The Philippines’ Lagen Island Resort has reopened its doors following a sweeping redesign that feels unusually sensitive for a luxury resort in 2026. The private island resort, tucked into the limestone cliffs of El Nido in Palawan, already had one of the most extraordinary settings in Southeast Asia. The renovation simply gives it more room to breathe.

That alone feels refreshing.

Sex across six hectares, the re-imagined property now unfolds through 42 redesigned accommodations going from Water Villas to Forest Rooms, with a new arrival pavilion, clubhouse, spa, dive center, sunset bar, and chapel woven into the landscape. The renovation work was led by WATG and Wimberly Interiors in collaboration with Ayala Land Hospitality, though the most impressive part of the project might be what they chose not to do.

Most of the original resort structures remain intact.

That’s surprisingly rare now, especially in luxury hospitality, where developers tend to flatten perfectly good buildings the second the word “repositioning” enters the conversation. Here, the existing structures became the foundation for the redesign. Old nara wood flooring was repurposed into wall paneling. Architectural elements were adapted rather than replaced. The island itself still feels familiar somehow, even after the overhaul.

New resorts frequently resemble immaculate film sets in the beginning – visually perfect, yet still searching for the rhythm of everyday life. Lagen, El Nido already carries a sense of age and softness. The humidity has settled into the wood. The pathways disappear into greenery. Nothing feels overly staged.

The setting does a lot of work, of course. Massive limestone cliffs rise almost vertically from turquoise water, while dense rainforest wraps around the resort from every direction. Boats drift slowly through the bay, adding to the sense that everything here moves at a different speed. In the early morning, the island becomes nearly silent save for birdsong and the gentle break of waves against the shoreline.

The redesigned arrival hall opens directly toward those views. Its architecture references traditional Filipino Paraw boats through curved forms and carved detailing, though thankfully without leaning too hard into the theme. Resorts sometimes become oddly theatrical when they start interpreting local culture too literally. This feels more relaxed than that.

Traditional weaving and carving techniques from the Philippines appear throughout the interiors in quieter ways. Woven textures show up in furniture, lighting, and wall panels. Handcrafted wood details frame corridors and guest rooms. Some references come from Tagbanua, Tausug, and Maranao traditions, though you don’t need to recognize every influence to appreciate the atmosphere they create.

The Water Villas push guests as close to the sea as possible. Large openings frame uninterrupted ocean views, while sunken lounge seating and subtle screening create privacy without cutting off the connection to the water.

The interiors stay fairly minimal, which was probably the right move. With colors outside like these, adding too much inside the room would’ve been a mistake.

The Forest Rooms feel entirely different.

Hidden among mature trees with glimpses of the shoreline beyond, they lean into darker timber tones and deep green accents that blur nicely into the surrounding landscape. There are references to traditional bahay kubo architecture throughout the rooms, especially in some of the wall treatments and partitions, though none of it feels forced. You notice details gradually here.

The Clubhouse now serves as one of the social centers of the resort, with a moodier palette inspired by local pottery traditions and handcrafted materials. The bar counter incorporates woven detailing that catches the light differently throughout the evening, especially around sunset when the entire space starts glowing amber for about twenty minutes before everything fades blue again.

Nearby, the beachfront Sunset Bar takes cues from traditional Pangko boats, with curved rooflines and low seating positioned directly toward the horizon. Which, admittedly, sounds like exactly the sort of thing every tropical resort claims to have. But El Nido sunsets are irritatingly beautiful in person. There’s no real way around describing them.

What makes the redesign work is its balance. The resort doesn’t constantly remind guests how luxurious or sustainable or culturally immersive it is. Nobody seems desperate to prove anything here. The architecture opens toward the landscape, the interiors rely heavily on local craftsmanship, and the island remains the focal point almost everywhere you go.

Even the pathways through the property feel intentionally understated. Some are barely lit at night except for small pools of warm light filtering through the trees. You hear insects, wind, distant waves. Then suddenly the jungle opens up and there’s the sea again.

The post One of The Philippines’ Most Iconic Resorts Just Reopened After a Massive Renovation appeared first on Luxatic.

Lamborghini has built another birthday present for itself, and naturally it’s completely wild. The new Fenomeno Roadster arrives as Sant’Agata celebrates 63 years in business, and because subtlety has never exactly been part of the company handbook, they’ve responded with a roofless, 1,065-horsepower V12 hybrid that looks like it escaped from a science-fiction storyboard after too much espresso.

Only 15 will exist. Which means most people reading this will never even hear one in person, let alone drive one. Shame, really, because a naturally aspirated Lamborghini V12 at full noise with no roof above your head sounds like one of the last genuinely absurd pleasures left in the supercar world.

The coupe came first. You’ll remember the Fenomeno from last summer — all sharp edges and aero drama, sold out before half the internet realised it existed. Thirty cars. Gone instantly. The Roadster cuts that number in half because apparently exclusivity now comes measured in single digits and private WhatsApp groups.

And yes, Lamborghini has gone fully committed with the roof situation. There isn’t one. No folding hardtop, no removable panel tucked awkwardly into the front trunk while the owner pretends not to panic about scratching exposed carbon fibre. The cabin simply stays open to the sky all the time, which gives the whole thing a slightly more feral appearance.

