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Thursday, February 2, 2023
Rezvani Is Now Taking Reservations For The 2023 Vengeance SUV
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Written in the Stars: Rado DiaStar
A powerful marketing slogan can change the very trajectory of a brand, imbuing it with purpose and meaning that guides its every endeavour. This has been the case for Rado, whose nomenclature “Master of Materials” is more than just a slogan — it has been its north star since the 1960s, guiding it in discovering and pioneering some of the most innovative materials used in watchmaking.
The aim has been to constantly up the horological ante with materials that enhance comfort, practicality and efficiency. This quest was inked in the very foundation of the brand, which was set up in 1917 by three brothers, Fritz, Ernst and Werner Schlup, under the name Schlup & Co. They manufactured watch components, and eventually, in 1953, they would shift gears to produce entire watches under the name Rado. The purpose, from the get-go, was to build reputable and hardy timepieces that would bear the beatings of daily life. In 1958, Rado released the water-resistant Green Horse, which featured the first-ever red anchor on the dial — today, this red anchor is a symbol of the Maison, a subtle indication about whether the watch is an automatic or not.
But in 1962, the brand was up for another challenge: This time, it wanted build the first scratch-proof watch. Rado’s watchmaking peers had slowly started inculcating sapphire glass to their repertoire of watches, but the obstacle lay in the case material.
Common materials of that era, gold, steel and brass, would simply not cut it. The brand opted for a completely new material, unheard of before in watchmaking — called hardmetal, it was a carbide tungsten alloy, boasting a hardness of 1,400 to 2,000 vickers. A case of form following function, the unique design of the case was due to the fact that the metal was incredibly hard to manipulate; the shape was purely coincidental, and stuck thanks to the ingenious foresight of the designers, who recognised its value. The timepiece, which looked like a spaceship thanks to its extended bezel and oval shape, fit right into the eclectic style of the 1960s, but was slow to gain traction.
In fact, it was in the Far East that the DiaStar would first find recognition, its fame slowly growing and earning Rado a reputation for building design-centric, function-first watches. In the ensuing 60 years, Rado would sell more than 5 million models of the various iterations of the DiaStar; some of the highlights include the DiaStar Original from 1990, which was treated with titanium nitride CVD for a golden finish.
While in recent years the watch has not enjoyed the popularity of Rado contemporaries such as the Captain Cook or the True Square, it made a long-awaited comeback in a completely new avatar. To celebrate its 60th anniversary, Rado has enlisted the design expertise of Argentinian designer Alfredo Häberli, a product designer who has worked with the likes of BMW, Camper and Vitra.
Sharing that he had always wanted to design a watch since receiving his first timepiece at the age of 18 from his father, he took on the challenge to redesign the icon, while paying tribute to the core design elements of the DiaStar. There are four versions of the watch, one of which, the DiaStar Original Anniversary Edition, is limited to 250 pieces. This silver-grey version is a direct descendant of the original, but differs in several aspects: For one, it has shed its hardmetal casing, in favour of Ceramos, Rado’s in-house ceramic material. Scratch-resistant and even hardier than hardmetal, Ceramos comes with a satin-brushed effect that enhances the conical effect of the bezel.
Häberli also redesigned the case to make it slightly slimmer, so there is better integration between case and strap. The sapphire crystal plays a starring role in the anniversary edition, as it features six facets, each representing the six decades of the DiaStar’s existence. The analogy lends itself well in terms of aesthetics too, as the watch glistens as one moves one’s wrist. It catches the light at different angles, perhaps seeking to emulate the brilliance of a star or a diamond.
The strap, too, has been reimagined — the Milanese strap adds a touch of elegance to the eclectic timepiece, while a grey fabric strap is perfect for those who want a sportier look. The timepiece comes equipped with a gold-plated automatic movement with an 80-hour power reserve.
If you cannot get your hands on the limited edition anniversary model, you can choose between the non-limited versions with blue, green or grey dials.
