Fragment design’s Hiroshi Fujiwara has teamed up with Rolex and Bamford Watch Department on a new Oyster Perpetual Explorer watch.

The Oyster Perpetual Explorer gets the blacked out treatment with blue detailing seen on the 3, 6 and 9 hour markers, the second hand and the fragment logo.

Currently under construction at Gentech Yachts’ Antalya, Turkey shipyard is the 46-metre Soroya, due to be completed in time for the 2010 Monaco Yacht Show.

Hydraulics are a key component of the luxury craft, which features both a pop-up helipad and a swimming pad that unfolds to double in size.

Burberry introduced last week a social networking site, artofthetrench.com, to encourage people to share their own trench coat stories.

The street-style formula is simple: users post pictures of themselves looking as chic as possible in a Burberry trenchcoat and wait for others to cast judgment.

Those judgments are invariably positive, giving the users an ego boost. Burberry reaps free advertising and a new source of brand loyalty.

The world’s new tallest building, the 818-meter-high Burj Dubai tower is set to open a new visitors’ area on January 4, featuring a panoramic view platform on its 124th floor.

Japan’s craze for Beaujolais nouveau has beaten the recession, with tourists taking a dip in a hot mountain spring coloured red with the fruity wine.

The Hakone Kowakien Yunessun spa resort celebrated the annual uncorking of the seasonal drop by having a sommelier pour a few bottles into an open-air hot spring bath as holiday-makers enjoyed soaking themselves.

It was the fourth annual bath using the produce of the French winery Laboure Roi at the spa, which also offers baths with green tea, coffee and sake.

The Louis Vuitton auction, held last night at Sotheby’s on New Bond Street, saw seven special orders sold for a total of £495,000 in aid of the Red Cross.

Louis Vuitton offered six masters of savoir-faire the opportunity to create a unique special order that embodies their expertise in their respective professions.