The proportions have changed because of it. The side glass looks chopped and compressed, almost like someone lowered the roofline in Photoshop and forgot to finish the job. Then there’s the little carbon spoiler sitting at the top of the windscreen, which feels wonderfully unnecessary in the best possible Lamborghini tradition.

Behind the seats sit two large aerodynamic humps that double as rollover structures. Every open-top hypercar seems to need them these days, but here they actually work visually. From some angles the Fenomeno Roadster resembles a modern interpretation of a speedster prototype from the late ’60s. From others, it looks like a stealth bomber that developed a gym addiction.

Lamborghini says it reworked the upper surfaces and aero package so the Roadster delivers the same downforce and cooling performance as the coupe. I believe them mostly because modern hypercars are designed by people who probably lose sleep over airflow around side mirrors. Weight gain sits at only a few kilograms too, which honestly feels like engineering witchcraft when you consider how much structure usually disappears with the roof.

The launch car wears Blu Cepheus paint with Rosso Mars accents and exposed carbon everywhere your eyes land. Predictably dramatic. Predictably effective. Lamborghini interiors can occasionally drift into nightclub territory after midnight, but this one sounds restrained enough to avoid looking like a gaming chair sponsored by an energy drink company.

And then there’s the powertrain. Good grief.

The naturally aspirated 6.5-litre V12 already makes 824 horsepower on its own. That figure used to belong exclusively to race cars and mildly terrifying prototypes. Lamborghini then bolts on three electric motors because apparently someone in Sant’Agata looked at 824 hp and thought, “Needs another thousand Newton metres and a battery.”

So you get two motors at the front axle and another integrated into the eight-speed dual-clutch gearbox. Combined output lands at 1,065 hp, which pushes the Roadster beyond the Revuelto and into the upper reaches of “completely unnecessary but deeply entertaining.”

Performance numbers barely change from the coupe. Zero to 100 km/h takes 2.4 seconds. Two hundred arrives in 6.8. Top speed sits north of 340 km/h. At those speeds, having no roof probably transforms every facial muscle into abstract art.

Still, the numbers almost feel secondary here. Hypercars passed the point of usable performance years ago. Nobody genuinely needs more acceleration than this. The appeal comes from the theatre — the sensation of a massive naturally aspirated V12 screaming inches behind your shoulders while electric motors quietly fill every microscopic gap in the torque curve.

That matters.

Because the industry keeps drifting toward silence, synthetic noises, turbocharged downsizing and digital experiences that feel engineered by compliance departments. Lamborghini somehow continues to build cars that behave like emotional outbursts. Expensive ones, admittedly.

The Fenomeno Roadster now joins the Reventon, Veneno, Centenario and Sián Roadsters in Lamborghini’s long tradition of making ultra-limited collector specials for clients who probably own islands or small airlines. Pricing remains officially undisclosed, which usually translates to “if you have to ask, your accountant will start sweating.”

As for what comes next, a Revuelto Roadster feels inevitable at this point. Lamborghini is already deep into development of the Temerario Spyder too, which swaps the V12 madness for a plug-in hybrid V8 and a retractable hardtop. More sensible, perhaps. Slightly more usable.

The post Lamborghini Just Made The Fenomeno Even More Ridiculous and Exclusive appeared first on Luxatic.

ARES Yachts has unveiled SIMENA, a 62-metre sailing yacht from Türkiye that looks exactly like the sort of thing an old shipping magnate would buy after deciding he’d had enough of helicopters, tax meetings and modern architecture. Which is encouraging, because too many superyachts now resemble high-end hotels with swimming pools attached to the roof.

SIMENA, thankfully, has a proper bow. A clipper bow. The sort of bow that suggests movement and weather and the possibility of crossing an ocean while wearing a jumper with unnecessary brass buttons. You look at it and immediately imagine ropes creaking somewhere, even though modern yachts rarely creak because everything is hydraulic now.

ARES built the yacht entirely in Türkiye alongside Taka Yacht Design, which is actually rather impressive when you think about it. Türkiye has quietly become extremely competent at boatbuilding over the years. Nobody really noticed because everyone was distracted by Italian shipyards making floating palaces for billionaires who own too many loafers.

This yacht though.. is very different.

SIMENA is now the largest sailing yacht ever built in Türkiye and you can easily see that everybody involved genuinely cared about making a dreamy sailing yacht rather than merely constructing a luxury object that happens to float. There’s a distinction. A subtle one, admittedly, but important.

ARES itself comes from the world of fast patrol boats, which means the company understands how to build things that survive unpleasant seas at unreasonable speeds. That background probably explains why SIMENA apparently behaved so well during sea trials off Antalya. She reached 16 knots under sail in 20 knots of wind, which for a 62-metre yacht is properly brisk.

The sail plan is enormous. There’s a 470-square-metre mainsail, a vast genoa, several additional sails for different conditions and a mainmast rising 59 metres into the air. Fifty-nine metres. At that height you’re no longer adjusting sails so much as checking weather systems.

And somewhere up there, inevitably, a man named Luca or Mehmet will eventually have to climb around with a toolkit because one tiny fitting has started making a faint clicking noise.