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Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Rabbit Year 2023 Prediction: Alex Shlaen on Key Real Estate Markets and Money Flows
At the beginning of a new year, we want to know where to put our money and what to expect from the markets. Let me lay out some of my expectations and observations as we hop into the Year of the Rabbit.
Last year was a tough year for investors, unless you were invested in the Singapore property market, which is still going strong into 2023. But I will return to discussing property later in this article.
In 2022, there was a lot of trough across the financial and property markets all over the world. There were very few bright spots. But that you know already. Now, let’s try to look into the future and predict where is a good place to park your dough this hopping year of the bunny.
According to Professor Roubini of Stern Business School of New York University (NYU), investors must find stable assets that will hedge them against inflation, geopolitical risks and other market disruptors. Such assets include short-term government bonds and inflation-indexed bonds, gold and other precious metals, and real estate that is resilient to environmental damage.
Indeed, yet again, property investment is not just done for the more obvious advantages, such as rental returns and appreciation, but in this new world of relatively high inflation, the property, which is bought in the right places, is a good hedge against inflation.
As an investor, I am always looking for investment targets that will grow in popularity and will attract more investors, making these investments more valuable.
I present to you the following data:
According to Bank of America’s annual Study of Wealthy Americans released recently, which included interviews with over 1,000 Americans aged 21 and older with investable assets of over US$3 million. The interviews were conducted in May and June of 2022.
- 75 per cent of rich millennials do not think the stock market can generate the returns they are looking for
- The report found that 75 per cent of those surveyed aged 21 to 42 felt it was “not possible to achieve above-average returns solely on traditional stocks and bonds.”
- Only 32 per cent of older investors agreed with that statement
- Younger investors are flocking to cryptocurrency, private equity, real estate, and even art
The wealthy millennials surveyed said they allocate 25 per cent of their portfolios to stocks, compared to 55 per cent of older investors. And they dedicate over three times as much of their portfolios, 16 per cent versus 5 per cent, to alternative investments like private equity, commodities, real estate, and even art. Cryptocurrency is popular among these millennials as well, accounting for 15 per cent of their portfolios compared to only 2 per cent for older investors.
My takeaway is that eventually, the overall share of investments of this age group will grow as older investors cash out or exit active investing.
For millennials, one of their favourite investment targets is property, and hence I find it fascinating. One would think that young investors would not care much about the most traditional type of investment, but that turns out to be the opposite. The younger investors prioritise property and alternative investments over stocks and bonds. Therefore I see the future of property investing to continue growing or at least staying on solid ground, pun intended.
As always in my articles, I will discuss property and luxury investing.
So, what is the property market holding for us this year?
According to 100 or so housing market analysts polled by Reuters, housing prices in most major property markets will fall in 2023, but they predicted double-digit peak-to-trough declines will not come close to making property affordable. The reason is that residential property prices in the US, Britain, Canada, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand rose between 25 per cent and more than 50 per cent since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020.
Singapore
Lion City’s property is now a well-established darling of investors. Whoever read and followed my advice on the pages of this magazine for the last several years should be in a pretty position. The prices went up around 11 per cent in the last year and about the same in 2021.
Singapore’s private rentals surged by 30 per cent in 2022. It is the highest annual increase since 2007, when the rental prices shot up over 41 per cent. The rental prices are expected to rise at a slower rate of around 15 per cent next year, about half the previous year’s rate, due to an increase in supply.
As any investor knows, if the rental returns go up so does the property value. Conservatively speaking, I can see the increase in value reaching 4 per cent to 6 per cent during 2023.
The price increase might be steeper for new luxury properties.
We are seeing a wave of high-net-worth and ultra-high net worth mainland Chinese citizens who were impacted by the prolonged Covid-19 closures in mainland China and in Hong Kong relocating to Singapore. While we still do not have the figures, I am predicting a significant number of wealthy and ultra-rich Chinese citizens to move their money, families, and residence and further boost the demand and thus the prices for higher-end properties.
