Lifestyle news - February 2016

Jaguar unveils all-wheel-drive XF

Jaguar has launched a new XF option for 2016. For the first time, the executive saloon is being offered as an all-wheel drive with a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder Ingenium diesel engine. Jaguar says this offers “exceptional fuel efficiency” and “enhanced all-weather traction and performance”. It reaches 0-60 mph in 7.9 seconds and has a maximum speed of 138 mph. First deliveries expected in the spring; priced from £36,350.

• jaguar.co.uk

Met extension to launch in New York New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will open a new modern and contemporary outpost on March 18. The Met Breuer building on Madison Avenue was formerly home to the Whitney Museum of American Art, which moved to the Meatpacking District last year. It will allow the Met to display more of its 20th- and 21st-century collection. Inaugural exhibitions include Unfinished: Thoughts Left Visible, which will present unfinished works of art from the Renaissance to the present day.

• metmuseum.org

Corbin and King open Bellanger The team behind London restaurants the Wolseley and the Delaunay has launched its latest venture, the Bellanger. Corbin and King’s new all-day grand café is inspired by the traditional Alsatian brasseries of Paris. The 195-cover venue occupies the former home of Browns restaurant on Islington Green, and has a 24-seat terrace. Dishes include choucroute (salted and smoked meats with sauerkraut), baeckeoffe (beef, pork and lamb stew), schnitzels and a variety of sausages and tartes flambées. The largely French wine list includes a wide selection available by the glass. Open weekdays 11.30am-12am, weekends from 9am (Sun until 11pm).

• bellanger.co.uk

Movenpick adds Asian properties Movenpick is launching new hotels in Pattaya, Thailand and Boracay, the Philippines. The five-star Movenpick Siam Hotel Pattaya will open on February 6 in Na Jomtien, a two-hour drive from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport. The beachfront new-build has 262 rooms, suites and pool villas. The Swiss-based company is also taking over the Sol Marina Resort Boracay, relaunching it as the Movenpick Resort Boracay in the second quarter of this year. The 333-room property (pictured) is located on Punta Bunga beach in the north-west of the island, which can be reached by ferry from Caticlan, an hour’s flight from Manila.

• movenpick.com

The Savoy’s American Bar reveals new cocktail list

The American Bar at London’s Savoy has unveiled its new cocktail menu. Celebrating the history of the capital, the London-themed list takes guests on a journey around the six boroughs surrounding the hotel, with four drinks created for each.

They include Camden’s “Abbey Road” (Glenfiddich 21-year-old rum cask, caper-infused Savoy dry vermouth, grenadine, lemon juice, thyme and coal) and, for Westminster, head bartender Erik Lorincz’s take on the bar’s classic “Green Park” (Jensen’s Old Tom gin, lemon juice, sugar, celery bitters, egg white and basil).

• fairmont.com/savoy-london

Time travel: Rolex

Dual-time watches have a tendency to be large, but the beautiful Cellini from Rolex is only 39mm in diameter, and works both as an everyday or dress watch. It comes in either 18ct white gold or Everose gold cast with refined lugs and a double bezel – one domed, one fluted – with dials either lacquered or embellished with a black or a silver-plated classic “Rayon flammé de la gloire” guilloche motif. The small gold-rimmed sub-dial at 6 o’clock shows the minutes and hours in one time zone; daytime hours are distinguished from night by a sun or moon symbol in the aperture. The large centre hands, shaped like two-edged swords, show the present time where you are, with the hour hand set independently by successive “jumps” to adjust to a new time zone without disturbing the functioning of the watch.

• Rolex Cellini Dual Time in 18ct Everose gold, £12,900.
• rolex.com

Hawksmoor heading for NYC’s World Trade Centre UK steakhouse CHAIN Hawksmoor is to open a restaurant in New York’s World Trade Centre at the end of next year. It will be located in the Richard Rogers-designed Tower 3, occupying a 1,300 sqm space with views over Lower Manhattan. Founded in 2006, Hawksmoor has expanded to seven sites in the UK (six in London and one in Manchester) but this will be its first to open overseas.

• thehawksmoor.com

Exhibition marks 100 years of Vogue British Vogue turns 100 this year, and to celebrate its centenary, the National Portrait Gallery is hosting an exhibition of the magazine’s most memorable photography. Running from February 11 to May 22, Vogue 100: A Century of Style will showcase the work of the likes of Cecil Beaton and David Bailey, with familiar faces on display ranging from Henri Matisse to David Beckham. Highlights include Horst’s 1939 Mainbocher Corset photograph, which inspired Madonna’s Vogue video. Tickets £17;

• npg.org.uk

World’s top watch brands set for Baselworld Lovers of luxury will descend on Basel next month for the world’s biggest watch and jewellery show. Some 1,500 top brands – including Chopard, Frédérique Constant, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Rado and Patek Philippe – will present their new collections at Baselworld, with 150,000 visitors expected to attend. March 17-24, 9am-6pm daily (4pm on the 24th); entry SFr 60 (£42).

• baselworld.com

New boutique resort for the Maldives

This summer, the Small Maldives Island Co will open the Finolhu resort in the Maldives’ Baa Atoll, 30 minutes by speedboat from its luxurious sister property, Amilla Fushi. It will have 125 over-water, lagoon and beach villas, and four restaurants overseen by Australian celebrity chef Luke Mangan. There will also be a spa and “jungle gym”, while outdoor activities include capoeira, diving, paddle boarding and kickboxing.

• finolhu.mv