I’ve always liked ketch rigs, partly because they look correct. Modern yacht design often obsesses over sharp angles and aggressive styling cues as though the vessel intends to fight another vessel in a nightclub car park. SIMENA avoids all that silliness. She has graceful lines and a traditional profile that would still look handsome fifty years from now, which is more than can be said for many modern hypercars or indeed most kitchen appliances.

There’s also a fold-out sea balcony built directly into the hull for guests arriving from the custom limo tender. Naturally there is. Wealthy people no longer simply board boats. They must arrive.

Still, I rather like this detail because it creates the illusion that one might spend the afternoon diving into clear Mediterranean water before drying off in the sun with a drink and a mildly disappointing paperback novel purchased at an airport.

The aft deck contains a circular Jacuzzi surrounded by sunpads, because apparently humanity has decided ordinary water is no longer sufficient. There’s also a dining area for 14 guests with polished mahogany tables, a grill, a wet bar and enough lounging space to support the sort of lunch that quietly absorbs an entire day.

Boats do this to people. Time becomes vague aboard them. You sit down for a sandwich at one o’clock and suddenly somebody is lighting candles while discussing whether they can see Sicily in the distance.

The flybridge sounds rather good too. Panoramic views, oversized sunpads and low-profile seating tucked neatly into the superstructure. Importantly, it avoids looking like the rooftop terrace of a fashionable hotel in Dubai. That temptation must have existed at some point during the design process.

Throughout the yacht there’s mahogany, stainless steel and brass used with surprising taste.

Inside, the London-based studio Design Unlimited created a classy interior with dark oak panelling, cream furnishings and custom brass detailing. From the photographs, it appears warm and civilised rather than aggressively luxurious. You can imagine reading quietly in there while rain taps against the hull somewhere outside.

The owner’s suite occupies the forward section of the yacht and includes a king-sized bed, lounge area, walk-in wardrobe and a semi-open bathroom finished in natural stone and brass.

Superyachts often become absurd global shopping lists. Italian marble, Scandinavian oak, British leather, French crystal, Japanese toilets capable of analysing your emotional state. SIMENA feels more cohesive than that.

There are four additional guest cabins plus another flexible cabin for guests or crew. Which usually means one friend who claimed they’d “only stay a couple of nights” before gradually becoming part of the vessel’s ecosystem.

Then there’s the hybrid propulsion system, which I find genuinely interesting. An electric motor allows near-silent cruising at lower speeds, and the yacht can even generate renewable electricity while under sail. That’s clever in the proper engineering sense of the word, not the modern marketing sense where your refrigerator connects to the internet for reasons nobody fully understands.

The transoceanic range exceeds 6,000 nautical miles too, so this isn’t merely a decorative Mediterranean toy designed for photographing near Saint-Tropez. That means you could cross serious stretches of ocean aboard SIMENA.

The post ARES Yachts’ SIMENA Brings Back the Romance of Proper Sailing Yachts appeared first on Luxatic.

The Oaks Estate, an 87-acre lakefront compound outside Tampa with its own go-kart track and a 22-car auto gallery, just hit the market for $115 million. Which, for Florida in 2026, somehow doesn’t even sound shocking anymore. Expensive, yes. Excessive, definitely. Still, the state’s luxury market has drifted so far into the stratosphere lately that a nine-figure mansion complete with helicopter access now enters the conversation almost casually.

The property belongs to Steven Lempera, the Illinois-based investor and former oil executive who sold a Miami waterfront mansion to The Weeknd last year for $50 million. Lempera bought this property in 2021 for $16.7 million, back when Florida’s luxury market still had moments of hesitation. Those moments seem to have disappeared completely nowadays.

The lavish estate carries a certain kind of old-school collector pedigree, too. It was originally developed by Don Wallace, founder of Lazydays RV, who designed the property around a serious car collection that once included a Ferrari 250LM and a McLaren F1 LM. Both later sold for extraordinary prices at auction, which somehow makes the massive auto gallery here feel less extravagant and more historically consistent.

The house itself is inspired by French Normandy architecture, with steep rooflines, limestone details, and the sort of scale that almost doesn’t register until you see the numbers. The main residence spreads over more than 36,000 square feet across four floors, with six bedrooms, 12 bathrooms, and.. 14 powder rooms. At a certain level of wealth, powder rooms start multiplying with the number of figures from your bank account.

The estate sits behind a massive 36-acres stone-walled perimeter, while another 51 protected acres shield the property from future development. Privacy has become one of Florida’s most valuable commodities recently, especially as waterfront neighborhoods continue filling up with larger and larger homes stacked almost on top of each other. Here, there’s actual distance. Silence, probably.

And yes, the property accommodates both helicopters and seaplanes. Which sounds wildly theatrical until you remember how many ultra-wealthy buyers now move around Florida. Tampa for a night, Palm Beach for dinner, Miami the next morning. The state increasingly operates like one long private corridor for people who prefer avoiding airports entirely.

Inside the main villa, there’s grand salon that opens directly toward the lake through 12-foot mahogany French doors. You have arched ceilings and limestone floors that give the room the kind of formality which feels increasingly rare in newer luxury homes.

