First or Business? The Rules of Flying

I am, as any of my friends (most of whom prefer to be called acquaintances) will readily admit, a doddering old fool which explains why my life is littered with so many arbitrary rules. Among these is the rule which states that if any flight is going to last more than four hours, I have…
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Patek’s 5959

As a serious and roughly speaking heterosexual member of the male race, I’m more than happy to buy jewellery for my wives and mistresses but, for some reason, I have never been tempted by jewellery for myself, which explains why my hands are ring-free zones and my ear lobes, navel and tongue are all un-pierced.…
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Oliver Walston: Riding the Gravy Train

I make no excuse if what follows sounds like a blatant commercial plug. It is, however, not a plug and I must make it abundantly clear that I have no commercial connections with the company involved. I am, however, a very satisfied customer and felt it my solemn duty to inform the readers of LUSSO…
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Lamborghini Gallardo

Ok, I’ll admit it before any of you readers figure it out for yourselves. I am a snob. Not the sort of snob who prefers dukes to dustmen, but the sort of snob who feels that if you can’t afford to buy a particular car, then you’d better not drive that sort of a car.…
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Italian Stallions – Panerai and Ferrari

Like every reader of LUSSO, I can tell the difference between a Pouilly Fuissé and a Pouilly Fumé without inhaling. I can distinguish between Gucci and Pucci with my eyes closed. I am, in other words, so profoundly sophisticated and so preternaturally cool that it sometimes gives me a headache. But very occasionally I wake…
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LUSSO Interviews Master Watchmaker Roger Smith

Some categories of people are rather rare. Italian war heroes, vegetarian cowboys, drunken nuns and English watchmakers are all hard to find. Roger Smith certainly comes into this category. He is not a vegetarian cowboy but he is an English watchmaker; probably the second finest English watchmaker working today. The finest, as I am sure…
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An Early Adopter

I am what the high-tech marketing men call an Early Adopter. In other words I am the sort of idiot who patrols Tottenham Court Road in search of the latest anything. I spend hours scanning the internet looking for gadgets which have been released in Taiwan or Cupertino but are not due in England for…
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David And Goliath: The Swiss Watch Industry

Once upon a time, long before the wristwatch was invented, the best clocks in the world came from England. The trouble was that they were rather big. This did not matter if their function was to act as a ships chronometer but it did get slightly awkward if, like all fashionable men, you tried to…
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