rolex oyster perpetual sea-dweller

There is something that really bothers me about the term 'luxury watch', to some measures it undermines the designs that have become legendary and desirable by associating them with something unnecessary. 'Luxury' is something that most mortals can presumably go without, and yes, most people could go without telling the time on an expensive watch however, to take away from the purpose of a legitimate instrument is unjust, not only to the designer but to the reputation of a legendary icon of high-end instrumentation such as the Rolex Sea Dweller.

The Sea Dweller is guaranteed waterproof to a depth of 4000 ft, that's a 1000 ft on top of its brother, the Submariner. The Sea Dweller was never intended to have become a fashion accessory, unlike the Submariner which has been offered by Rolex in a number of case-materials with a further variation of dial finishes and other embellishments. The Sea Dweller is a watch with a pure purpose, the purpose of deep-sea diving. Its case and crystal have been engineered for that purpose and its dial and bezel for the utmost ease of reading in conditions other than telling the time in clear day light!

Whilst it is described as 'austere' by many, it has a handsome appearance that has been mimicked by many other watchmakers both from the mother country of Switzerland and in the new-wave by watch makers like Citizen and Seiko. The unidirectional bezel and the dial style are perhaps the most recogniseable of any watch design and it goes without saying that in stainless steel, on an accompanying bracelet there is no timepiece more purposeful that is also so charming and timeless. Perhaps the Porsche 911 of timepieces?

Like all the greatest designs then, it is an object that has come to being as a solution to a long list of requirements by a small group of people. Never designed to cater to the masses, but pursued by many it is surely one of the all time design classics.

renault sixteen - philippe charbonneaux

March 1965. You're a middle class european gentleman charged with the task of finding a middle sized car, large enough for your small family. Alfa Romeo, Fiat? A new BMW 1500 would be too expensive and the same to the Citroen ID. A Mini or a Volkswagen far too small and not powerful enough to traverse the ever expanding network of new roadways on the continent.

Whilst affordable, Peugeot 404s were a bit archaic even in 1965, but Renault was right on the money; a new 1500cc engine, and front-wheel drive. A four speed transmission and what would be the world's first full five-door hatch back style arrangement, with an interior that could be re-arranged in 7 different ways! The only answer: Renault 16!

Even without quirky mechanicals and terrific driving dynamics the sixteen was destined to be a design classic from the get go. Renault's current chief of styling Patrick le Quement has made no secret for his affections for this car, sighting it as the inspiration for many of the cars that he has created for the famous marque from Le Havre.

Stand behind a sixteen and observe the recessed rear window and the way that the contours blend into the roof line, or the grille and the channel that runs from it, up the centre of the bonnet and the gentle swage that runs almost the length of the car, emphasising the wheelbase.

Another contour can be observed running backward from the window line, down toward the back corner of the profile and then quickly forward and forming the door's top crease, facilitating a 'shelf' and a neat resolution to a simple (and probably cheap) outer door release.

Wherever you choose to examine a Renualt sixteen you'll find a curious detail. A late model TX variant with Gordini wheels, yellow headlamps and a truly seventies european hue on the panelwork will make for a terrifically unique ride nowadays. No longer the fodder of the out of work bohemian arts student, this magnificent Renault is one of the tastiest treats of Philippe Charbonneaux, a veritable feast of design. Under-rated by comparison to its contemporary Citroens, the sixteen was as much a driving masterpiece as it was a visual puzzle. Unlike its Italian competition on the sales charts the Renault wasn't an outwardly sporting design, and that has meant that the length of time taken for the creature to appear to an interested audience has been far longer, but surely the remaining few will be treasured.

There couldn't have been many cars better to own in the sixties and seventies than a Renault sixteen, a picture of practicality that had a unique look and a relaxed attitude it was as at home hauling baguettes from the boulangerie  or towing a caravan at 100mph. 

mercedes benz W108 - paul bracq

Every time a new S-class Mercedes is released it re-writes the standards of the highest echelons of luxury car engineering and equipment. Since the W111 was released in 1959, the s-class Mercedes has been regarded as the standard-setter in hi-end automobiles.

