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Ultimate Villa Vacations
July 2008
Excellence Revisited
Jonathon Keats
Britannia ruled the waves thanks to the finely jeweled bearings of the marine chronometer. This groundbreaking instrument, which London clockmaker John Harrison perfected in 1764 after 30 years of experimentation, allowed navigators to calculate...
Excellence Revisited: Crown Jewels
Jonathon Keats
An eminent London diamond merchant since 1789, Backes & Strauss approaches the wristwatch as a piece of fine jewelry. Produced in collaboration with Geneva’s Franck Muller Watchland, which manufactures the movements and completes assembly, Backes...
Excellence Revisited: Motor Trend
Jonathon Keats
While refurbishing stopwatches and dashboard rally timers in vintage sports cars, Manchester-trained watchmaker Ian Walsh, founder of IWI (Ian Walsh International) Watches, was impressed by their straightforward and sensible British design. With IWI...
Excellence Revisited: Fly Boys
Jonathon Keats
When brothers and professional aviators Nick and Giles English launched a collection of watches in memory of their RAF pilot father, Euan, in 2007, they insisted that their Bremont timepieces had to be as sturdy and precise as a fighter jet....
Ultimate Villa Vacations
Compiled by Lori Bryan, Jennifer Hall, Michael Schulze, and Oliver Slosser
If a good vacation gets you away from it all, an ultimate vacation should deliver you to another realm. The luxuries of private travel—villa rentals, yacht charters, private jets—increase your odds of attaining that blissful state, but the process...
Ultimate Villa Vacations: Room and Boards
Compiled by Lori Bryan, Jennifer Hall, Michael Schulze, and Oliver Slosser
Four friends travel from Los Angeles to Bali, Indonesia, for a 10-day surfing trip. Providers. Air travel by New World Jet Corp. (201.288.8400, www.jetaviation.com) and Air Bali (www.airbali.com); villa developed by Elite Havens Group...
Ultimate Villa Vacations: Taste of Napa
Compiled by Lori Bryan, Jennifer Hall, Michael Schulze, and Oliver Slosser
Three couples travel from New York City to St. Helena, Calif., for a weeklong culinary vacation in wine country. Providers. Air travel by Bombardier Flexjet (972.720.2725, www.flexjet.com); villa available through BeautifulPlaces (707.996.0266,...
Ultimate Villa Vacations: Showtime
Compiled by Lori Bryan, Jennifer Hall, Michael Schulze, and Oliver Slosser
A couple travels from Houston to Miami for a weeklong shopping and yachting trip during the annual Art Basel Miami Beach show in December. Providers. Air travel by Flight Options (877.703.2348, www.flightoptions.com); yacht charter by Fraser Yachts...
Ultimate Villa Vacations: One for the Generations
Compiled by Lori Bryan, Jennifer Hall, Michael Schulze, and Oliver Slosser
An extended family—two grandparents, three couples, and four young children—travels from Chicago to Corfu, Greece, their base for a two-week yachting trip in the Greek islands. Providers. Air travel by Sentient Flight Group (781.763.0380,...
Ultimate Villa Vacations: Powder Rooms
Compiled by Lori Bryan, Jennifer Hall, Michael Schulze, and Oliver Slosser
Two families—four adults and three children—plus a nanny travel from Boston to Deer Valley, Utah, for a ski vacation. Providers. Air travel by XOJet (650.594.6300, www.xojet.com); villa available through Luxury Retreats (514.393.8844,...
Ultimate Villa Vacations: Caribbean Combo
Compiled by Lori Bryan, Jennifer Hall, Michael Schulze, and Oliver Slosser
A family of four from Greenwich, Conn., travels to the French West Indies island of St. Barts for a two-week vacation on land and at sea. Providers. Air travel by Marquis Jet (212.499.3790, www.marquisjet.com); yacht charter by Burgess Yachts...
Ultimate Villa Vacations: Wild Kingdom
Compiled by Lori Bryan, Jennifer Hall, Michael Schulze, and Oliver Slosser
Two families—four adults and five children—travel from Washington, D.C., to Costa Rica for a two-week eco-adventure and yachting retreat. Providers. Air travel by CitationShares (203.861.9667, www.citationshares.com); yacht charter by Edmiston...
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Edward Readicker-Henderson
Each time the king pauses for a breath, the man next to him says “jhoom” in a voice that could make Barry White sound like a soprano. The king’s own tones are soft and thoughtful, punctuated by gestures from his hands, both of which are adorned with...
