Following on from Kristen Stewart and Cara Delevingne, the French model and music producer Caroline de Maigret stars in the latest of a series of short films made to promote Chanel’s latest it-bag, the “Gabrielle”. This short black-and-white film is imbued with French spirit and style.
The French fashion house has unveiled the third short film dedicated to its new “Gabrielle” bag, which is a nod to the first name of the brand’s founder. The film’s atmosphere and setting is very different from that of the previous two.
This new ad campaign stars none other than Chanel ambassador Caroline de Maigret, who is seen exploring an unmistakably Parisian apartment. Her natural style is brought to the fore in this black-and-white short film which is the work of the French director Olivier Assayas.
In the video, which consists of a single unbroken shot, Caroline de Maigret is seen wandering around a typically charming Parisian apartment, then she sees an appointment with “Gabrielle” noted in her diary and discovers the iconic “Gabrielle” bag sitting on a mantelpiece.
This is the third short film in a series about this new unisex bag. The first directed by Daniel Askill starred Kristen Stewart, while the second, directed by Shishi Yamazaki, was fronted by Cara Delevingne. The last as-yet-unreleased video will star Pharrell Williams.
Luminox tells us that the F-22 Raptor Chronograph is built to fly or just to fly through life, which is just a great turn of phrase. You might recall that the F-22 Raptor is a stealth jet fighter built by Lockheed Martin and this watch is the licensed accompanying timepiece. This explains both the name and the fact that the F-22 Raptor Chronograph is part of the Lockheed Martin collection. This also goes a long way towards explaining that highly distinctive crown.
Now, Luminox has a long-standing working relationship with Lockheed Martin, spanning some 17 years now, so this watch represents an evolution of the characteristics of the current collection. There are at least four variants here, each one a chronograph featuring a case of tough solid titanium and a display that radiates clarity in the dark — thanks to Luminox’s vaunted strength in luminosity. Not for nothing, the self-powered luminosity in each of the four versions will function for up to 25 years. Luminox calls this “Always Visible Constant Glow” that will not drain the battery of power in any way. Speaking of which, the battery life on this Swiss Ronda 5050.B quartz calibre is 43 months.
Other common features of the models include a slide rule, a tri-compax layout, an oversized date, and a water resistance of 200 metres. The design features obviously borrow from the stealth fighter, including that crown (drawn from the tail cone) and the bracelet links. The solid case back features an engraving of the F-22 Raptor.
However, there is one crucial characteristic the watch doesn’t share with the Raptor: stealth. At 44 millimetres in diameter and 13.5 millimetres in thickness, these are big watches that will command attention. The four versions are as follows: black dial with solid link titanium bracelet; black dial with black or brown leather strap; and white dial with grey webbing strap.
Specifications
Movement Quartz Ronda 5050.B chronograph with big date Battery Life 43-month Case 44-millimetre titanium Water Resistance Up to 200 metres Strap Bracelet, leather or webbing Price SGD 2,289 (full titanium)
Chicago, city of blues and jazz, the skyscraper and some of the friendliest people you’ll find anywhere in the U.S.A. It’s not often we feature property from the Midwest, but when the opportunity arose, we jumped at it. Chicago is a diverse melting pot of cultures located on the southern edge of Lake Michigan and is home to almost three million Chicagoans. It’s also one of the corporate capitals of America and a great place for anyone looking to invest in property.
It was in 1885 that the Home Insurance Building, the world’s first skyscraper, was erected on 135 South LaSalle Street. It only lasted till 1931 before being demolished, but it put Chicago on the map as the city at the forefront of architectural design. Many skyscrapers have been built since then, with a number of them claiming bragging rights as “tallest building in the world” at some point or another.
Built in the closing years of the 19th Century, the former Montgomery Ward Tower Building, designed by Schmidt, Garden and Martin, is home to one of the most breath-taking penthouses in the city. At the time of its completion, the former home of Montgomery Ward & Co was the tallest building in “The Windy City”. Its prime location on North Michigan Avenue means it will always have fantastic views, due to the land on the other side of Michigan Avenue all the way to the waterline being permanently secured as a park.
