De rigueur for those on the dark side of the force, the Devon Star Wars watch certainly appears to come from a galaxy far, far away—but then again, it was designed for Darth Vader’s wrist. Commissioned by Lucasfilm, Devon, a Los Angeles–based design lab, worked in conjunction with an aerospace company for the materials to create the stellar stainless-steel watch, which features 350 individual parts, 313 electrical contacts, and four motors.

As dark as the lord of the Sith himself, the watch’s rectangular ca…

Originally published in the October 2015 issue of Robb Report Collection as “Pieces of the Action”

The great matchup—Rocky versus Rambo—may never have a clear winner in the endless online debate forums. But thanks to Sylvester Stallone—the characters’ creator—fans and collectors can bid on items belonging to Rocky and Rambo, as well as Judge Dredd and The Expendables leader Barney Ross. Stallone has consigned more than 1,400 costumes, props, and personal items to Heritage Auctions (ha.com) for a sale schedu…

Charles Carroll wore many hats during his lifetime, including planter, writer, and congressional delegate. But he is best known as one of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence. In addition to playing a pivotal role in the country’s fight for independence, Carroll was a wealthy landholder who owned thousands of acres in the Maryland countryside. Some of that land was eventually purchased by the owners of Baltimore’s Pimlico Race Course, who built an English-style manor on the grounds in 1936. Today …

At the third annual Watches & Wonders fair in Hong Kong, which ran from September 30 to October 3, a dozen of the watch industry’s most prestigious brands gathered to debut their latest and greatest timepieces, and to woo the region’s biggest collectors. The event offered lectures, guided tours, and workbench demonstrations. Fabienne Lupo—chairwoman and managing director of the Fondation de la Haute Horlogerie, the show’s organizer—described the fair as “a tribute to Asian customers.” Bu…

From September 1 through December 1, 2016, Flowers Vineyards & Winery’s Harvest Helicopter Butler will allow wine enthusiasts to experience the majesty of California from the sky. The 5-hour excursion begins at Sausalito heliport where guests will depart for the hour-long trip to Flowers’s Camp Meeting Ridge Vineyard, which is located 2 miles from the Pacific and is home to 18 acres of Chardonnay and 11 acres of Pinot Noir. Along the way, guests will fly over the Golden Gate Bridge and the historic Point B…

Launched at the Monaco Yacht Show, the Ulysse Nardin Dual Time Manufacture—Monaco watch is a tribute to the 25th anniversary of the maritime exhibition and the watchmaker’s seventh year as a principal sponsor. A redesign of the renowned Ulysse Nardin Dual Time watch, the limited-edition Monaco features a stainless-steel case encompassing an ocean-blue face. On the dial is a dual time-zone display at 9 o’clock, a seconds counter set above the 6 o’clock position, and a date display at 2 o’clock. The multipurpose…

In 2013, amateur cavers Steven Tucker and Rick Hunter made a once-in-a-lifetime discovery in South Africa: fragments of bones, including a fossilized human-like jawbone. Now, two years after the fossil was brought to him and he had the cave excavated, Lee Berger, a professor at Johannesburg’s University of the Witwatersrand, believes the area where the jawbone was unearthed is the burial site of a newly discovered species of human ancestor: Homo naledi. These discoveries are so new that the fossils have not ye…

Originally published in the October 2015 issue of Robb Report Collection as “Moon Rise”

For his latest creation, Yann Debelle de Montby, creative director at Debelle de Montby Associates, looked to the moon—and to NASA. Working with designers Tiziano Vudafieri and Claudio Saverino, he studied the space agency’s 3-D lunar photographs to help create Shanghai Moons, a set of four watches that is among the highlights at Chinese and Asian Contemporary Design—a Christie’s Shanghai sale to be held in the city on O…

Utah’s rugged beauty serves as the backdrop for Amangiri, a 600-acre resort hidden among rocky red canyons and cream-colored bluffs. The tranquil oasis (one of Robb Report’s Top 100 Resorts) will host its inaugural health-and-wellness getaway, the Frontiers of Movement retreat, from November 12 through 16.

The four-day retreat—led by Budokon Yoga sensei Professor Donato Helbling, FlowIntuit yoga instructor Jodi Carey, and vibration-healing artist Andrew Clark—will include a well-balanced roster of guided me…

The last time Baroness Lambert, an art collector and the wife of a prominent Belgian banker, teamed up with auctioneer Simon de Pury, for a photography sale in 2004, all lots sold for a total well above the high estimate, and nine records were set. One of those was for the artist Barbara Kruger, whose billboard-size Untitled (I Shop Therefore I Am) sold for $601,600, more than five times its presale estimate. This fall, the baroness is once again putting impressive treasures in the hands of de Pury with A Visu…