Table of contents for April 2020 in Robb Report

David Reed For this month’s issue Reed, the editor of Sailing World magazine, documented the America’s Cup, the 169-year-old sailing-yacht race, in “Uncharted Waters” (p. 128). “So much time, money and resources go into designing, building and training for it,” he says. “Then, when it comes time to race, two teams are eliminated in only two weeks. There’s a saying in America’s Cup circles that there is no second place, and that’s spot-on.” Andrew Sessa A former associate editor at Town & Country and senior travel editor at Departures, Sessa penned two stories for this issue: “Rome Springs Eternal” (p. 52), about the best new hotels in Italy’s capital, and “Introducing the Super-Suite” (p. 137), about the fierce competition among hotels to develop the most over-the-top offerings possible. “The race…

AUSTRIAN MOTORCYCLE maker KTM calls its 1290 Super Duke R the Beast for good reason. The bike’s monstrous torque can pull a rider out of corners and fire them toward the horizon with ballistic force. The trigger is the 1,301 cc V-twin, nestled in an all-new chassis for 2020, which pumps out 103 ft lbs of torque and 177 hp delivered at 8,000 rpm and 9,500 rpm, respectively. Placed roughly 1.5 inches higher in the frame than before, the repositioned four-stroke motor contributes to a higher center of gravity for improved cornering agility, especially when transitioning from side to side. Test-riding it at the Algarve International Circuit in southern Portugal, I find that the Super Duke requires laser-like focus, as the front wheel constantly paws the air over the racetrack’s…

The absence of a top deck gave Horsfield the latitude to create a sleek, uncluttered profile. WITH A SIMPLE but dramatic exterior defined by sharp, angular lines, compressed space between the decks and a razor-like bow, Feadship’s new 246-foot creation presented little challenge when it came to a moniker. At launch, the owner made a point of its profile by naming the yacht Arrow. “She’s a trailblazer, with a cutting-edge design that is very much the face of this period of the 21st century,” noted Feadship director Henk de Vries during the christening. “She is also an exceptional family yacht, quite possibly the best we have ever completed.” London-based H2 Yacht Design paid particular attention to details such as low glass railings, wide gangways and the hot tub with a…

I hate auto shows. Cars are meant to move, make noise and be felt. Seeing a Bugatti caged on an auto-show stand is worse than watching a lion at a particularly cruel zoo. At least you get some sense of the lion’s power from the languid roll of its shoulders as it pads miserably around its pen. At an auto show? Nothing. The luxury marques know this. Dragging you out to a cold, soulless exhibition hall in a grim part of town isn’t—I’m guessing—going to get you in a spendy frame of mind. Ferrari or Aston would far rather show you its latest model on some sunlit lawn at Pebble Beach or Goodwood, with a glass of good Champagne in your hand, or better yet, let you drive it on…

I remember when the knows-no-bounds nosiness of the digital world really hit home. Six years ago my mother was diagnosed with late-stage cancer, and I wanted friends and family to know she had excellent care and a great spirit. I opened Gmail but thought: Do not type “cancer.” This was when Google would scan e-mails for keywords to place ads. So why, exactly, were my hands frozen in midair? It wasn’t the ads themselves—they may even have proved useful. I didn’t want an outsider, even a computer, to overhear such grave family news. Here I stand, Exhibit A of the hypocritical tech user: creeped out by the lack of respect for personal privacy, yet still a willing participant. In a recent study of 1,500 Americans, nearly 60 percent said they—like…

Inside the splendid lobby of the Oberoi hotel in New Delhi, a porter relieves me of my bags. “Where are you coming from?,” he asks cheerily. “Ladakh,” I reply. He looks at me curiously. “Ladakh?,” he repeats with surprise. “Nobody goes there!” I think back to my first night in Ladakh, when I am curled up in a sleeping bag in my tent deep in the Himalayas, desperately trying to inhale the thin, frigid air. The will to breathe is there, but the oxygen is not. We are at an altitude of 14,800 feet in India’s northernmost region, and the temperature outside is barely above zero. This is why nobody comes to Ladakh. Ladakh is not the India you think you know. Here, you won’t find tropical heat and tuk-tuks.…