A gentleman’s lounge with a bar and wine storage sits near the private cinema, while a beamed family room faces the water. The kitchen centers around a La Cornue Château range alongside slabs of Azul Imperiale quartzite, plus a full catering kitchen hidden behind the main space. Large estates always reveal themselves in the back-of-house details. That’s usually where the fantasy either holds together or quietly falls apart.

The primary suite occupies its own private wing with dual bathrooms, custom dressing rooms, and sitting areas facing the lake. Even the phrasing “primary suite” starts to feel insufficient once a bedroom expands into something closer to a private residence inside the residence.

Amenities continue well beyond the main living spaces. There’s also a 72-foot saltwater pool, an indoor aquatic facility, a spa and wellness center, a fitness complex, and you even get your own bowling alley and an entire entertainment level designed for large-scale hosting.

Outside, a mile-long jogging trail loops through the property alongside equestrian facilities that include a five-acre riding arena, paddocks, a six-stall barn, and a horse walker.

The estate’s automotive component remains the defining feature, though. Along with the go-kart track, the auto gallery includes paint and mechanical facilities, a studio apartment, office, and boardroom. Wallace clearly understood the difference between a luxury garage and a functioning collector space. Most people build garages to display cars. This feels built for people who actually spend time around them.

A separate two-bedroom guest or staff residence sits elsewhere on the grounds, along with a two-story boathouse topped by a rooftop terrace overlooking the lake.

Eddy Martinez and Roland Ortiz of The R/E Team at ONE Sotheby’s International Realty hold the listing, which currently stands as the most expensive residential property publicly listed in the Tampa area.

The post This $115 Million Florida Estate Has Its Own Go-Kart Track and Car Museum appeared first on Luxatic.

Panerai has unveiled the new Panerai Submersible GMT PAM01495, and it’s exactly the sort of watch you buy when a normal dive watch feels a bit too sensible. Which, frankly, is quite refreshing. The world has enough tasteful 39mm watches with beige lume pretending to have crossed the Atlantic on a fishing boat in 1954. This one looks like it could survive a small submarine accident and then ask for another go.

At 47mm across, the PAM01495 arrives with all the subtlety of an Italian powerboat docking in Saint-Tropez. Still, Panerai has never really done timid. You don’t wear one of these because you forgot your Rolex at home. You wear it because you enjoy large mechanical objects strapped to your wrist, preferably ones with enough engineering jargon attached to make nearby enthusiasts nod approvingly into their espresso.

The timing is interesting too. At Watches and Wonders Geneva 2026, Panerai mostly played things rather safely. Vintage cues. Historic references. Lovely clean dials. Watches that whispered politely instead of shouting over the room. The new Submersible GMT PAM01495 does the opposite. It practically revs.

The case alone deserves a pause. Panerai used something called Titanium DMLS, which sounds either like a NASA propulsion system or an expensive kitchen appliance. In reality, it’s a 3D-printing process where Grade 5 titanium powder gets fused layer by layer with lasers. Actual lasers. Quite a lot of modern luxury likes to talk about craftsmanship while quietly relying on marketing departments and mood boards.

There’s a practical side to it as well. The hollow internal structure cuts down weight significantly, so despite the sheer scale of the thing, it won’t feel like you’ve attached a cast-iron radiator to your arm. Panerai says it’s around 25% lighter than traditional titanium constructions and more than 50% lighter than steel in the same shape. Which is good news, because a full steel version of this would probably sink straight through your desk.

And naturally, it’s absurdly overqualified for everyday life. Water-resistant to 500 metres, sapphire crystals front and back, ceramic bezel, screw-down crown with Panerai’s signature locking bridge — all present and accounted for. Most owners will likely test these capabilities during a stressful hotel pool holiday in Mykonos, but the engineering remains impressive nonetheless.

The dial, if you can still call it that, looks as though Panerai removed everything non-essential and left only the mechanical skeleton behind. It’s entirely openworked, with a sort of geometric lattice floating beneath the hands and markers. You can see straight into the movement, which gives the whole thing a slightly theatrical quality. Like peering through the engine cover of a supercar while pretending you understand thermodynamics.

Legibility, surprisingly, survives the chaos. Large luminous hour markers frame the display, while the hands remain thick enough to read without squinting. There’s central hours and minutes, a GMT hand, small seconds at 9 o’clock, an AM-PM indicator, and Panerai’s rather clever polarised date system. This part is genuinely fascinating.

Most date discs simply sit there like a cheap office calendar, covering half the movement. Panerai’s version stays effectively invisible until the date appears through the aperture at 3 o’clock. It feels unnecessarily complicated, which is often where the best watchmaking ideas begin.

Inside sits the calibre P.4001/S, an automatic movement with a tungsten micro-rotor and a proper traveller’s GMT setup. The local hour hand jumps independently in one-hour increments, so adjusting time zones won’t require the patience of a medieval monk. There’s also a seconds reset function when you pull the crown, because precision still matters to people who own mechanical dive watches worth the price of a respectable family hatchback.

Power reserve stands at three days, displayed on the back of the watch rather than cluttering the front. A sensible decision, for once.

The Panerai Submersible GMT PAM01495 comes fitted to a blue rubber strap, though Panerai also includes an additional black bi-material strap in the box. Owners can therefore choose whether they’d like their €49,000 titanium dive watch to resemble naval equipment or slightly more expensive naval equipment.