Journey to the Center of the Earth: Atlantic Crossing
Edward Readicker-Henderson
TCS Expeditions (800.727.7477, www.tcsexpeditions.com) will offer its own version of an Atlantic Rim journey in January. Departing from London, the Cape to Cape tour visits Madeira Island, Portugal; Burkina Faso; Namibia; Cape Town, South Africa;...
Lofty Advice
Michael Schulze
Aviation consultants are a fairly new breed. Bill Quinn, a consultant based in Portsmouth, N.H., remembers that just a generation ago, people rarely used them. “Back then, a consultant was someone who was unemployed,” he observes wryly. “When a CEO...
Robb Design Portfolio: Rough and Rumble
Gregory Anderson
1947 Triumph 1800 Roadster. Shortly before the end of World War II, Standard Motor Co. acquired the Triumph brand in an attempt to compete with Jaguar, which had been purchasing engines from Standard before the war. The first Standard-built...
Robb Design Portfolio: Loto Winner
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Salon-goers in 18th-century France frequently played loto, which most Americans know as bingo. But instead of cardboard sheets checked with alphanumeric grids, loto enthusiasts used decorated wooden boards such as the 12 examples pictured here. Made...
Wheels: Ballroom Blitzkrieg
Paul Dean
Mercedes-Benz never snoozes. When not adding to a seemingly endless and ever-morphing inventory of braw and often brutally powerful motorcars, it concentrates its energy on nipping and tucking the collection from the prior year. This summer, the...
Leisure: Ashes to Ashtons
Richard Carleton Hacker
The only way to get from Nicaragua’s capital of Managua to the town of Estelí, the production center of the country’s cigar industry, is to drive northward along the twisting, two-lane CA-1, the Central American stretch of the Pan-American Highway....
Ashes to Ashtons: Taxing Concern
Richard Carleton Hacker
With its resiliency, its ability to bend without breaking, the Ometepe tobacco leaf is analogous to Nicaragua’s cigar industry, which has withstood many challenges in recent years. The vast number of U.S. companies doing business in Nicaragua today...
Ashes to Ashtons: Nothing but Nicaraguan
Richard Carleton Hacker
Nicaragua’s nutrient-rich soil produces tobaccos for some of the world’s most flavorful cigars. Following are five of the best Nicaraguan puros—cigars made entirely from that country’s tobacco.601 BlUEA box-pressed maduro crafted by José “Pepin”...
Journeys: Sport of Kings
Jack Smith
However strange and exotic the setting may be to Westerners, Morocco holds few if any untoward surprises for most golfers. The rules and customs—written and unwritten—follow the American paradigm. And though it is always best to make arrangements in...
Sport of Kings: Making the Rounds in Morocco
Jack Smith
Golf first came to Morocco in 1914, when Sultan Abdelaziz, who had ruled the country from 1894 to 1908, commissioned a pair of British golf architects, Henry Cotton and Frank Pennink, to design an 18-hole course at the foot of the Rif Mountains in...
One Last Thing...
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
The Item ✵ This battle flag belonged to John Rodgers, a Maryland man who captained ships for the Union’s North Atlantic Blockading Squadron during the Civil War. Rodgers’ squadron flew the flag in an 1861 battle in which Confederate soldiers rained...
FrontRunners: Maltese Falcon
The Editors
During an interview last fall with 60 Minutes, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tom Perkins declined to put a price tag on the construction of his prized Maltese Falcon, the world’s largest, most technologically advanced clipper yacht. "It’s...
FrontRunners: Mean, Clean Machine
The Editors
The Saleen S5S Raptor (www.saleen.com)—a 650 hp sports car that made its first public appearance at the New York International Auto Show in March—is still in the conceptual stages. However, "a savvy viewer would notice that the hardware was real,"...
FrontRunners: Cage Dancer
The Editors
Similar to other timepieces of its genre, the new Girard-Perregaux Bi-Axial Tourbillon (www.girard-perregaux.com) offers balance and escapement rotation on more than one plane. The design increases accuracy while offering a captivating show in which...
FrontRunners: Towers of Power
The Editors
The Spire (www.martinlogan.com)—a new, ultrathin, floor-standing speaker from MartinLogan—offers a dynamic range of sound that is virtually interference-free. The base cabinet of the $8,500-per-pair speaker contains a 200-watt amplifier and a...
FrontRunners: Cold Comforts
The Editors
This summer, adventure cruise company Quark Expeditions (www.quarkexpeditions.com) is launching the Russian-built icebreaker 50 Years of Victory as a passenger ship that will carry as many as 128 guests to the North Pole. The 64-cabin vessel’s...
