You’ve resisted the temptation to splurge all year (hope you have) just so that you could go all out towards the year-end. And now that Diwali is finally here and the new year is not too far, here are a few top ideas on how to spend all that cash.
Perfumer Aurelian Guicahard has bottled his olfactory memories of the Landes Forest, in southern France, where pine trees grow close to the ocean, and the result is the Burberry Hero. The story unfolds with top notes of pine needles and bergamot that segue into notes of incense and linger on with warm base notes of cedarwood oils.
Rs 10,300
Manolo Blahnik might be best known for designing luxury women’s footwear, but the Spaniard also does some excellent men’s shoes. The Truro leather loafer offers compelling evidence.
A study in minimalism, the loafers, which are made in Italy, have full-grain leather uppers and a leather sole. Just the thing to have if you are looking to saunter into 2024.
$895
Elijah Craig was among the founding fathers of bourbon, so a whiskey named after him better be good. The eponymous brand, owned by Heaven Hill, one of Kentucky’s largest bourbon producers, is credited with playing a pivotal part in the ‘bourbon revival’ in the United States in the 1980s. The much-awarded Elijah Craig Small Batch, the brand’s signature whiskey, which is imported into India by Aspri Spirits, is a mix of barrels ranging from eight to 12 years old. Expect warm spice and a subtle smokiness that should go well with cold winter nights.
Rs 7,880 (Delhi); Rs 7,900 (Bangalore); and Rs 8,950 (Mumbai).
The QuiteComfort Ultra, which recently replaced the Noise Cancelling Headphones 700 as the company’s flagship product, delivers Bose’s signature high quality audio, effective noise cancellation and comfort. But those are not the only reasons why it should be on your year-end shopping list. The QC Ultra also gets Immersive Audio, Bose’s proprietary spatial audio system, that creates a wider soundstage and works with any Bluetooth audio source – even one that does not have in-built spatial audio.
Bose claims that its Immersive Audio “spatialises” the sound by placing it right in front of you. Users can choose from two options: ‘Still’ or ‘Motion’. The QuietComfort Ultra lasts for a day on a single charge with Immersive Audio turned off and about 18 hours with the feature turned on.
TBA
Katsushika Hokusai was one of Japan’s best loved artists. In 1834, when he was 75, the painter and printmaker, most famous for his woodblock print ‘Under the Wave off Kanagawa’, said: “...until the age of 70, nothing I drew was worthy of notice. At 73 years I was somewhat able to fathom the growth of plants and trees, and the structure of birds, animals, insects and fish. Thus when I reach 80 years, I hope to have made increasing progress, and at 90 to see further into the underlying principles of things, so that at 100 years I will have achieved a divine state in my art, and at 110, every dot and every stroke will be as though alive.”
As part of its latest homage to his art, Jaeger-LeCoultre has released two new Reverso models whose casebacks are decorated with hand-enamelled miniature reproductions of his woodblock prints: ‘The Waterfall at Ono on the Kisokaido Road’ and ‘The Waterfall where Yoshitsune washed his horse at Yoshino in Yamato Province’. The reproductions were achieved via a process that takes over 70 hours and requires the application of over 12 layers of enamel, each fired at 800 degrees Celsius. The watches are limited to 10 pieces each.
$107,000
