CNBC Business | Indulgences

Indulgences

Great buys heading into the festive season

Thomas Lyte Frobisher Traditional Travel Wallet and Currency Wallet
Part of the fledgling English brand’s first full collection, this Cognac travel wallet has a patented clasp and a slip in series of four leaves for tickets, passport, documents and receipts. Sharing the same, vegetable-tanned Breuniger grained leather is a matching currency wallet with four back-to-back zipped pockets.
€250; €150; thomaslyte.com

UbiSurfer
Just launched, this netbook weighs only 700g and costs less than many smartphones yet offers entry-level computing and a proper keyboard. With an embedded GPRS SIM card and 30 hours of prepaid web connection over a mobile phone network and Wi- fiand LAN connections, it virtually guarantees connectivity. Roaming charges across Europe are capped to €0.06/min as well.
€200; www.ubisurfer.com

Berluti Formula 1000
Th is brand new Berluti extravagance features smooth, waterproofed calfskin and removable, reinforced leather pouches alongside a main compartment. Exterior features include a round leather handle, monogrammed ID tag and telescopic handle, and of course a lockable double zip. Much attention has been paid to the ultra-high-quality wheels, which can be special ordered in a larger, ‘sports version.’ Available in either testa di moro or nero, the Formula 1000 is designed to accompany the Formula 1001 Reporter briefcase and the Formula 1002 wash bag, also new.
€6,000 (carry-on); €2,500 (brief case); €900 (washbag); www.berluti.com

Muvi Micro DV Cam Kit
Claimed to be the smallest digital video camera on the market, this two-megapixel beauty will appeal to devotees of extreme sports and wannabe spies — it has voice activation, stores movies on a micro SD card and has a USB-chargeable battery good for three hours of constant recording. There’s also an optional sports pack to attach it to helmets and other kit — perfect for extreme skiers.
€100; www.iwantoneofthose.com

Profile USB Turntable
Released in time for the party season,this record player cleverly allows all the vinyl hits of yesteryear to be converted seamlessly into MP3 files for digital storage and iPod upload. Old- and new-skool in perfect harmony.
€150; www.firebox.com

Ralph Lauren
Hedging its bets, Ralph Lauren’s autumn/ winter collection marries country set with ramped-up retro, blending leather and cashmere in numerous directions. Leather jacket €1,820, cardigan €125, shirt €90, tie €70, trousers €165, bag €765, socks €18, shoes
€380; www.ralphlauren.com

L’essence de Courvoisier
The legacy of Courvoisier’s fifth Master Blender Jean-Marc Olivier, this ultra-high end blend of approximately 100 eauxde- vie drawn from different vintages constitutes a major statement by the Cognac brand. With a price tag to match, the honeyed contents are suspended in a gold-framed teardrop of crystal shaped by Baccarat. Launched this month in Asia, it is already on sale in London and Cannes, and will be available across Europe from the New Year.
£1,800 (€2,150) www.courvoisier.com

THE X1 FACTOR

A feast of new products portrays Leica in one of its most creative phases yet, says Richard Lofthouse

Leica’s cameras are like buses these days. No new products for ages, then three come along at once. First the M9 — successor to the digital M8 — which, like its predecessor, has a body reminiscent of the older range finders that made the company into a Magnum news agency legend; next the professional-quality S2, for billboard-size resolution and costing mega-bucks; and, finally, the model shown here, the X1. At first glance the X1 looks beautifully and authentically a Leica, with the trademark black crackle and grey steel appearance completed by the German company’s fabled red dot branding. Except for the large digital screen you’d be mistaken for thinking that its creators in Solms had wound the clock back to the film era. Instead, this model is designed to be the best compact digital in the world — as it should be with a price tag of €1,550 — with photo agency picture quality to beat all but top-flight SLRs. The lens is fixed and it’s 36mm, straight out of the backto- basics school than began with Cartier-Bresson. Th is may take some getting used to for those who have grown accustomed to electronic wizardry ranging from zooming lenses to multiple composition modes, but that’s to overlook what’s happening in photography.

This camera returns the user to an enduring philosophy of subject matter, composition and control. Manual, aperture priority or shutter priority settings ape the first SLR you owned years ago, while 12 megapixels and the best lens in the trade makes it a totally 21st-century proposition. Reassuringly brilliant and quite possibly set to retain its (initially steep) value like the Leicas of old.