The Geneva-based boutique watchmaker Laurent Ferrier has established a long-term partnership with Meissen Italia, a subsidiary of the venerable German porcelain maker, to create limited-edition timepieces. Meissen’s first watch collaboration, with the German maker Glashütte, illustrated how high-quality porcelain can be used to create dials of exceptional visual depth, and that tradition continues with Laurent Ferrier. The first two watches feature Meissen’s hand-painted porcelain dials hidden under the moveab…

Devotees of New York’s Tribeca Film Festival might consider bidding on the one-of-a-kind Portuguese Automatic that IWC has offered in support of the event. The piece features the company’s Pellaton winding system, a black dial, and distinctive burgundy-shaded seconds and reserve indicators. Proceeds from the sale will support the Tribeca Film Institute, an organization created by the festival’s founders to develop aspiring New York City filmmakers. The watch will be auctioned through Antiquorum at an exclusive…

Two leading hotels—the St. Regis and the Four Seasons—will host a four-day culinary and golf getaway beginning on April 11 in Punta Mita, Mexico, located on the tip of Banderas Bay. The Punta Mita Gourmet and Golf Classic (from $1,515 per person) will include meals, cooking classes, and wine and tequila tastings led by a team of chefs from around the world, all centered on the two-day Punta Mita Cup golf tournament.
Open to 160 participants, the golf tournament will be held on both of Punta Mita’s Jack Nickla…

The opulent salons and suites of Paris’s Hôtel de Crillon—which have hosted the signing of the Franco-American Treaty of Alliance as well as historic figureheads including Theodore Roosevelt, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Winston Churchill—will, for the first time, host a sale of its own prized furnishings. The hotel will close at the end of March for an extensive two-year renovation. Its historic silver, porcelain, furniture, lighting, tapestries, and fine wines and spirits, however, will be on view for five days b…

Zemi Beach Resort and Spa is a prime beachfront property in Shoal Bay East, Anguilla, that is offering 28 two- and three-bedroom residences from $2 million to $3.1 million. Spread out over 5 acres along pristine white-sand beaches, the luxury homes were designed to be eco-friendly, with Enviroshake roof tiles built for water collection and motion and heat sensors to deactivate lighting and electrical systems when rooms are unoccupied. Homeowners will have access to the resort’s numerous amenities, including re…

The Amorim family’s fortune had its beginnings among the rambling port lodges that line the hillsides above the Douro River in Porto, but the family did not amass its wealth by making Portugal’s famous fortified wine; rather, its members were engaged in the less glamorous business of manufacturing cork stoppers. Their success, however, later enabled them to diversify their interests into banking, telecommunications, and—with the purchase of Quinta Nova de Nossa Senhora do Carmo—viticulture. At this 18th-centur…

Nobu Matsuhisa, the Japanese chef whose distinctive take on sushi made him a global celebrity with 26 restaurants around the world, recently opened the doors to his first hotel. Located within the Caesars Palace hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the Nobu Hotel features 181 rooms, including 18 suites, all designed by the architect David Rockwell, who is also responsible for designing most of the Nobu restaurants. Standard guest rooms at the Nobu Hotel are now available—rates start at $249 per night—…

Spa Nautica opened last month at the Ritz-Carlton, Marina del Rey, a small seaside community on Los Angeles’s Westside. After the hotel’s previous spa closed two and half years ago, Ritz-Carlton took its time finding a spa provider that would advance its goal of providing locals and guests with a “metropolitan oasis” where they could relax, revitalize, and escape the frenzy of the city.
The full-service spa—tucked into a niche between the hotel’s private rose garden and the harbor—offers massages, body wraps,…

Even though Ferrari may not have invented the concept of the supercar, it deserves credit for keeping the flame alive with a succession of these limited-run exotics dating all the way back to the 1984 Ferrari 288 GTO F40.
Now comes the Ferrari LaFerrari, the 963 hp mid-engine V-12 successor to the Enzo. Why the seemingly redundant name? Ferrari’s chairman, Luca di Montezemolo, says the car is the purest expression of Ferrari—so giving it a name that translates to just “the Ferrari” makes sense.
Made of four …

The sexy mid-engine Alfa Romeo 4C that debuted at this year’s Geneva Motor Show is paving the way back to the United States for the iconic Italian marque. Measuring 157 inches overall on a 94-inch wheelbase, the compact two-seater is poised to take on the likes of the Porsche Cayman in both performance and price late this year when it arrives at a network of dealers that already sell the Fiat 500.
Compared to the Maserati-based Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione—a limited-run 4.7-liter, V-8 car costing $259,000—the 4…