Prince Albert with his daughter Jazmin Grace and their winning team. Photo: Riviera Organisation
It was your average Pub Quiz Night in Monaco, with a Prince on the winning team and two top-seeded tennis stars all testing their knowledge on geography, cinema and pop culture.
MonacoUSA hosted its annual brainteaser on Tuesday to a sold-out crowd at Stars’n’Bars with the highly-energetic quizmasters Peter Mackley and Philippe Decreus.
Quiz Masters Peter Mackley and Philippe Decreus with Nicole Feaster. Photo: Riviera Organisation
More than 100 guests competed, including tennis players Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin on Team ATP and Sir Stelios on the Easy Team, as well as teams from the British Association, Outward Bound, the Harvard Club and Team Powers, led by the MonacoUSA President Mike Powers.
ATP players Grigor Dimitrov and David Goffin with Kate Powers. Photo: Riviera Organisation
Team Sandel, with Monaco Life’s Publisher Eric Brundage and Susan Feaster, CEO of Ryder Cup France 2018 US Partners Club, finished the evening in second place.
The winning team’s captain was also the popular event’s longest-serving competitor during its 20-year history, HSH Prince Albert.
As Kate Powers best summed up: “Quiz night felt like a big reunion of old friends getting back together. It was such a fun and enthusiastic night.”
Tuesday night the inauguration of the photographic exhibition on dolphins, whales and sperm whales, which regularly frequent the waters of the Mediterranean, took place in the presence of Prince Albert at the Galerie des Pêcheurs.
Also in attendance for the special event, Ségolène Royal, Ambassador for Arctic and Antarctic Poles and Special Envoy for the Implementation of the International Solar Alliance, Fannie Dubois, Executive Secretary of the PELAGOS Agreement, Florence Descroix-Comanducci, Executive Secretary of the ACCOBAMS Agreement, Cyril Gomez, Director General of the Ministry of Public Works, the Environment and Urban Development and Chair of the Meeting of the Parties to the PELAGOS Agreement and HE Bernard Fautrier, Vice-President of the PA2F.
Monaco will contribute €2.6 million to health, education and socio-professional integration projects for young people in Lebanon over the next three years, L’Orient Le Jour reports.
A Monegasque delegation, led by Minister of External Relations and Cooperation Gilles Tonelli, arrived in Beirut on Monday, April 9, to launch the projects.
The Principality wants to “strengthen its partnership with Lebanon, mainly in the sectors where it can help it profit from its experience and its contribution, in particular the humanitarian sectors, education and health,” said Minister Tonelli, who was received by the head of state, Michel Aoun, in the presence of the consul of Monaco in Beirut, Béchara el-Khoury.
Mr Tonelli also extended an invitation from Prince Albert II to visit the Principality.
Monaco’s cooperation with Lebanon dates back to 1993, when it was mainly focused on the environment, resulting in the planting of cedars and the cleaning of the coastline.
The Minister said that in the next few years, the Principality would like to participate in the international effort to help Lebanon in the framework of the conferences of Rome and Paris and soon of Brussels.
The third edition of the Monaco Symposium on Luxury, organised by the International University of Monaco (IUM) and INSEEC U, one of the leaders in higher education
institutions in France, will take place on April 12 and 13 at the Meridien Beach Plaza.
The organisers say that this is the only international event creating fruitful interactions, sharing knowledge and know-how between researchers and top executives in the luxury fields.
Created in 2014, the Monaco Symposium on Luxury is an initiative of the INSEEC Management Research Centre, which employs experienced and renowned researchers in marketing and brand management from INSEEC Business School and IUM.
Photo: Facebook Monaco Symposium on Luxury
The initial idea was to invite researchers and professors from the best Universities and Business Schools to present their research papers in Luxury Marketing, and the 2014 and 2016 editions have been very successful in gathering these outstanding researchers.
“As it’s organised in Monaco by my department that has strong relationships with luxury brands, we have inserted in the programme, year after year, more business case studies, business panel discussions and business presentations,” said Sophie de Lorenzo, Director of Corporate Relations at IUM, co-organiser of the Monaco Symposium of Luxury.
“We can say today that the Monaco Symposium is the unique international event where excellence in academics and excellence in business converge towards in-depth and cutting-edge analysis, latest trends, and best practice in all the fields of luxury.”
In the 2018 edition, 42 academic presentations and 30 business testimonials will highlight recent findings and best practice on the upcoming trends and challenges of the luxury industry, including designing and enhancing the luxury shopper’s emotional journey in the “phygital” sphere; cross-cultural dynamics between reason and emotion when making a luxury purchase; the future of luxury experiences, the future of luxury retail; bespoke products, luxury designers, designers of emotions; and the value of a brand: creating sustainable growth for sustainable luxury brands.