And what a park it is! Millennium Park features 25 acres of lakefront enjoyment for locals and visitors alike. There’s the Jay Pritzker Pavilion designed by Frank Gehry, where concerts are held, the Cloud Gate or as it’s better known “The Bean”, and many other attractions within the perfectly manicured landscaping.
Being downtown, you’re never too far from the Magnificent Mile and its abundance of luxury shopping and restaurants. It’s also home to the John Hancock Building and the Wrigley Building, landmarks of the city. For the yachting enthusiast, Lake Michigan offers a huge area connected to the other Great Lakes. DuSable Harbor and the Columbia Yacht Club are only a short walk away and offer 420 slips with space for boats between 30 to 60 ft.
The penthouse, situated in the former Observatory of the building, features large, almost double story 20 ft ceilings, which is unheard of in many new construction buildings. Four bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms cover an impressive 6,400 sq ft with expansive views across Millennium Park, Lake Michigan and downtown, that even Bruce Wayne can’t match. The entire residence covers four floors and the master bedroom is so immense that it takes up the entire third floor, along with his and hers closets and a spacious bathroom.
Inside you’ll find hardwood floors throughout as well as marble tiling in all the bathrooms. Walk-in closets feature plenty of fitted shelving, perfect for the expansive wardrobe you should have or are going to need, to take advantage of the nightlife scene and superb events within the city. For quieter nights, the gourmet kitchen features high-end stainless steel appliances, giving you the perfect base to whip up a fantastic meal and enjoy dinner on the rooftop in the summer or watch the ice skaters below in the winter, through the large glass windows surrounding the dining room. There’s also 2,000 sq ft of outdoor space vis-à- vis a wraparound terrace and outdoor decks. Many of the Juliet balconies feature French doors, adding a nice touch to the historical building.
You’ll never want for more amenities in Chicago if you call this penthouse your new home. The building features a doorman to welcome you home after a long day at work. There’s also an exercise room, sauna and steam rooms as well as a space to use for events. Downstairs there’s space for two cars. Ideally, I’d recommend something with four-wheel drive if you call Chicago home.
Anyone who loves architectural history and is looking for an immaculate penthouse in Chicago, should not let this one slip away. Such unique and prestigious properties do not come around often.
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has unveiled its new site-specific rooftop commission. The exhibition, titled “The Theatre of Disappearance” by Argentinean artist Adrián Villar Rojas features 16 sculptures, fusing human figures with replicas of nearly 100 objects from the museum’s collection. White tables and black sculptures are coated in a layer of custom-created paint ‘dust’ for the installation. Three-dimensional scanning and advanced imaging techniques were used to scan and replicate objects from the collections as well as human figures based on models’ bodies. The three-dimensional models were then spliced with the artifacts to create “sculptural amalgamations.”
Villar Rojas immersed himself in the Met’s history and collections for this project, also taking into account the Roof Garden’s many functions—as a gallery, a bar, and a popular spot to view the Manhattan skyline. His interventions include two new floors—one a checkerboard, the other a reflective metallic surface—as well as a redesigned bar, benches, plantings and an extended overhead pergola. The artist is the youngest sculptor to ever receive the annual commission.
In a statement, the Villar Rojas notes that the Met opened in 1870 with a arge collection of plaster casts of sculptural masterpieces; by the mid-20th century, the copies had been replaced with originals. The museum’s cultural endowment was then divided into departments, “turning a space-time labyrinth into a welcoming, light-filled house for visitors.”
“What if we discovered that we are in a labyrinth, not a house?” he asks. “What if every classification and hierarchy created to stabilize the world was erased to produce a deeper insight: that there are no facts but only interpretations, and that the distance between interpretations and facts might be power—the power of an institution or a nation to sanction truth?”
Sheena Wagstaff, the Met’s Leonard A. Lauder Chairman of Modern and Contemporary Art, said that Villar Rojas’ work “holds a mirror up to what we do at the Museum, questioning how we elect to present cultural history over time.”
“The Theater of Disappearance” opened to the public on Friday, April 14, and will remain open through October 29. The installation is the fifth in a series of commissions for the outdoor space.
The TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer-01 Full Black Matt Ceramic’s case is water resistant for up to a hundred metres
The story of ceramic in watchmaking is a relatively new one but not so freshly baked that it draws special interest or requires specific explanations, for the most part. Now that the material has been mainstreamed, so to speak, the challenge some brands are addressing is why a watch with ceramic components is extraordinary. It may be hard to believe today but as recently as the 1980s, the use of ceramics in watchmaking was regarded as revolutionary. All a watchmaking firm had to do was create a wristwatch with a ceramic case, and it became a talking piece. Now, in 2017, a watch such as the TAG Heuer Carrera Heuer-01 Full Black Matt Ceramic has a tough fight on its hands to stand out, just as its cousins in steel and gold typically face.
The name of the watch should clue you in to what makes this piece special. According to TAG Heuer, this is its first chronograph to be cased up entirely in ceramic, featuring its in-house automatic Calibre Heuer-01 movement. Even the skeletonised dial and the bracelet are in black ceramic, so that certainly adds credibility to the name. As TAG Heuer notes though, steel is certainly present in the construction, mainly to help maintain its 100-metre water resistance rating. The crown, chronograph pusher, screw-down case back and inner box section are all in steel to accommodate the gaskets that allow for enhanced water resistance. External bits such as the crown, push-pieces and case back are coated in black titanium carbide to establish aesthetic harmony between these parts and the black ceramic that forms the rest of the watch.
Only the movement isn’t blackened, as far as it’s properly visible, except the rotor. Given that TAG Heuer went quite the distance to make this watch as black as possible, it’s quite a shame that the movement wasn’t given a similar treatment, but future versions of it may be DLC-treated or something similar. There is no information on this at the moment, but it is likely that the price point — between CHF 5,000 and CHF 7,000 — keeps TAG Heuer from pushing out a darkened version of Calibre Heuer-01 just for this model.
Specifications
Movement Self-winding TAG Heuer Calibre Heuer-01 chronograph Power Reserve 50-hour Case 45-millimetre modular black ceramic Water Resistance Up to 100 metres Strap Black ceramic or rubber Price SGD 8,650
The 2017 Mercedes-Benz S-Class. Image courtesy of Daimler AG
As expected, Mercedes’ flagship luxury sedan boasts new levels of comfort, convenience and attention to aesthetic detail, but it’s the host of new active safety and driver assistance technologies debuting on the car that are really going to set it apart from the competition.
Eschewing New York in favour of a Shanghai reveal, the 2017 Mercedes-Benz S Class aims to move the company ahead of the chasing pack when it comes to real-world semi-autonomous capabilities. And it may well have succeeded. The vehicle boasts a completely reworked and redeveloped suite of systems that can work together to offer everything from automatically slowing to enter a corner or bend and then accelerating out of it and being able to assist with steering inputs on the autobahn at speeds in excess of 120 miles per hour (192 kilometres per hour). Looking to the car to take over completely in traffic jam situations with braking, accelerating, stopping, starting and even steering? This Mercedes can.
This is the first Mercedes that can combine camera, sensor, live and archived mapping information to develop a 360-degree picture of the world around it so it knows that the reason the car ahead is slowing down is because there’s a toll booth or car park barrier ahead.
There is going to be a huge transitional period where drivers start to cede more and more control over to their cars before full autonomy is the norm. And during that transition, drivers are still going to have to step in and take control, stay alert and always understand what’s going on. The same goes for its new automated overtaking system. Tap the indicator stalk, if the coast is clear, and overtaking is permitted, the car will pass the vehicle in front and pull back into lane within 10 seconds.
The dual-screen instrument panel keeps the driver informed at all times of which systems are employed and what they’re doing. At the same time, all controls for the myriad systems are integrated directly into the steering wheel’s surface and respond to touch, swipes and taps like a smartphone screen. These controls also monitor that the driver has at least one hand on the wheel at all times to ensure he or she is still ready to take responsibility for the car in challenging situations.
The 2017 Mercedes-Benz S Class has integrated steering wheel controls for driver assistance systems. Image courtesy of Daimler AG
Thanks to something called Energising Comfort Control, this car can change your mood for the better making you feel fresher, warmer, joyful, comfortable or vitalised, depending on the setting. Select a mood and the car will activate the climate control, seat massage function, use fragrances, in-cabin lighting, increase or reduce ventilation and even add a musical soundtrack to change how you feel.
The new feel-good S Class will go on sale in July.
