Luxury

Not content with being the purveyor of the likes of gold and diamond encrusted mobile phones and USB flash drives, luxury manufacturer Gresso has announced what it claims to be the world’s first mobile phone customization experience. By way of an online “boutique”, the company offers its clientele the choice of almost 40 combinations of titanium, steel and leather – with a starting price of US$2200. Read More

Bentley is fast moving from its luxury car tag to that of a supercar brand with the latest release of its Continental Supersports Convertible – the fastest four-seater convertible on the road. The new Supersports has the same 630PS (621bhp/463kW) twin-turbocharged W12 engine as the Continental Supersports Coupé introduced in 2009. Bentley says this is the fastest, most potent drop-top the company has ever built - 0-60mph in 3.9 seconds (0-100kmh in 4.2 seconds) and a top speed of 202mph (325kmh). Read More

Dutch company U-Boat Worx builds two- and three-person submarines for private and tourist use and has been doing nice business catering to the superyacht owners of the world for the last five years. Recognizing that its aspirations are greater than the number of independently wealthy superyachters, the company has set up a submarine center on the Caribbean island of Aruba aiming to “break open the luxury tourist submarine market.” “By catering to tourism ourselves, we are showing third parties, such as luxury resorts, hotels and cruise companies, what the opportunities are", says U-Boat Worx founder Bert Houtman Read More

Prior to the launching of the outrageous Wally Island megayacht two years ago, Monte Carlo-based Wally Yachts was probably best known for its millennium-award-winning Wallypower 118, but with the launch of Wally Hermes Yachts (WHY), a joint venture with French high fashion house Hermes, it will almost certainly be known for its first WHY Yacht – it’s a multi-story 58 metre-long, 38 metre-wide floating personal holiday resort with almost an acre of floorspace, an ultra-stable Norwegian Ramform hull, and an energy efficiency so high and carbon footprint so low that it can be sailed to the location of your heart’s desire. It aint fast, but it can cruise at 12 knots in a Force 4 gale and has enough range to cross the Atlantic four times without refueling. Read More

The Dynasty is a very 21st Century take on a gaming platform that's been with us for more than 500 years - the billiard table. The US$100,000 Dynasty features sculptured metal, slate pockets, and neon–look LED under lighting. Add to that a host of other top of the line fittings and you have yourself one very sharp looking centerpiece for the games room. The owner of the first known indoor billiard table - King Louis XI of France (1461–1483) - would surely approve. Read More

It seems that Sir Richard Branson's quest to conquer unexplored frontiers isn't limited to space tourism.The Virgin boss's latest acquisition is a DeepFlight three-person aero submarine that "flies" through the briny deep using the positive buoyancy system developed by Graham Hawkes. Christened Necker Nymph, the flying sub will find a home on Branson's 74 acre private island in the British Virgin Islands where it will launch from shore as well as operating from the luxury 105 foot catamaran Necker Belle - just add a quiet US$25,000 to the weekly hire price tag. Read More

For millions of commuters around the world, motorcycles are a compact and cheap way of getting around town in congested traffic. The Victory Vision is the absolute opposite - there's only been a handful of production bikes ever made that are bigger and heavier than this 400-kilogram, 1740cc American behemoth. It's built to eat up thousands of open-road miles with Harley-beating performance and buttock-coddling luxury - but in a surprise twist, this retro-futuristic mammoth can actually handle surprisingly well to boot. Loz Blain discovers how 10 days on one of the top five heaviest production bikes ever built can change your perspective on motorcycling in our video road test. Read More

"Two-in-one" products generally mean there's a compromise. A desktop replacement laptop is great until you've lugged its weighty frame through five airports in two weeks, a road-trail motorcycle is fine until you hit a really snarly stretch of dirt, and a keyboard that becomes a mouse when you turn it upside down, well, lets not even go there. So when Toyota introduced its new Prado Landcruiser mid-size 4WD as a "best of both worlds" solution for both the highway and the rough stuff I was a little skeptical. But after taking on all types of terrain - including, open roads, tight forest trails and a formidable purpose built 4x4 track - I may just have been convinced otherwise. The vehicle's versatile performance owes particular thanks to a sophisticated new suspension system and electronics suite, and although there's no point pretending that it can be a sports coupe one minute and a monster truck the next, as a two-in-one auto solution the fourth-gen Prado comes very, very close. Read More

If you enjoy peace and quiet on your camping holidays, the "Opera” might not be the ideal choice. Emulating the renowned lines of the Sydney Opera House in Australia, this luxurious mobile home designed by Belgian architect Axel Enthoven is bound to get lots of scrutiny from inquisitive campers and passers-by... and it deserves all the attention it gets. Read More