Two and a half centuries ago, in 1764, King Louis XV authorized the foundation of the French crystal house Baccarat. To celebrate its sestercentennial, the company is hosting yearlong festivities that include exhibitions, grand openings, and special releases. The first of these new releases is the eye-catching Baccarat Harcourt Chessgame, created in collaboration with the Japanese designer Oki Sato. The chess set’s pieces are based on Baccarat’s Harcourt 1841 collection of stemware, the oldest collection in th…

The Swiss watch manufacturer Hublot launched its first mechanical watches in the early 1980s—a bold and contrarian move at a time when most manufacturers were abandoning complicated mechanisms for quartz. Over the past three decades, the brand known for its contemporary sports chronographs has continued to push boundaries, becoming the official timekeeper of Ferrari and the FIFA World Cup and creating high-performing and beautifully designed gear and accessories inspired by its watches. Following carbon-fiber …

In early January, the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) welcomed to Las Vegas more than 150,000 attendees, which the Consumer Electronics Association says beats the attendance record set at the 2012 CES. The vast majority of these attendees crowded the Las Vegas Convention Center, but the nearby Venetian Hotel hosted a smorgasbord of demonstrations for the world’s leading high-fidelity audio-equipment manufacturers. And while this year for these companies proved to be more evolutionary than revolutionary, t…

Jim Young—a co-owner and the vineyard manager of the Robert Young Estate Winery, whose father, the late Robert Young, planted the first Cabernet Sauvignon vines in Northern California’s Alexander Valley in Sonoma County in the 1960s—launched his own label in 2006 with his wife Kathleen Young (neé Kathleen Kelley). Kelley and Young Wines, with Jim as the winemaker, uses grapes from the 317 acres of benchland and hillside vineyards of the Robert Young estate, which supplies 95 percent of its fruit to other label…

In addition to its Vitruvius-series motor yachts launched in the last few years, including Exuma and Galileo G, the Italian yacht maker Perini Navi is also well known for its large and luxurious sailing yachts. Two of its most recent examples—Seahawk and State of Grace, which both debuted at the 2013 Monaco Yacht Show—are available for charter in the Caribbean this winter before heading to the Mediterranean this summer.
Seahawk, which was delivered in November, is the first launch in Perini Navi’s 197-fo…

Imbibing Friday-evening cocktails (especially after a week of deadlines) has become a cherished editorial practice here at the Robb Report headquarters in Malibu, Calif. And for the last couple months, a sort of simplified Manhattan has been the cocktail of choice. Late last year, the bourbon maker Woodford Reserve released its latest cocktail mix-ins: Bourbon Cherries ($16.95) and Aromatic Bitters and Sassafras and Sorghum Bitters ($16.50). And while these mix-ins will make any cocktail that calls for th…

The Norman stirs up the roar of the 1920s in the thoroughly exuberant city of Tel Aviv.
Why Go: Right next to the treelined Rothschild Boulevard, the Norman has unassumingly moved into a bustling, elegant neighborhood in central Tel Aviv. The project took over two adjacent apartment buildings built in distinct styles during the 1920s. The yellow one has a traditionally decorous vibe, with sophisticated ornamentation and white shutters, while the simple, straight lines of the blue one look as modern as they di…

Ahead of September’s 2014 Ryder Cup in Scotland, the country estate of Cromlix reopens on April 1.
Why Go: A few years after attending his brother’s wedding on the property, the Wimbledon champion Andy Murray purchased the 34-acre Cromlix estate near his hometown last year. A year of renovations prepared the former country hotel to open again with updated interiors and services. On the estate grounds, guests can fish the House Loch (stocked with brown trout) or participate in archery, falconry, billiards, and…

Guests who stay at the St. Regis Deer Valley in Park City, Utah, can embark on a daylong private ski tour led by the two-time Olympian and World Cup champion skier Shannon Bahrke. Offered as a part of the hotel’s Celebrate Snow package ($15,000 per night for two), the outing also includes a set of custom-fitted Bomber skis, autographed by Bahrke, for each guest to take on the slopes, as well as lunch with Bahrke at the hotel’s 650-square-foot Mountain Terrace. 
Available through April 12, the package inc…

The $1,300 Astell&Kern AK120, which launched last July, is a pocket hi-fi masterpiece. The new Astell&Kern AK240 promises to take portable music playback to an even higher level. The new player, which the company expects to begin shipping in March for a price beyond $2,000, will feature 256 gigabytes of onboard memory—compared to 64 gigabytes for the AK120—plus a microSD card slot allowing an additional 128 gigabytes of storage. Like its predecessor, the AK240 will support music files with resolutions …