, long popular in Japan, are cropping up from New York City to Los Angeles, spinning cool-jazz LPs on classic systems as the bartenders pour Scotch whisky far younger than the audio gear itself. Evidently, there is something almost magical about music's reproduction through the finest decades-old components that contemporary audiophiles find intoxicating. And it's not just nostalgia. “Vintage systems can be more engaging,” says renowned loudspeaker designer Andrew Jones, whose innovative work for such audio houses as KEF, Infinity, TAD, Pioneer, Elac, and MoFi has advanced the industry. According to Jones, such equipment requires “patience, dedication, and involvement.” “It is incumbent upon…

SIR WILLIAM LYONS said that a Jaguar should be “the copy of nothing,” and this simple instruction might be his most significant and lasting bequest to the car company he founded. It is the perfect expression of the primary principle of any serious creator, be they designer, engineer, or artist, and the very best Jaguars certainly were the antithesis of imitation. We might see the Jaguar E-Type of 1961 or the XJ sedan of 1968 as period pieces now, but when they first appeared, they were breathtakingly original and modern. The same was true of Jaguar's greatest race cars, such as the C- and D-Types of the 1950s, and of the engineering that lay beneath them all. Sir William's XK engine was both powerful enough to win the 24 Hours…

It's NOT UNUSUAL for new homeowners to gripe about the sorry state their predecessors left the property in-a leaky pool, a chimney to rival the Leaning Tower of Pisa, or a bathroom that looked like it belonged in a gas station. But Gustavo Antonioni can go so far as to say that the previous residents of his retreat in the Puglia region of Italy lived like animals. To be fair, they were animals. About 200 goats had made themselves at home inside the once-aristocratic villa of a centuries-old masseria, or agricultural estate, that he was about to restore. The need to pressure-wash the entire interior would become but a minor inconvenience in a halting seven-year project that was filled with challenges before culminating in an elegantly modern interpretation of a…

There was a period when Mahnaz Ispahani Bartos found it hard to hold on to a watch. The prominent collector and dealer often would post pictures on social media of the uncommon, sculptural timepieces she purchased for herself. But every time, clients of her eponymous jewelry gallery-New York City's Mahnaz Collection-would hound her into selling them. “They found those photographs, and they are just diligent in bothering me,” she says with a laugh, adding that some would simply persist until she changed her mind about letting them go. In response to that demand, this month her Madison Avenue space will begin offering its first formal collection of unique watches, curated with the same rigor and studious eye Ispahani Bartos has applied to sourcing rare jewelry. (Her specialty is the hard-to-find…

Before a recent trip to Hong Kong, I did what many travelers do: I googled the local Michelin Guide ratings and booked a three-star table. The menu proclaimed exceptional Cantonese, but what I got left me unimpressed. The right dishes were there, but the quality and service I expected were not. The food was curiously bland, oily, rote—and the waitstaff was so indifferent that I had to beg for my wineglass to be refilled. I've had better meals in linoleum-floor joints in New York City's Chinatown and truly dazzling experiences still at other legit three-star efforts such as Thomas Keller's Per Se and Eric Ripert's Le Bernardin. So how had this place managed to earn one of fine-dining's top designations? When I quizzed colleagues in the city, they admitted that…

Heidi Zuckerman has married her decades-long immersion in the art world with her boundless energy to create a mini multimedia empire, replete with books, a podcast, and a newsletter—all while holding a serious day job as a museum director. During her 14-year stint as CEO and director at the Aspen Art Museum, she presided over the construction of a new building designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architect Shigeru Ban, transformed the institution with exhibitions of stars including Rashid Johnson and David Hammons, and made Aspen an essential stop on the art world's collective itinerary when she founded the summer ArtCrush auction and its attendant festivities. In 2021, Zuckerman alit at California's Orange County Museum of Art, where in the same role she oversaw yet another move, this one to an edifice…

SINCE JOSEPH KRUG started his eponymous Champagne house in 1843, the maison had been making its annual Grande Cuvée release in the region's largest city, Reims. Last year, the company moved to a more modern facility in the village of Ambonnay. The cutting-edge winery—named Joseph, after its founder—is more than 100,000 square feet in size but was designed to fit in with the tiny commune's traditional architecture. (Home to fewer than 1,000 people, it boasts a church that dates to the 11th century.) But Krug's new space also abuts one of the world's finest vineyards, Clos Ambonnay, which is significant. Cellar master Julie Cavil tells Robb Report that in addition to its being the source of Krug's exquisite single-vineyard bottling of the same name, “there is a drop of Ambonnay…

Bell 505 Jet Ranger X Out of this group, Bell's five-seat 505 Jet Ranger X is for buyers who want all the bells and whistles, including 99 cubic feet of interior space and raised rear seats that allow everyone to enjoy the panoramic view. The Safran HE Arrius 2R turbo engine delivers a top cruise speed of 125 knots, a range of 306 nautical miles, and a maximum flight time of 3.9 hours—enough to get you off the grid and back on it again. From $1.45 million Robinson R44 Raven II Certified in 2002, Robinson Helicopter's fourseat R44 Raven II has become a favorite in this competitive segment of bantam rotorcraft, thanks to its fuel efficiency, reliability, and safety features. The Raven II, powered by a Lycoming IO-540 fuel-injected engine,…

It began with the birth of my son in June 2023. Five days of hospital food during my wife's recovery, the scale suggested, had led me to shed the same number of pounds. In the weeks that followed, a dramatic drop-off in restaurant visits and better eating at home turned an accidental weight loss into an intentional one that topped out at around 25 pounds. All good—until that fall, when I realized that my custom-made tweeds and flannel trousers were falling off me. Fortunately, much of my tailored wardrobe came from a Boston-area clothier that still offers complimentary alterations on its garments for life: a quaint policy that I severely tested over the next half year as I brought in dozens of trousers, jackets, and suits to be cut down,…

1935 SS Jaguar 100 Jaguar was originally the model name of this elegant sports car from Sir William Lyons's SS Cars, before the whole company adopted it in 1945. 1948 Jaguar XK120 The XK120 defined the new postwar optimism, showcased the seminal XK engine, and stole the 1948 London motor show with its stunning design. 1951 C-Type Styling perfection but a serious racer, too: Based on the XK120, the C-Type pioneered disc brakes and won Le Mans—the world's toughest race—in its first attempt, in 1951. 1954 D-Type This more aerodynamically advanced iteration of the C-Type won Le Mans three times—with and without the distinctive “fin.” 1956 XKSS This hugely charismatic, extremely rare road-going version of the D-Type racer was loved by Steve McQueen and is worth about $10 million now.…