Not meant for gamblers, the new Mandarin Oriental Macau is promising a personalised experience for the sophisticated traveller

Standing in the Vida Rica Restaurant and Bar, Martin Schnider proudly asserts that the best coffee in Macau will be served at the Mandarin Oriental Macau. The Swiss hotelier who is general manager, points out the exclusive and expensive Vibiemme coffee machine, hailed as the “coffee Lamborghini”.

When we meet him, he is in the midst of preparations for the hotel’s opening late last month, with Macau Government Tourist Office president Joao Manuel Costa Antunes and fashion designer Vivienne Tam as officiating guests.

Regular guests of Mandarin Oriental will be heartened to know that about 10 per cent of employees are from the old hotel.

Schnider says the moment of truth has arrived. Simulations are going on while we are interviewing him.

He describes the hotel as chic, intimate and prestigious, while offering different facilities for business and leisure guests compared with the old Mandarin Oriental Macau, now known as Grand Lapa. As for its five-star rival Grand Hyatt, he says: “We are smaller in size but vibrant.”

A 630 horsepower saloon with reclining seats in the rear, four-door sporting coupés that promise speeds of up to 300 kilometres an hour, iconic cars that have been re-worked and re-engineered to present their contemporary credentials, as well as four-door and two-door open tops. The PEAK showcases the models that provide an engaging driving experience.

From the earliest chronograph that Patek Phillippe developed more than 140 years ago to the manually-wound chronograph movement built in-house and launched last year, the watchmaker thrives on a tradition of making complex mechanisms

Chronographs have always played an important role in the broad spectrum of complicated timepieces that manifest Patek Philippe’s horological virtuosity. Just a few years after the manufacture was established, it began to accrue expertise in short-time measurements and over a period of 150 years crafted numerous chronographs. Some are in museum collections.

One of the earliest chronographs was completed in 1856. It is pocket watch No. 10 051 with a large chronograph hand and jumping seconds (seconde foudroyante) in a subsidiary dial. It could time events with an accuracy of one-fourth of a second.