Add to this the tremendous increase in number of family offices being established or moved to Singapore, and you can see a clear trend of the rising demand for high-end property. With these offices comes an inflow of wealth, as the owners and the family members of these offices move to Singapore.
The resale condo prices were up around 10 per cent for 2022. The gap between new and resale property is way too big in my opinion and there is a great opportunity in the secondary market.
The data I see for the outlying districts shows for example, the median price of a newly launched condo unit was over S$2,000 per sq ft (psf), which is significantly higher than the price of the resale condo of around S$1,300.
For the savvy investors, I recommend looking at resale luxury condos in the prime locations of Singapore, which are very undervalued.
USA
Credit Researchers of Goldman Sachs predict the US property market to drop. Prime locations like San Francisco are expected to fall some 13 per cent. Basically they expect all the major cities to drop, except for Miami. With nationwide prices expected to drop around 10 per cent.
Here is a good place to highlight and explain an unusual and interesting trend in the current recession.
This recession might be hitting the higher paid workers, especially the ones in the high-tech sector and mostly skipping the lower-end and blue-collar workers.
Recent layoffs clearly show this trend. According to the US Securities filings, the median worker at Facebook made around US$296,000 in 2021. The median worker at Twitter made US$233,000. Most of the latest layoffs at those places and other tech giants such as Microsoft and Google have largely been aimed at white-collar workers.
So the high paid workers in high-tech are fired en masse and that explains why properties in places such as San Francisco and other prime locations in the Silicon Valley, as well in London and to some extent in Tel Aviv will suffer or will falter, at least in the short term.
Hong Kong
Hong Kong mortgage applications from mainland Chinese buyers rose to a record high in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Mainland buyers with Hong Kong residency represented 11.4 per cent of the mortgage applications that mReferral Mortgage Brokerage Services handled, the highest proportion since the firm started tracking the data in 2018.
Immigration interest from mainland Chinese citizens has spiked following the country’s stringent lockdowns and concerns of a subsequent economic slowdown. Hong Kong stands as one of the top relocation destinations, especially after the city’s government introduced a programme to attract foreign talent to reverse a brain drain following political upheavals and social unrest. Though some of the newcomers to Singapore are these mainland Chinese, who got disillusioned with Hong Kong’s epidemic strict policies.
Hong Kong’s government’s effort to attract more talent from the mainland and the rest of the world may also help elevate the city’s rental market. Residential rentals could rebound about 5 per cent in 2023 as more people relocate to Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg Intelligence.
Resale home values declined about 16 per cent last year, with combined new and secondary home sales slumping to the lowest level since at least 1996, according to data tracked by Centaline Property Agency. The border between the mainland and Hong Kong started to gradually reopen starting from 8 January after being effectively sealed since early 2020 as both governments pursued a Covid Zero policy by shutting themselves from the rest of the world for much of the pandemic.
The view of Bloomberg Intelligence is that sales of new residential projects in the city could jump 50 per cent to S$30 billion in 2023, from a nine-year low in 2022.
Shanghai
Around 135,400 pre-owned flats were up for sale at the end of October in Shanghai, an increase of 7.8 per cent from a month earlier, according to Fangdi.com.cn, the official website of the local housing administration bureau.
There is an exodus of sorts of middle class people from the country. Many are heading to European countries like Portugal or North America, where they benefit from citizenship schemes.
The downward spiral is set to continue in Shanghai’s home market as a growing number of wealthy owners plan to sell their properties and leave the country.
As I mentioned earlier, many rich families will be moving to Singapore and to some extent to Hong Kong as well.
London
Some research analysts are getting bullish on the price recovery here.
A report by Savills is expecting the prices to go up by 24 per cent by 2026, which would see prime central London prices return to their 2014 peak. In 2022 alone, values rose by around 8 per cent.
The prices in London fell 20 per cent, since 2014 in the capital’s most prestigious postcodes, and now the recovery is timely, said the report.
The signs are already pointing toward the city’s anticipated rebound, particularly at the very top end, and it is spreading also to the smaller properties.