The watch will be available exclusively through Panerai boutiques from May 2026 and is priced at EUR 49,000 including taxes, or USD 50,300 before taxes.

The post Panerai’s New Submersible GMT PAM01495 Is a 47mm Titanium Monster appeared first on Luxatic.

Adamastor Automotive has revealed the Furia, which is what happens when a small Portuguese company looks at the Aston Martin Valkyrie and decides the world probably needs another completely impractical, aero-led carbon missile with exposed suspension and the sort of bodywork that appears to have been attacked with industrial vacuum cleaners.

And honestly, fair enough.

The hypercar market now exists in this strange parallel universe where every new manufacturer arrives claiming Formula 1 levels of downforce, Nürburgring ambitions and a revolutionary drivetrain that will apparently alter the course of automotive history. Adamastor has skipped most of that nonsense and instead stuffed a tuned Ford GT engine into a very aggressive carbon tub. There’s something refreshingly straightforward about that.

Visually, the Valkyrie influence is impossible to miss. The front end has the same pinched, almost hollow appearance, with giant channels carved through the bodywork and headlights that seem to have been added as an afterthought to satisfy regulations. From some angles it looks less like a road car and more like an LMP racer somebody accidentally fitted with number plates.

The rear is equally mad.

Massive diffuser. Tiny cockpit. Huge open spaces underneath the bodywork. You look at it and immediately start wondering how unpleasant it might be over speed bumps, which is usually a good sign with cars like this. Hypercars should feel faintly ridiculous. If they look sensible, somebody’s done it wrong.

Unlike the Valkyrie, though, the Furia doesn’t have a naturally aspirated V12 screaming behind your head at 11,000 rpm. Instead there’s Ford’s 3.5-litre twin-turbocharged EcoBoost V6, the same basic engine architecture used in the GT. In this application it makes 650hp and 571Nm of torque, which initially sounds a bit conservative given modern hypercar numbers have become completely detached from reality.

Then you notice the weight figure.

Adamastor claims 1,050kg dry. If that’s remotely accurate, this thing should feel seriously quick. You don’t actually need 1,800 horsepower and four electric motors if the car itself weighs about the same as a family hatchback from 1998.

There’s also a sequential gearbox driving the rear wheels only, which immediately improves the mood. So many modern fast cars feel obsessed with making speed accessible to everybody. Endless traction systems, torque vectoring, active differentials and software layers quietly tidying things up underneath you. The Furia sounds far more old-school in its philosophy. Lots of downforce, lots of power, rear-wheel drive and presumably absolutely no interest whatsoever in your personal comfort.

I suspect it’ll either feel sensational or try to kill you under boost on cold tyres. Possibly both within the same corner.

Adamastor says the road-legal version will hit 100 km/h in around 3.5 seconds and continue to 300 km/h. Those figures almost don’t matter anymore because every fast car now claims some variation of “three seconds to 100 and very fast after that.” What matters more is how a car arrives at those numbers.

This one sounds intense.

The company claims nearly 1,800kg of downforce at 250 km/h in track specification, which is an absurd amount for something originating from a manufacturer most people had never heard of until recently. Still, Portimão probably makes sense as a development circuit because the place naturally exposes bad chassis tuning. Fast crests, heavy braking zones, awkward compressions. If a car behaves itself there, it usually means somebody knew what they were doing.

And underneath all the hypercar theatre, the Furia’s hardware does sound serious. AP Racing brakes. Adjustable double-wishbone suspension. Carbon monocoque. The fundamentals appear correct, even if the styling occasionally feels like somebody left a Valkyrie alone in a room with a Praga Bohema and told them to produce offspring.

The engine choice will annoy some people because hypercars have become strangely tied to emotional expectations. Buyers spending this sort of money tend to want something bespoke and exotic. A Cosworth V12. A handmade hybrid system from Scandinavia. An engine assembled by mystical craftsmen somewhere near Modena. Saying your €1.6 million hypercar uses a Ford-derived V6 doesn’t quite ignite the imagination in the same way.

Except the Ford motor is actually rather good.

Compact, durable and capable of serious power without immediately scattering itself across the nearest racetrack. The original GT already proved that the engine could survive sustained abuse while delivering genuinely savage performance. And there’s probably an argument that hypercars should spend less time chasing mechanical purity and more time focusing on weight, aerodynamics and chassis balance.

Besides, most owners will spend more time discussing the downforce figures over espresso than actually exploring the limits of the thing.

The asking price lands at €1.6 million before VAT, which means the final number becomes deeply unpleasant depending on where you live. Still, that’s just the reality of hypercars now. Every new arrival costs roughly the same as a nice mansion and promises lap times capable of rearranging your internal organs.

And somewhere in Portugal, a small company has decided it belongs in that conversation.

The post The Adamastor Furia Might Be The Maddest New Hypercar You’ve Never Heard Of appeared first on Luxatic.

Angelina Jolie is selling her spectacular Los Feliz estate for $29.85 million, bringing one of Laughlin Park’s most recognizable properties back onto the market almost eight years since she bought it. The actor purchased the compound in 2017 for $24.5 million, which, at the time, set a record for the neighborhood.