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Inside Baselworld 2018 with Antonio Cecere: Special Watches
Industry insider Antonio Cecere, Principal of Cecere Monaco and Founder of Monaco Diamond Exchange, talks about his experience at Baselworld 2018.
ML: How was Baselworld this year and what are the highlights in grand complications haute horlogerie? AC: Graff hosted a cocktail event to present their new collections, which remain focussed to employ computer aided design (CAD) and 3D printing in order to create lightweight high-jewellery watches that are easy to wear with very little metal on show.
Francois Graff, CEO of the family-run luxury house, revealed that they are currently working on “two secret watches” for women pushing the boundaries of innovation and creating designs that are far more complex in their construction. Graff’s new launches at Baselworld 2018 included the Mastergraff Gyrograff with a double-axis tourbillion, three-dimensional moon phase and power reserve indicator – the peculiarity of these watches are the automotive-inspired dials which are extremely difficult to make and require a completely dust-free environment during the decal phase of the work when each element is transferred from the engraved plate to the dial using a silicon pad.
MasterGraff Girograff 6486 and MasterGraff Girograff 6485
A series of Mastergraff Ultra Flat Tourbillon timepieces have been created featuring extravagantly opulent art-inspired dials, fusing Graff’s expert gem setting with age-old micro-painting, exquisite enamelling and a flying tourbillon housed within a remarkably slim case. The three designs – Dragon, Samurai Warrior and Graffiti – are detailed with Graff’s signature faceted bezel and are set with scintillating custom-cut diamonds.
We visited Jacob&Co this year and it was very exciting – a sublime experience for any diamantaire enchanted by vitrines filled with eye-candy. They are champions at balancing exceptional materials with astute engineering. At Baselworld 2018 the brand unveiled the Twin Turbo Furious and we had the opportunity to look at it up-close. This new model, which is an extension of the brand’s celebrated “Twin Turbo” line, captivates for design and technical complexity. Destined to be an iconic piece, it boasts with an intricate combination of a twin accelerated triple axis sequential tourbillon, a minute repeater and a monopusher chronograph. The tourbillons fly their courses at a rhythm of one rotation in 24 seconds on the first axis, in 8 seconds on the second, and in 30 seconds on the third pushing the boundaries of grand complications.
Antonio Cecere at Jacob&Co. Twin Turbo Furious
During our visit we also looked at the newly launched Astronomia Tourbillion Spider, a unique variation of this family, featuring a Titanium spider with real hair weighing in at 1.0 grams. Also launched at Baselworld 2018 is the Astronomia Tourbillion Gambler the grand complication timepiece encapsulates a miniature roulette wheel beneath the watch’s sapphire crystal dome case. The dial of the Astronomia Gambler features all 37 squares of a roulette wheel in green, red, and black enamel with mahogany inlays and the owner of the watch can select his/her lucky number amongst the 37 squares; Jacob & Co.’s master craftsmen then place a mother of pearl insert on the chosen number slot.
Astronomia Tourbillion Spider and Astronomia Tourbillion Gambler
ML: In the Ladies’ category, which brand most impressed you for grand complication? AC: We spent some time at Jaquet Droz where the brand unveiled Tropical Bird Repeater, which celebrates the beauty of nature with its animated birds and other creatures. I had the opportunity to observe the enamel work on the dial at the microscope and that in itself was an extraordinary experience.
The minute repeater, grand horological complication, enables the marking on demand of the hours, quarter hours and minutes via the vibration of cathedral gongs struck by hammers inside the case. The enamel work created by the maison’s artists brings to life the centre-located hand-carved hummingbird that mechanically moves towards a shrub of bright orange birds of paradise. A one-of-a-kind animation in watchmaking history, its wings beat up to forty times a second, adding incredible realism to the scene. To the right, a peacock with intense blue feathers veritably opens and closes its tail, while a toucan emerges from the palm leaves at 3 o’clock to open its beak.
Antonio Cecere at Jaquet Droz. Tropical Bird Repeater
We enjoyed our visit at the Chanel VIP Lounge, a place that evokes all the brand values of the Parisian luxury house using darkness and plasma screens to convey its message; an emblematic post-box and a rack of postcards that invited attendants to write to their loved ones back home ensured that the brand’s romantic flair was kept intact. The main event hosted by Frédéric Grangié, CEO of Chanel Watches & Fine Jewellery was the launch of the third in-house movement, the Boy.Friend Skeleton Calibre 3 after their Calibre 2 won the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Genève (GPHG) in 2017. The new movement was fitted inside the Boy.Friend watch, originally launched in 2015, and finished in the Chanel exclusive beige gold. The octagonal case and the watch’s vertical alignment of black components in the centre give this timepiece an appeal across genders.