FrontRunners: In the Swing
The Editors
No one who has seen Jack Nicklaus stand over a putt would ever doubt the deliberate and considered nature of his game. Beginning next spring at the Bear Mountain Resort (www.bearmountain.ca) on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, golfers from...
FrontRunners: From the Robb Cellar
The Editors
Burgundy’s byzantine labeling conventions have their origins in Napoleonic law, which prohibited primogeniture, requiring instead that siblings inherit equally. Thus, single vineyards were divided and sold over time, so much so that many famous...
FrontRunners: Air Apparent
The Editors
The Gulfstream G650 (www.gulfstream.com) soon will supplant the G550 as the company’s—if not the world’s—top-of-the-line business jet. The new aircraft, which is scheduled to make its maiden flight next year, will offer the longest range, largest...
FrontRunners: Select Smoke
The Editors
Avo Uvezian’s birthday has become a cause for celebration among cigar smokers. Uvezian, who founded Avo Cigars, has marked each of his birthdays since 2001 by creating a limited-edition cigar. The Avo L.E. 08 Tesoro (the word tesoro is Spanish for...
Aviation: Bella Copters
Michelle Seaton
For very practical reasons, aircraft interiors are made of light, durable materials that happen to be rather dull and utilitarian. As part of an ongoing collaboration with Aero Toy Store (ATS), an aviation company based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.,...
Autos: The Diesel Initiative
Matthew Phenix
In recent years, no marque has won more Le Mans–series endurance races than Audi. The company also has successfully translated those weekend wins into sales with a production version of its Le Mans racecar. The R8 made the press swoon—it is Robb...
Boating: Water Rocket
Michael Schulze
During family gatherings at his hilltop vacation home on the Caribbean island of Saint Martin, Stew Leonard, a 78-year-old Connecticut businessman, likes to take his guests boating. With four children and 13 grandchildren who, with assorted spouses,...
Golf: Hide and Sleek
Hal Phillips
Considering all his outward reverence for tradition and history, today’s golfer has few practical throwback options on the course. Yes, he can walk 18 holes, hire a caddie, wear a Hogan cap, or even attach kilties to his shoes. But rare is the...
Travel: Liquid Assets
Patricia Harris
For his love of water, not wine, Diogo Vaz Guedes, founder of the Aquapura hotel group, selected Portugal’s Douro River Valley as the location for his firm’s first resort. Vaz Guedes believes water is essential for relaxation, and he plans to build...
Wine: A Landmark Krug
Brett Anderson
The city of Reims has a heart of stone: its cathedral. This imposing structure for centuries received the ascending French kings, whose heads, by tradition, were crowned beneath its vast vaults. Today, of course, the retinues that pass under its...
Dining: Altered Plates
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
More than just the menu is seasonal at Park Avenue Summer; the entire restaurant changes with the calendar. Since opening the Midtown Manhattan establishment a year ago, co-owner Michael Stillman has closed it for two days every three months and...
Wardrobe: Uncompromising Color
William Kissel
Domenico Vacca is a colorful individual: When he opened his signature store next door to Cipriani in Manhattan in May 2002, he aimed to offer American men the opportunity to own the same handmade, form-fitting suits and fluorescent-colored sportswear...
Jewelry: Pearl Visions
Jill Newman
Last December, at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels sale in New York, the auctioneer’s gavel came down on an astonishing bid of $82,000 for a pair of earrings made of baroque keshi pearls and diamonds, whose estimated value had been $18,000 to $22,000....
Art: Far East Meets Upper East Side
Sheila Gibson Stoodley
Ultimately, the ceramics simply became too big. For more than 30 years, Joan Mirviss’ nine-room, pre–World War II apartment in Midtown Manhattan had served both as her home and as the Joan B Mirviss gallery of Japanese art. But last year she...
Home: Taking It Outside
Jorge S. Arango
Bobby Dekeyser’s career in professional soccer ended in 1990 when, during a heated match, someone kicked him in the face—hard—with a cleated shoe. From his hospital bed, the injured goalie for Germany’s Bayern Munich team began sketching designs that...
Contributors: Time Travel
The Editors
Those who follow the watch world closely may have noticed the reemergence of several of the British masters, among them Dent and Arnold & Son. In "Excellence Revisited" (page 78), American conceptual artist and art critic Jonathon Keats explores...
From the Editors: Worldly Retreats
Brett Anderson
Tyrants and tycoons must also have their hideaways. Those who run the world, after all, must occasionally have their vacations from it. As this month’s cover story ("Ultimate Villa Vacations," page 89) reminds us, a villa in the country furnishes...