In October 2022, London saw the most deals on homes priced at £10 million (US$13.5 million) or more since July 2013. The number of deals on homes priced at £5 million or more, meanwhile, outpaced any other October since 2014.
Belgravia and Mayfair had most of the deals recorded, which shows that the luxury market is leading the way to recovery in the capital.
Customisation is the Pinnacle of Luxury
And staying in the luxury of the Great Britain, it would be interesting to look into some of the grandest brands that the Kingdom got to offer.
British luxury carmaker Bentley reported record vehicle sales for 2022, with strong sales offsetting a 9 per cent drop in China caused by the lengthy pandemic lockdowns.
They had an increase of 4 per cent from 2021, which was itself a banner year for Bentley.
“In what was another year of unpredictability, the business overcame significant headwinds and demonstrated great resilience to deliver the third consecutive record sales year,” Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark said in a statement.
Bentley has increasingly focused on customisation and that helped them to average pre-tax sales price by nearly 30 per cent to €220,000 a car in 2022 from €170,000 in 2018.
It doesn’t surprise me that the uber-luxury car maker Rolls-Royce sold a record number of cars in 2022 as demand for its US$500,000 vehicles remained strong, despite the recession and geopolitical situation in the world. They didn’t see any slowdown or downturn, according to their CEO.
Rolls-Royce delivered 6,021 cars last year, up 8 per cent over 2021 and the first time the company crossed the 6,000 mark.
The company said the average price of a Rolls-Royce soared to US$534,000 last year — guess what, thanks to its customisation program known as “Bespoke”, which includes everything from silk embroidered headliners to personalised champagne chest.
I believe we will see more and more of this trend expanding into greater demand for big ticket luxury items.
Alexander Karolik Shlaen, Executive MBA, is the founder of the Singapore-based Panache Management Pte Ltd which represents Aston Martin Interiors, Tonino Lamborghini Casa and Formitalia design lines in Asia. Panache Management is involved in real estate and technology investment projects and provides luxury interiors and designs for exclusive real estate, private jets and superyachts. Shlaen has appeared in various regional and global media and has written the Luxury Expert columns of regional business magazines since 2009. He was also the chairman of the judges’ panel for Asia Property Awards and is frequently sought to attend established business forums. Learn more on PanacheManage.com
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Gilded-Age Mansion in New York City Lists for US$80 Million
Located along New York City’s iconic Fifth Avenue on Manhattan is a Gilded-Age mansion that spans 20,000 square feet and it is one of the few remaining buildings from the late 1800s. Named the Benjamin N. Duke House, this stately limestone-and-brick property is listed on the market for an asking price of US$80 million.
The architectural masterpiece is just opposite the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which annually hosts the Met Gala where some of the world’s most influential fashion people will make their appearance. Besides having a view of the Met Museum, where the owner can get front-row seat of the event and soak in the atmosphere of the evening, the property also boasts an undisrupted vista of Central Park.
Built around 1899 to 1901 by Welch, Smith & Provot, the storied building was even designated a New York City landmark in 1974 and included in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989. Not only will the owner be buying into a piece of New York City’s history, but this “the rarest opportunity to acquire a piece of history and make a bold statement in your portfolio,” a statement from the listing explained.
If a word could describe this mansion, it would be “opulence”. The entire building was constructed in the Italian Renaissance palazzo style and features eight bedrooms with 10 bathrooms across seven floors that are connected via a grand staircase. It even has high ceilings, a private roof deck and two statues guarding the front door.
The first owner, Benjamin N. Duke, came from a family who made a great fortune from tobacco, textiles and energy. In total, the Dukes held ownership of the house for over a century until 2006 when Mexican business mogul Carlos Slim bought it over.
As one of the richest men in the world, Slim paid US$44 million for the mansion in 2010 and subsequently listed it for the first time in 2015 for the same asking price of US$80 million but was unable to find a willing buyer. The mansion “may be recreated as a private dwelling or converted into a gallery, store, museum, or foundation,” according to the listing, maintained by Jorge Lopez of Compass.
For more property reads, click here.
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