A super-luxury roadster that comes with a Royal Oak chrono built right into the dash. Now thatโs the sort of car chat that we can definitely get behind.
Over the weekend, Rolls-Royce Coachbuild โ the pinnacle of the eponymous British marqueโs bespoke division โ unveiled its latest VVIP commission: a โone of fourโ two-seater V12, officially dubbed the La Rose Noire Droptail.
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A continuation of the whole โhandsomely rear-endedโ theme Rolls Royce has been exploring in recent years with the bespoken Sweptail (2017) and Boat Tail (2021): the La Rose Noire Droptail demonstrates a number of handcrafted centrepieces that, for 99% of the worldโs automakers, would be historic firsts.
Evidently, for the engineers and body-makers of Rolls-Royce, this is known as Tuesday.
Made at the behest of one of the companyโs foremost clients (for a sum rumoured to exceed US$30 million), the central aesthetic underpinning the La Rose Noire Droptail is inspired by the Black Baccara rose.
A kind of hybrid tea cultivar prized for its beautiful petals, the Black Baccaraโs prismatic array of reddish and monochrome hues has been translated into the medium of automobiles: here, via a two-tone colour scheme that plays out across the La Rose Noireโs 5.27-metre-long body and the parquetry that sweeps all around the vehicleโs dash, doors and tail.
The latter detailing is described by Rolls-Royce brass as โthe single most complex wood project ever undertakenโ by the brand; and offers an abstract representation of rose petals fluttering through the interior.
For us however, the real rosebud lies in the dash: where the Droptailโs new owners will find a unique Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept: identical, in technical aspects, to the Split-Second Chronograph GMT model released by the brand earlier this February.
Distinguished by crimson chronograph counters and a custom-colour inner bezel, this extremely complicated Royal Oak can actually be detached from the custom-made aperture inside the carโs dashboard (where it usually fulfils the role of a clock).
For occasions when the watch is being worn, Audemars Piguetโs designers even designed a white gold medallion โ mirroring the proportions of the classic Royal Oak dial and bezel. This may be mounted inside the empty dashboard aperture and continues the Black Baccara theme suffused throughout the Droptail.