In 1965, the W111, or 'heckflosse' was replaced with the new W108 s-class. Immediately obvious was that it was a bigger car - a full five meters long from bumper tip to bumper tip. Paul Bracq, the then-head of MB design began by lopping off the fins of the previous model - a controversial addition, sometimes suggested to have been added to make the car more popular in the U.S. A gloriously large glasshouse dominates the car's profile, also making its interior a very pleasant place to be. Proportionately broad, the 108's focal point is the trademark grille and three-pointed star. A black-on-chrome belt line encircles the whole car, save for the nose where the leading edges of the bonnet terminate at the half height of the grille's body. 'Tombstone' headlamps lend an upright look to the front fenders, in the same way that the same items did on the six-cylinder W111's.

As always, chrome featured like loosely worn jewellery. Not an ostentatious car by any stretch, the grille, belt-line and glass house trim share paint-work space with only the door handles, the headlamp surrounds, boot handle and badging, and those dominant double-decker bumpers.

Inside, the Bakelite wheel dominates a wood-faced dash. Vinyl capped dash covers all the stainless-surrounded HVAC controls and often, a then state of the art Becker Mexico Autoradio. On original cars, one can still find a solitary speaker under a perforated grille in the dash's centre. A pair of easy-to-read VDO dials share space in a binnacle and provide all the data that the sixties motorist could wish for; road speed, coolant temperature, oil pressure & tank level.

Inside and out, the W108 saloons were svelte and minimalist. Only where necessary did the design offer 'thickness', such as the width of the c-pillar. Small tail-lamps like an afterthought worked perfectly and, as the second instalment in a long line of models, the classic Mercedes colour-coded, relief detailed hub cap gave a heavy car a light look.

Driving one of these machines today is an experience savoured by everyone, car enthusiast or not. Power steering, four-wheel discs, and silk ZF automatic gearboxes make them as easy to drive as a modern hatch, and air conditioning, central locking, electric sunroof and powered windows on some models make them as easy to live with. The feel of every control on one of these cars is the feel of quality, from operating a door lock or twisting the key in the ignition to pulling the bonnet release and treading the brakes. Selecting drive on the column mounted selector in an early car leaves you in no doubt that when they were new, they were the best cars in the world - and many are still trying to catch up.

Paul Bracq may have well done his finest work, for MB or otherwise, on the W108 S-class. Like almost all luxury sedans they are quickly forgotten when they're superseded by a new model, but the 108 will remain amongst the finest of the company's saloons ever created.

olivetti serie lettera - Marcello Nizzoli

My mother was a writer, and even if she hadn't been I still may well have had an Olivetti Lettera Tipo 32 in the household, but there is some special significance.

I am predisposed to having an affliction to all things Italian, and there is no greater signal to an individual such as my good self, when the appeal of an article like a typewriter is strong. A type writer in my home would have absolutely no use other than as an aesthetic, and even then, there are other tenants that would possibly (probably) object. 

No matter, Marcello Nizzoli is credited with the design of the Lettera 22 & 32, the earliest incarnations of the Lettera serie. My personal favourite is the Lettera venti-cinque, a veritable feast of seventies sharp-edged design. So rapidly those styles went out of fashion, but a mere 30 years passes and all of a sudden these designs look fresh again. Testament to the world-class, brilliant and unmatchable Italians.

Like a manual SLR camera, the typewriter has faded into obscurity as an appliance. Superseded by electric typewriters first, then electronic word processors and then ofcourse the personal computer.

Cest la vie they say, but couldn't the good people at Olivetti lend their heritage to designing attractive computers?

alfa romeo flat 4 - rudolf hruska

Car engines are strange designs, different at least because they can be appreciated on many levels.

Firstly, there is the aesthetic; appreciating the engine visually, either in situ or out of the car and certainly in dismantled, component form. Then you can appreciate them aurally, as so much has been said and written on the sound effects produced by so many popular performance cars it would be foolish to omit this quality. And lastly, and engine can be admired for the performance that it endows the car in which it is installed in with. The on-paper specifications can be impressive, but ultimately as a design, all the dimensional representations of an engine can amount to naught if it doesn't deliver some level of exhilaration, or at the very least - some satisfaction.

So it is with that introduction that I choose to deliver one of the most pleasing engines that any common man can lay their hands on - the Alfa Romeo, horizontally opposed four cylinder. This engine was introduced in 1971 in its diminutive 1186cc form as the motive power for the then, all-new Alfasud.

