10 outrageous luxury products headed for Asia
Asia's passion for all things exclusive and outrageously expensive has caught the attention of some of the West's big brands.
Here are some select items that Asia's wealthy show-offs will no longer need to import.
1. World’s most expensive box of chocolates
La Maison du Chocolat, a French chocolatier whose shops have taken Hong Kong and Tokyo by storm, has collaborated with Remy Martin on a special limited edition “coffret.”
Only 300 of the red lacquer boxes containing a half-bottle of aged Remy XO Cognac and 30 chocs specially designed to pair with it will ever be made. Hong Kong will be the first city in the world to sell its allocation when they go on sale September 14 at the Maison du Chocolat boutiques in Pacific Place, Elements, the Prince Building and IFC mall.
Cost: The box will cost HK$2,900 (US$372), and when it arrives in Tokyo in December, shoppers at the chocolatier’s Matsuya Ginza store will have to shell out ¥42,000 (US$548).
2. Wurlitzer’s touch screen jukebox
A jukebox with all the sleek looks and digital technology music fans expect in the 21st century arrived in China for the first time in August.
Wurlitzer, whose legendary “bubbler” model was a fixture of American diners in the 1950s, has unveiled its latest model with top of the range digital specs that include streaming and Internet downloading capabilities.
A whopping 320Gb memory has enough space to store more than 60,000 tracks and share them through a burning app as well as play them, a capability undreamed of in the heyday of rock’n’roll.
Shipped to order from the United Kingdom at www.wurlitzer.co.uk.
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3. Limited edition iPod dock in solid crystal
As of September, a solid crystal iPod and iPhone dock will be available in Asia. CrystalDock, as the name suggests, is a solid lump of lead crystal crafted in Slovenia in the 300-year-old European tradition of making fine glass, but this is the first time it’s been harnessed to accommodate mobile technology.
It takes 15 pairs of hands to fashion each item, and there are four designs, which can be personalized with the name of the owner -- or, for the corporately inclined, a company logo.
Cost: The limited edition, platinum coated Aurora is selling in China for RMB 3,175 by mail order from www.calypsocrystal.com.
4. Tumi Heritage Line
Tumi, the favourite luggage brand of Madonna, Cameron Diaz and Angelina Jolie, is now fielding its own heritage line, complete with wardrobe trunk and hat box.
Cost: Tumi’s Bedford range hit Asia at the end of August, with the trunk selling for RMB 76,450 or HK$69,990. The hat box can be acquired for RMB 30,550 or HK$27,570.
There are Tumi stores at the DFS Galleria city of Dreams in Macau and Hong Kong International Airport, or visit www.tumi.com.
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5. Johnnie Walker Diamond Jubilee whiskey
Highly limited, only five dozen lead decanters celebrating Elizabeth II’s 60 years on the British throne will ever be made.
They contain whisky distilled in 1952, when the Queen took the helm at Buckingham Palace, and have been finished in oak from her country estate in Sandringham (not the one closer to the distillery in Balmoral, oddly).
Cost: The price in Britain is £100,000 (US$162,293), but just being able to afford this bottle with a half-carat diamond in its collar is not enough. The edition is going on sale early next year “by invitation only” to best customers.
Disappointed collectors will just have to bid for the three which will go to auction -- the one numbered "eight" is surely destined for China -- or make do with a bottle of new Johnnie Walker Blue Label set in a chiller designed by Porsche.
More information at www.johnniewalker.com.cn and www.lovewhisky.cn.
