Smoke and mirrors
The Emperador cigar chest is not your average humidor.
A flying tourbillon clock sits in the centre, built by a master watchmaker from the Swiss canton of Jura. It is manually wound, but an electric drive running on a preprogrammed schedule attends to that task for you. With a Clous de Paris guilloche dial, it plays the role of the sun with precious cigars radiating outwards like sunbeams.
Created by young upstart Imperiali Geneve, dedicated to making luxury items bigger, bolder and more expensive, the Emperador is certainly that. Eschewing traditional wood, the Emperador is instead made of a composite of glass, Alucobond, Alucore and an aluminium alloy honeycomb structure – a tough and sturdy combination that includes antibacterial and antifungal materials, insulating aerogel, as well as gold-, nickel-palladium- and rhodium-plating. The 24 Grand Cru cigars that come with the black lacquer Emperador are wrapped in four leaves of beaten gold, their shimmer glistening through the transparent glass cases arranged in two layers. Made by Swiss Cuban emigrants from tobacco sourced from Honduras’ Jamastran Valley and Nicaragua’s Jalapa Valley, the cigars are kept pristine by the world’s first self-regulating humidity system. A thermoelectric cooling system keeps humidity constant at 70% with a temperature of 16-18 degrees, with the in-built cutter, lighter and ashtray ready to serve when smoking starts.
Over 33 microprocessors are embedded in the Emperador, some of which are responsible for one of its cooler features: access. Brushing the Emperador logo activates an LCD display, prompting the user to enter a passcode in the lock’s gold-numbered keys. Successful entry kicks the lid to rise automatically, with what we imagine to be a soft swish and hiss.
More than just a luxury item or mere humidor, Imperiali Geneve’s Emperador is a stunning amalgamation of technology. It’s something we imagine a Bond villain owning, as he carefully picks up a cigar while unveiling his secret plan to the bound secret agent. Each cigar in the Emperador is worth around CHF1,200 (RM5,341) and the entire package can be yours for CHF1 million (RM4.45 million).