The timing of this sale isn’t especially surprising. Jolie recently spoke about wanting to spend more time outside the United States now that all six of her children are adults, and this sprawling estate has always felt tied to a very specific chapter of her life after her separation from Brad Pitt.

The property itself predates Hollywood celebrity culture entirely. Built back in 1913, the Italianate Revival-style mansion was purchased in 1916 by filmmaker Cecil B. DeMille, who paid only $28,000 for the estate , while the movie industry was still in its infancy. Los Feliz, back then, was full of oversized homes built for people shaping early Los Angeles in real time, studio founders, oil families, silent film stars, that’s why Laughlin Park remains one of the few pockets of the city where that atmosphere still survives.

Jolie’s home spans roughly two acres behind gates and dense landscaping, with about 11,000 square feet divided across the main residence and several additional buildings. The primary house accounts for around 7,500 square feet, while the rest of the property includes a guest house with its own entrance, a pool house, a tea house, a fitness studio, and a detached garage with a security station.

In Los Angeles a lot of celebrity homes lose their identity after endless renovations, but this one seems to have avoided that fate. Reports from the time of Jolie’s purchase described original architectural details still intact throughout the house, including a curved staircase near the entrance and a formal living room with arched French doors opening toward the grounds. There’s also a wood-paneled dining room and a library lined with floor-to-ceiling bookcases, which is definitely a rare sight in Los Angeles now.

The kitchen was updated more recently and connects to an informal dining space beneath tall arched windows overlooking the gardens. Nothing about the estate sounds aggressively modernized, which is probably part of its appeal. Houses from this period were designed differently. The rooms tend to feel separate and quieter, and the scale is often more interesting than sheer size.

Outside, the property leans heavily into privacy. Mature trees surround the estate, while high walls and layered greenery shield most of the grounds from view. There are terraces, broad lawns, and views toward Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Hills beyond.

The swimming pool sits near the center of the property, framed by landscaping that feels established rather than newly installed for listing photos.

Laughlin Park has long attracted residents who want proximity to Hollywood without necessarily wanting to participate in it too visibly. Over the years, the gated neighborhood has been home to Charlie Chaplin, Natalie Portman, David Fincher, Kristen Stewart, Gwen Stefani, Ellen Pompeo, Lauren Graham, will.i.am, and Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard.

Jolie also reportedly maintains a home in Cambodia and continues to deal with the legal dispute surrounding Château Miraval, the French winery she once co-owned with Pitt before selling her stake in 2021.

The estate is listed with Ernie Carswell of Sotheby’s International Realty.

The post Angelina Jolie’s Stunning Hollywood Estate Just Listed for Nearly $30 Million appeared first on Luxatic.

Fiart has launched a new yacht line called the SX series with a fairly straightforward idea at its core: owners who spend extended time onboard care more about usability, circulation, and comfort than another sculpted fiberglass statement piece.

The Italian builder introduced two models — the 16-meter SX4 and the slightly larger 17-meter SX5 — both developed internally by Fiart’s technical office with exterior and interior design by Massimo Simeone. The pitch centers on long-range cruising, social deck layouts, and practical living spaces. Which sounds obvious until you spend five minutes looking at half the yachts launched lately.

A lot of builders have drifted into this weird architectural arms race. More glass. More angular lines. More giant floating villas that photograph beautifully and feel exhausting after two days aboard. Somewhere along the way, yacht design became heavily optimized for drone footage.

Fiart’s SX line feels like a reaction to that. Quietly, but very intentionally.

The main deck setup is the key thing here. Both yachts use a double-cockpit arrangement that splits the outdoor spaces into separate zones without making the boat feel fragmented. You can move from stern to bow cleanly, without climbing over furniture or threading yourself through tight side passages designed by somebody who clearly never carried a drink underway.

And yacht circulation matters far more than yacht companies like admitting publicly.

People romanticize life at sea until they spend a long weekend trapped onboard with guests, towels, bags, wet swimsuits, and nowhere comfortable to move. Suddenly the “award-winning design language” starts to feel less important than whether you can walk around naturally.

Fiart seems to understand this.

The SX models connect the outdoor areas into one continuous environment rather than a collection of disconnected set pieces. The stern platform sits low over the water for swimming and easy access at anchor because every yacht buyer now wants direct contact with the sea, preferably while posting about it from somewhere near Sardinia.

The cockpit shifts between dining and lounging without requiring a full furniture transformation sequence every time somebody wants lunch. The bow remains dedicated to sunbathing because some traditions in yachting are apparently untouchable.

The larger SX5 pushes the whole concept further. At 17.3 meters, it’s clearly designed for owners planning longer cruises rather than some quick afternoon runs between marinas and beach clubs. The aft cockpit features a large rear-facing sunpad and an U-shaped dining area, though the more important detail is the hardtop covering the central section of the deck.

Shade changes boating entirely. People underestimate this until they spend six straight hours exposed to Mediterranean sun reflecting off white fiberglass like a laser beam.

The covered central living space makes the SX5 usable while underway and during longer passages. Which, again, sounds basic. Yet plenty of boats still behave like they were designed exclusively for perfect weather and anchored lunches.