The designer Achille Salvagni is known for an aesthetic that combines modernity and restraint with a keen appreciation of age-old skills and luxe materials such as bronze, onyx and mahogany. Salvagni freely acknowledges his debt to the architectural heritage of Rome and its living craft traditions; his designs are made to the highest of specifications for an exacting global clientele. But for all his love of the ancients, he also feels a kinship with more recent masters such as Gio Ponti and Jean-Michel Frank and spent a year and a half earlier in his career studying at Stockholm’s Royal Institute of Technology. Consequently, Salvagni is very much his own man, a contemporary figure as happy designing an interior for a superyacht as for a palazzo. One of his latest projects…

One of the original developers of private business aircraft, William Powell Lear founded what is now Learjet in 1962, with its first production plane delivered two years later. Canada-based Bombardier acquired the company in 1990 and continued adding to the fleet, including the Learjet 75 in 2013. But since then, the brand has been in a holding pattern when it comes to new models, at least until recently. Scheduled to enter service this year, the nascent Learjet 75 Liberty has already had two examples sold as medevac aircraft for duty in Poland. The business-jet version, however, offers up a six-seat configuration, allowing its passengers the opportunity to spread out a bit in what is one of the longest cabins in the light-jet class. Measuring 19 feet, 10 inches, the length…

LET’S BE HONEST: The world of virtual reality may be cool, but the clunky headgear required has been anything but—until now. Panasonic has reimagined the latter with what it claims to be the first HDR (high dynamic range) capable, ultrahigh-definition glasses developed. And the result looks more Vuarnet than VR. Aesthetics aside, another major negative of conventional headsets is the low-resolution graphics they provide—think Pac-Man compared to Xbox One. The Japanese electronics brand aims to change that by enabling its glasses to optimize the impending 5G digital stream and present, for example, virtual sports and travel experiences in the same resolution displayed by your 4K TV. The hardware features a high-resolution micro OLED (organic light-emitting diode) panel that eliminates the dreaded “screen-door effect,” where images appear to be viewed through…

In 2017, when Emirates Team New Zealand won on Bermuda’s Great Sound to claim the 35th America’s Cup, Prada Group co-CEO Patrizio Bertelli was waiting, challenge letter at the ready. As the Kiwis showered themselves in Moët, the letter served as a tangible reminder that the sailors’ celebration would necessarily be short-lived: Competitors were already lining up for a chance to wrest the storied cup away. Bertelli’s challenge was accepted, and per tradition, the cup’s latest chapter began. Fast-forward to the 2020 America’s Cup World Series, which will mark the competition debut of the astounding AC75-class yacht, a 75-foot monohull foiler capable of 50 knots—57 mph—in flat-out sailing. The opening regatta, this month in Italy (travel restrictions around COVID-19 permitting), will pit four teams—well-financed crews from America and Britain have…

Guests returning to the most elite suite at Paris’s Prince de Galles hotel last holiday season wouldn’t have recognized their surroundings. During the preceding six months, the duplex had been stripped and reimagined, its decor entirely replaced with custom creations and fine art, its entry staircase grandly redone in black lacquer and bronze and its windows extended to create panoramic views of the Eiffel Tower and Sacré-Coeur. The Art Deco landmark partnered with French crystal house Lalique and Berlin-based designer Patrick Hellmann to transform the three-bedroom space and create one of the city’s most lavish getaways. And it embarked on the project somewhat out of necessity: In Paris’s increasingly crowded luxury hotel market, the Prince de Galles, a member of Marriott’s Luxury Collection, needs to stand out if it wants…

Messing with the work of a revered master is usually considered a bad idea. Yet as environmental concerns become more and more top-of-mind, even the design world’s most beloved pieces have come under the sustainability microscope. We’re not suggesting you toss your prized Transat chair—it wouldn’t be very green of you if you did—but if you’re in the market for a re-edition, consider one that reworks the original with more eco-conscious materials and production. “These masterpieces are brought back to life by us editing them,” says Lissa Carmona, CEO of Etel, a Brazilian furniture manufacturer that works in sustainable reissues. “It’s faithful to the original project, but updated per contemporary concerns.” LC1 Armchair Few seats are as instantly recognizable as the one created by Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte…