Boy-Friend Squelette Calibre 3
ML: We know there were some anniversaries in the watch sector. Which models were most celebrated? AC: De Grisogono has this year its 25th birthday and Fawaz Gruosi, Founder and Creative Director, celebrated at Baselworld with an inspirational exhibition that took attendees through the step of the creative process of this Geneva brand. In the watch category they celebrated the event with the launch of Allegra 25, a quartz timepiece with a woven gold ribbon on the bezel graced with delicately interlacing circles that deliver glimmers of light through tiny gaps and detailed with 29 colourless diamonds. They also launched the new Retro Double Jeu & Power Reserve, a quartz-based movement with a rotor that when performs a full rotation brings the dial to life by pivoting the stylised 3 and 9 o’clock Arabic numerals set with 62 diamonds to reveal different colours on the front and back.
Allegra 25 and New Retro Double Jeu
Patek Philippe celebrated the 50th anniversary of Ellipse d’Or, an iconic watch first designed in the 1960s and unveiled in 1968; the anniversary model is released in a limited edition of 100 pieces, the dial is detailed with a floral motif and mounts a Calibre 240 – an extra slim self-winding calibre set in platinum to ensure a shallow profile. A perpetual Calendar makes its first appearance in the Patek Philippe Nautilus with a PVD blue dial and a new-patented clasp; it is 8.42mm thick -the thinnest perpetual calendar across Patek Philippe collections.
Also presented was the Chronograph Perpetual Calendar Ref. 5270P-001 in platinum with a distinctively retro salmon colored dial mounting a manual movement originally launched in 2009.
Ellipse d’Or and Nautilus Perpetual Calendar
Chopard also had an anniversary and celebrated 25 years of the iconic Happy Sport with a new edition with a mother-of-pearl dial in delicate pastel hues and a new high-performance self-winding manufacture calibre.
Happy Sport
TAG Heuer celebrated the 55th anniversary of the iconic Heuer Carrera model and it was announced that the Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Chronometer as well as the Carrera Chronograph GMT certified “Tête de Vipère”, the prestigious stamp of excellence awarded by the Besançon Observatory.
Carrera Chronograph Tourbillon Chronometer and Carrera Chronograph GMT
ML: Any other watches with significant makeovers? AC: TAG Heuer teamed up with Bamford Watch Department, pioneers in the customisation of luxury watches, and unveiled a brand new interpretation of its iconic Monaco. The new Monaco Bamford has a solid carbon case, an elegant full black dial and aqua blue chronograph counters: the result is an ultra-modern visual identity that renders this a contemporary classic. At the press launch, Jean-Claude Biver, CEO of Tag Heuer and President of LVMH Watch Division, met George Bamford CEO of Bamford to presented the watch.
George Bamford and Jean-Claude Biver. Monaco Bamford
Rolex had some very exciting novelties this year: the GMT-Master II steel with a Jubilee bracelet and “Pepsi” colour coding in red and blue with 70 hours mechanical movement powered by the latest generation Rolex in-house movement; we have seen an extremely elegant new rose gold/steel brown and black GMT-Master II and a new Deep Sea with a reworked case and new bracelet. Also the Daytona had a new model launched with a graduation of sapphires in rainbow hues on the bezel and a black dial; 56 brilliant diamonds adorn the lungs and crown guard on Everose 18-karat gold with the self-winding calibre 4130.
Daytona Rainbow and GMT-Master II
Hublot by creating a new material – the first vibrantly coloured ceramic – confirmed itself as a great innovator and launched a new version of the Big Bang: the Big Bang Unico Red Magic. Designed and produced in-house in the Hublot Research & Development department (and four years in the making), this invention has been patented both in terms of the material itself, and the manufacturing process. In addition to the vibrant colour it is also harder than conventional ceramics.
One of the best-known brands in luxury boat-building has reported record annual revenue for 2017, bolstered by the booming global economy and foreign buyers attracted by the fall in the value of sterling since the Brexit vote.
Princess Yachts has taken on 500 workers at its Plymouth shipyard, taking the total workforce to 2,700, to respond to what it calls “exploding demand” from global customers.
The company’s revenue for 2017 jumped 27 percent to a record €314.86 million (£274.4 million) and the company swung to an operating profit before exceptional costs of €9.6 million (£7.9 million) from a loss of €8.03 million (£7 million) in the previous 12 months.
Princess, which is majority French-owned, was able to deliver 230 vessels in 2017, although it has been selling them at a rate of about 300 a year, resulting in a backlog.
Antony Sheriff, its executive chairman, said: “The macroeconomic situation, other than recent rumblings of trade wars, is one where the market continues to grow and people are feeling very optimistic. We are going to increase production by about 25 percent.”
Orders have been particularly strong in Europe, Hong Kong, the Middle East and South East Asia, with interest picking up in mainland China, he said.