Inside, the SX5 comes with two- or three-cabin layouts, each paired with two bathrooms. The emphasis here leans toward privacy and comfort rather than cramming extra berths into every available corner. You get the sense somebody at Fiart understood owners might spend days or weeks onboard instead of treating the yacht like a floating restaurant reservation.

Power comes from twin Volvo Penta D8 engines producing 550 horsepower with IPS700 drives, with an optional upgrade to IPS800. Enough for serious cruising without drifting into the increasingly absurd horsepower inflation happening across larger yacht segments.

The SX4 carries the same philosophy into a slightly more compact package. At 16.1 meters, it keeps the protected deck concept and open social layout while feeling easier to handle operationally. Frankly, this may end up being the smarter boat for many buyers.

There’s a point where yacht ownership starts resembling facility management.

Like the SX5, the SX4 offers two- and three-cabin configurations. Families can lean toward guest capacity, while couples planning longer stays can prioritize larger living areas instead. Power comes from twin Volvo Penta D6 engines rated at 440 horsepower with IPS600 drives, with an available upgrade to 480 horsepower and IPS650.

What Fiart seems to recognize — and what a surprising number of luxury brands still miss — is that extended time onboard changes what matters. Dramatic styling loses its appeal very quickly when daily life becomes awkward. Owners start caring about shade, movement, seating positions, privacy, noise levels, and whether the deck layout works without constant adjustment.

The SX line feels designed around those realities instead of around boat-show theatrics.

The post Fiart’s new SX4 and SX5 Focus on Something Rare in Yachting: Usability appeared first on Luxatic.

French Riviera hotels have a habit of reopening every few years with new curtains, a different shade of beige and a press release full of words like “curated” and “timeless.” COMO Hotels and Resorts has gone in another direction with COMO Le Beauvallon, which has just reopened overlooking the Gulf of Saint-Tropez after what sounds like a very expensive and rather meticulous resurrection. And honestly, it looks superb.

The building itself dates back to 1914, from that period when wealthy Europeans decided every decent seaside hotel ought to resemble a palace where someone important might recover from “the season.” Which, apparently, they did. Winston Churchill stayed here. So did Colette and Audrey Hepburn. You can almost picture them wandering about the terraces squinting into the Riviera haze with a cigarette and some vague emotional complication.

And the location still does most of the work, if we’re honest.

The hotel sits above the Gulf of Saint-Tropez in ten acres of palms, lawns and old pine trees, with views that probably make estate agents spontaneously emotional. Down by the water there’s the beach club, Beauvallon Sur Mer, complete with pool, rooftop bar and restaurant, because of course there is. There’s also a private jetty where guests board a COMO speedboat for the eight-minute crossing into Saint-Tropez itself.

Eight minutes sounds about right. Any longer and you’d need a cardigan.

The Riviera has always understood that glamour works best when combined with laziness. Nobody wants to sit in traffic behind rented Lamborghinis when there’s a boat available. Boats are also quieter. Mostly.

The real surprise here, though, is the food. Hotels often promise “culinary destinations” now, which usually translates to one good dessert and a very expensive sea bass. Yannick Alléno appears to have taken the assignment rather seriously.

He now oversees the entire dining programme at COMO Le Beauvallon, from breakfast onwards, and his beach-club restaurant sounds unusually thoughtful. Apparently this is his first actual beach club project, which may explain why it doesn’t immediately descend into clichés involving dry tuna and unnecessary foam.

Instead, he’s mixing Southeast Asian influences with Mediterranean ingredients in a way that sounds oddly sensible once you think about it. Yellowtail tartare with peanuts and Thai basil ice cream. Sea bass crudo with green papaya. Tuna steak with Kampot pepper sauce. There’s confidence in that menu. Also bravery, because ice cream near raw fish can go horribly wrong very quickly.

Alléno himself admitted he felt unexpectedly emotional about the place, which I found rather reassuring. Celebrity chefs usually speak like investment bankers who’ve discovered parsley. Here, there’s at least some sense of affection for the building and its history.

The interiors help enormously. French designer Dorothée Delaye has avoided the usual Riviera trap of making everything look like a scented candle showroom. Instead there are curved iron details, polished woodwork inspired by old yachts and colours that resemble faded postcards left in the glovebox of a Peugeot 504 Cabriolet since 1972.

Which, incidentally, is exactly how the Riviera ought to feel.

The beach club evolves throughout the day from lunch spot into evening lounge with DJs and cocktails and sea views. I’m slightly too old for DJ-led beach lounges now. I reach a point at around 9:45pm where I start wondering whether the hotel serves tea. Still, if you’re going to do that sort of thing, this appears to be an excellent setting for it.

The pool beside the beach club stretches for 25 metres and uses mosaic tiles, because wealthy Europeans remain incapable of building ordinary pools. Nearby sits one of the hotel’s stranger features: the 2002 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion designed by Toyo Ito. Yes, the actual pavilion from London.

It now overlooks the sea on the Riviera, which sounds faintly ridiculous until you see photographs of it. Then it suddenly makes complete sense, like parking an old Citroën SM outside a villa in Cap Ferrat.

Inside the main hotel, things calm down slightly. The Winter Garden restaurant serves Mediterranean dishes with Niçoise influences beneath a large glass ceiling, while the Riviera Terrace — designed by Paola Navone — seems intended for the sort of afternoon where lunch quietly becomes dinner without anybody noticing.