There’s a buzz in the air, and it’s not just the police copter I swear is circling above to get a better view of what I’m in—this vehicle from tomorrow. On a hilltop in LA’s Elysian Park, I pilot the all-wheel-drive Mercedes-Benz Vision EQS from its spacesuit-white cockpit. It’s so silent, otherworldly and responsive that I start to wonder if the wheels of this zero-emissions concept are actually touching the tarmac or floating a few inches above. “This is the first time we’re doing an all-purpose electric platform,” says Gorden Wagener, chief design officer of the German marque. “We wanted to start at our top-end segment, but this is very different from the conventional S-Class, three-box sedan you know.” Well, that’s an understatement. This is the bellwether for the hotly…

Imitation is typically the sincerest form of flattery, except when it comes to really big boats. Unlike automotive concepts, which are usually signals to other industry designers, yacht concepts are meant to inspire owners to take the customization of their boats to the next level. For those embarking on a new project, originality is the holy grail. The irony is that, once such vessels get made, the rest of the industry jumps on board. From Igor Lobanov’s 436-foot Star, with its dramatic central peak, to the recent futuristic 394-foot L conceived by Thierry Gaugain (who codesigned M/Y A alongside Philippe Starck), concepts are intended to flex the boundaries of the imagination. The most recent models address three things prospective buyers are looking for: expedition capabilities, green technology and lifestyle enhancements.…

A GROWING number of corporate aircraft are reaching the end of their useful lives, priced out of the sky by costly maintenance or renovations—and tighter regulation. For some owners, the upgrades just aren’t worth the required expense. A Learjet 60, for example, may need a $4 million overhaul of its engines, but after that, its market value may be only $1.5 million. It can’t fly until the work is done, but who wants to toss such a big chunk of cash into a slipping investment? Enter the recycler. There’s a steep rise in the number of business jets being sidelined, according to Mark Gregory, managing director of UK-based specialist Air Salvage International. “A lot are being pulled from service because of the cost of overhauling equipment,” he says. The good…

THE STEINWAY & SONS factory in Astoria, N.Y., operates much like its finished product: a finely tuned instrument of complex moving parts, each dependent on the others for an exceptional result. The analogy ends there, however, for the beauty of the sound created by a Steinway piano is nothing like the din of the factory where it was born, where the clatter of wood planks, the grinding of iron plates and the hammering of steel pins prevail. Founded in Manhattan in 1853, Steinway hit global fame at the Paris Exposition of 1867, where the brand scored a gold medal, proving to a skeptical Europe that American pianos had not only evolved beyond mere saloon instruments but were the best in the world. This triumph was the result of technological innovation.…

Status symbols shift constantly. That’s partly the point. Maintaining mastery of fashionable fluctuations requires leisure and resources, the display of which is the purpose of the status symbol. You can’t try too hard, though, because right now JOMO ( joy of missing out) is the new FOMO. Which is a relief, because no one wants to be behind on being seen as not caring about being behind. Right? The confusion is deliberate. Status symbols are no longer shiny baubles but vague concepts. Now that Thai beach vacations and vast TVs are the playthings of the many, not the few, focus has drifted from material possessions to superior values. The intangible status indicators of today are less It bag, more humblebrag. Demonstrative environmentalism, wellness, intensive parenting, a commitment to self-care and…

In many ways, Japan does things differently. In place of the mere four seasons that make up a year in much of the world, Japan has measured the passage of time since the sixth century with 24 annual seasons, which are then subdivided into some 72 micro seasons. They are nuanced and observational: uo kori o izuru, a five-day window when fish emerge from the ice in February, or kawazu hajimete naku, when frogs start singing in the early days of May. Time operates by a different set of rules here. Einstein be damned. “It’s unique, the feeling of how we perceive time, because we don’t try to manage or control it,” says Shuji Takahashi, Seiko Holdings’ president, COO and CMO. “It’s more that we live together with time. We…