It is an unwritten rule of gear and product that almost without fail everything looks better in black. It also sells better, too. This is why your hi-fi separates, to use just one example, mainly come in just the one colour.
The blackest material on Earth is Vantablack, a super-black coating that holds the world record as the darkest man-made substance. The National Physical Laboratory in Teddington, England, measured that it reflects only 0.036 per cent of the light that strikes it (measured at 700nm).
However, somewhat shockingly, Guinness is not black. It is red. Don’t believe us? Hold a pint up to the light. No such inspection is required though concerning the stealthy Darth-worthy products below. All of which should allow you to indulge your inner dark side.
Tudor Black Bay Chrono Dark
Tudor’s all-black version of its Black Bay Chrono may have been produced as a limited edition with the All Blacks New Zealand rugby team for last year’s World Cup, but unlike many brand tie-ins, this sleek model will still look sharp in decades to come. The secret is that Tudor has not fiddled too much with its winning formula – this is a standard steel Black Bay Chrono sporting a matte black PVD treatment. As with the other Black Bay Chronos, the 41mm Dark uses Tudor’s caliber MT5813, a movement created in partnership with Breitling, which has a 70-hour power reserve, COSC certification, and here adds a silicon hairspring to the mix. Water resistance is a respectable 200 metres, while a two-register chrono display, with running seconds and a 45-minute totaliser, plus a date at six o’clock, round out this superlative stealth timepiece.
Price: £4,570 | Tudor
Ikea TILLAGD 24-piece cutlery set
We continue to be bowled over by IKEA’s approach to the essentials, and in particular their ability to offer considered, forward-looking design that’s affordable to all. In the case of this effortlessly stylish matte black cutlery set, they asked London-based designer Aaron Probyn, who’s been responsible for iconic collections from Habitat, Tom Dixon, West Elm and Normann Copenhagen.
Price: £40 | Ikea
Sennheiser Momentum Wireless
Another lesson in understated elegance from Sennheiser, who’s Momentum range of headphones continue to impress. Here, they’ve tweaked their hugely successful over-ear design, adding three noise cancelling modes: “Max”, “Anti-Wind” and “Anti-Pressure” that complement the commute, the café and the office environments perfectly. They sound spectacular, with rare depth in detail – and as a final flourish, they’ve partnered with Tile, the Bluetooth tracking service, which means you can locate your headphones via a smartphone app if you lose them.
Price: £299 | Amazon | Currys | John Lewis
Noori Rocket Stove
As stylish as it is versatile, this multi-functional stove from Brazil can be used as a barbecue, a pizza oven or a fire pit, and thanks to the curved concrete body and innovative enamelled fuel pipe, you can achieve intense heat without the smoke. That said, cooking with smoke is half the fun, so as well as placing a pan on the heat like a traditional hob, you can also cook pizza on the included stone; add charcoal to the fire and transform it into a barbecue; or use it like an oven or a smoker by topping with a lid that has a built-in thermometer.
Price: €2,400 | Noori
Tumi TUMIPAX Patrol Jacket
The maker of sober luggage for serious business types also makes a range of insulated jackets in lightweight materials – in this case, nylon. The usual boxes are ticked, from engineered seams for durability and shape, exposed reinforced zippers, contrast piping and ethically sourced goose down filling, but the stroke of genius here is that whereas similar mid-weight jackets pack down into a pocket, the TUMIPAX transforms to become a neck-supporting travel pillow.
Price: £195 | Tumi
McLaren Elva Roadster
The lightest road car McLaren has ever made, the Elva may lack a windscreen, but we’ll handle a few bugs in our teeth to get to experience the four-litre twin-turbo V8 and every one of the 804 horsepower on offer. It will manage 100kph in under three seconds and 200kph in 6.7secs. Designed to reflect the flowing 60’s style open-cockpit cars from iconic British race car designer Elva, there will be 399 vehicles available, and of course we were joking about the bugs – McLaren has created a low pressure area for the driver and passenger, so helmets aren’t even needed.
Price: £1.4 million | Mclaren
Steel Transparent Speaker
This limited-edition Bluetooth speaker has been designed by Stockholm-based Transparent Sound and forged by blacksmith Jonas Majors in his workshop on the Swedish island of Mörkö. Admittedly, this version the opposite of see-through, but we love the clean lines and raw textured metal that will age gracefully over the years. As for sonic performance, you get an 80W Class-D amplifier powering two three-inch drivers and a 6.5-inch woofer.
Price: £2,250 | Transparent Speaker
GoPro Max 360
This spectacularly well-specced 6K 360-degree action camera from GoPro records everything through twin lenses and enables three-dimensional editing in its app for some impressively immersive action sequences. You can also shoot single-lens-style video with eerily effective image stabilisation and horizon levelling, plus a choice of four digital lens options, from close cropped 22mm to their widest ever 13mm Max SuperView. Six microphones take care of sound wherever it’s coming from, while the distortion-free 270° panoramic shots take your selfies to the next level.
Price: £443 | Amazon | Argos | Currys
Pelican Go G40 Charge Case
Guaranteed for life, this ruggedised, waterproof and completely buoyant 10,000mAh virtually indestructible battery charging case can give up to 48 hours of smartphone battery boost – around four full charges – through its integrated Qi-Certified wireless charging tray. IP67 rated, it is the safest way to top up in less than ideal conditions, and there’s a micro-USB port for non-wireless kit.
Price: $99.95 | Pelican
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