The engine was as the rest of the car, a radical departure from most of what Alfa Romeo had always stood for; for starters it was a front-wheel drive car. Secondly, the engine itself had four, horizontally-opposed cylinders with overhead valve gear driven by a single overhead cam. That, for a company who's reputation hinged on their sonorous DOHC 'fours' was unusual. Stranger still, that single overhead cam was driven not by the altogether commonplace duplex chain drive, but by a pair of toothed rubber belts, and induction was courtesy not of the paired Webers that by the early seventies had become de-rigeur on Alfa Romeo engines, but by a single ventura, Dell'orto carburetor!!

The early versions delivered just 63bhp, but it is right here that you develop a fondness for this engine. Its delivery, as a free-revving, aural delight is what really satisfies. As the revs gather, the engine smoothens right up to its lofty 6750rpm red-line. Noteworthy: at the time that the Alfasud was being developed, Alfa's racing arm 'Autodelta', was winning the world sportscar championship with 12 cylinder boxer engines, and whilst it is intangible as to how much of that technology found its way into Alfa's baby, there can be no doubt that some spirit rubbed off.

The flat four grew in size, first to 1.3 litres and then on to 1.5 whilst the fuel delivery was up-specced from the original 32mm Dell'orto to a dual throat Weber, then paired Weber IDA's before the ultimate 1.7 litre versions were gifted with DOHC 4 valve heads and nearly 130bhp.

In any iteration, the engine is a delight to spin out to its rev ceiling, take in the rasping exhaust note and savouring the the power delivery through the front wheels. 

Like many boxer engines, it is a visual disappointment when fitted in the car. Early versions are dominated by the large, round tin air cleaner that later became ribbed plastic on Alfasud tis. Later still, the twin carb engines were a slightly prettier sight with a carburetor and manifold sprouting out of each head, joined by a flat, oblong filter arrangement but all the castings and exhaust manifolds remained hidden, under the engine - a legacy of the boxer engine's purposeful design that bestowed it, and the cars that it was fitted in with qualities well beyond their often mundane and utilitarian day to day commutes.

Many frailties can plague these engines, but the thrill of the start up, the enjoyment of exploring its limits and the sound of its exhaust note are worth every headache.

citroen cx - robert opron

 

I add the CX at the risk of making this list the ultimate collection of French cars! The CX however, the car that superseded the legendary and evergreen DS, was so successful and unique as a seventies saloon and so quirky in its styling that I simply cannot ignore it.

Robert Opron, the bespectacled bow-tie wearing designer who came from designing stoves and refrigerators for Arthur Martin, had the unenviable job of becoming the head of Citroen styling after the legendary Italian Flaminio Bertoni had passed on. Bertoni was the creator of the Traction Avant, the DS and the Ami, arguably Citroen's three most classic models. Bertoni was the first stylist to use clay models, and relied greatly upon them, using only minimal drawing to convey his ideas. Opron on the other hand, was a great drawer, being able to express entirely his concepts and ideas to clay stylists. 

The CX was released in 1974, and its production run lasted until 1991, one can imagine how the CX looked along side its contemporaries. It was certainly never copied. It could be nothing if not a French saloon, low and broad with Opron's signature faired-in headlamps, a nod to superior aerodynamics. The concave rear window on the fastback profile and adjustable side skirts that provided a road seal when the big Citroen was set on its lowest ride setting, helped to generate vacuum under the body.

The lure of the CX to its enthusiasts is much the same as all Citroens; they are eccentric and off beat. To own and drive a CX today is surely a little out of the scope of the 'normal' motorist and certainly employing an early car in a typically seventies hue as a daily hack will have you inducted into a unique club. Sure to turn every head on any high street, there are not many cars left like the CX.

faema e61

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In 1961 Faema wrote an important chapter in the history of espresso machines when they released the E61 with its internal pump to regulate pressure at approximately 9 bar to produce 'perfect' espresso. The E61 was also relatively laden with other features, but it is arguably one of the best looking automatic espresso machines ever built.

Whether an individual was responsible for the design or not is unclear, but it is certainly the machine's aesthetic that is responsible for its sustained popularity as in 45+ years since its inception better machines have come and gone and it is still a popular machine for commercial and domestic use and is seeing restoration by coffee enthusiasts all over the world. The E61 is quite possibly the most collectable espresso machine on the planet and it is easy to see why.