There are only 42 rooms altogether, and that feels sensible. Modern luxury hotels often become gigantic self-contained villages where you need directions to find breakfast. Here, the scale sounds more intimate. The suites face the bay, while the Hillview rooms overlook the Provençal countryside, which honestly may be the better option if you value silence over yachts.

The rooms also contain more than 300 contemporary artworks. Hotels always say this now, although usually they mean there’s a large rusty sculpture near reception. This collection apparently includes installations, sculptures and rare objects spread throughout the property. Enough, at least, to encourage guests to nod thoughtfully while holding wine glasses.

COMO has also included one of its COMO Shambhala Retreat wellness spaces with yoga classes, treatments and holistic therapies. Which is probably useful after several afternoons spent testing the structural integrity of the cocktail menu.

COMO Le Beauvallon starts at €840 per night. Expensive, certainly. But this is the French Riviera, where people routinely spend the price of a family hatchback on a watch designed for wearing near swimming pools. Reservations are now open through COMO Le Beauvallon.

The post COMO Le Beauvallon Is Bringing Old-School Riviera Glamour Back appeared first on Luxatic.

Devialet just turned Roland-Garros into a speaker, because they probably thought tennis fans with money also need a $4,200 high-end speaker painted just like the clay courts of Roland-Garros.

We know that French luxury brands have a habit of taking things that already carry a ridiculous amount of cultural weight and wrapping them in lacquer, engineering, and scarcity until wealthy people suddenly feel emotionally incomplete without them.

But this time, the object in question is the new Devialet Phantom Ultimate Roland-Garros Exclusive Edition, a clay-red collector’s speaker inspired by the world’s most famous tennis tournament. And honestly? It works better than it probably should.

Luxury tech companies have spent years trying to escape the cold gadget category. Specs alone stopped impressing wealthy buyers a while ago. Now everything has to come wrapped in culture, scarcity, heritage, or some larger lifestyle fantasy people can project themselves into. Watches became art. Cars became wellness spaces. Speakers became sculpture.

Tennis got swept into that world too.

Roland-Garros especially. The tournament has this carefully preserved aura around it — the clay, the all-white visual identity, the slow Parisian elegance that somehow survives despite global sponsorships and endless VIP hospitality suites. It’s still the only Grand Slam played on clay, which gives marketers an almost unlimited amount of material to romanticize.

And Devialet absolutely romanticized it.

The speaker keeps the company’s familiar Phantom shape, which still resembles something an alien civilization might use to listen to Daft Punk. But this edition softens the aesthetic a little. The side panels borrow directly from the burnt-orange clay courts of Roland-Garros, mixed with bright white detailing inspired by the court lines.

There’s also a reference to Court Philippe-Chatrier and the Coupe des Mousquetaires trophy built into the finish, because no luxury collaboration is complete without a poetic explanation involving reflections and championship ceremonies.

Still, the execution actually looks toned down. That’s rare. Luxury collaborations often panic halfway through and start slapping logos everywhere like NASCAR sponsors. Here, the Roland-Garros branding sits quietly on top.

The more interesting part remains the engineering underneath all the clay-colored storytelling.

The larger 108 dB model delivers 1,100 watts of amplification and bass that drops as low as 14 Hz, which basically means your furniture enters the listening experience whether it wants to or not. The smaller 98 dB version comes with 400 watts, which is still enough power to make nearby walls participate.

Devialet built its entire reputation around making audio feel physical. Not just loud. Physical. The company’s HBI® system — short for “Heart Bass Implosion,” which sounds like a startup founded by Christopher Nolan — pushes extremely deep bass frequencies with startling force.

And unlike many design-first audio brands, Devialet’s technology has always been legitimate. Audiophiles can be deeply irritating people, but they usually know when something sounds good.

The company also continues its tradition of aggressively trademarking acronyms. There’s ADH®, which blends analog and digital amplification, and SAM®, which constantly adjusts the sound signal in real time to preserve fidelity. Tech companies love proprietary language because it creates the comforting illusion that complexity itself is luxury.

Software now matters almost as much as hardware anyway. Every premium device eventually becomes another software platform wearing expensive materials.

This speaker runs Devialet’s DOS3 operating system, first introduced with the Devialet Astra amplifier, and supports AirPlay, Spotify Connect, Google Cast, TIDAL Connect, Qobuz, Roon Ready, and UPnP. Translation: owners can stream almost anything while explaining bitrates to dinner guests who immediately regret asking.

The updated Devialet app also adds dedicated listening modes for music, podcasts, and cinema, alongside a six-band equalizer and bass controls. Which means somewhere, right now, a man in cashmere is fine-tuning low-frequency response while replaying old Rafael Nadal highlights.

Only a few hundred units of the Phantom Ultimate Roland-Garros Exclusive Edition will be available globally. Devialet says the collection launches on May 6, 2026 through select Devialet boutiques, Devialet, the Roland-Garros Megastore, and Roland-Garros Boutique.

Pricing starts at $2,100 for the 98 dB version and climbs to $4,200 for the flagship 108 dB model.

The post Devialet Turned Roland-Garros Into a Stunning Limited-Edition Speaker appeared first on Luxatic.