For a moment, imagine that your wallet is as large and limitless as the love you feel in your heart for your loved ones. If money was no object, if cash was no concern, what would you buy for your spouse or your family? Where would you look? What could you give that would be as unique, as beautiful, as priceless as the people you love most?
Well, we went looking and found a few suggestions. Now keep in mind these gifts are actually intended for the very few whose credit cards are made of — not just named — silver, gold or platinum. We're not just talking about big planes or big houses. We are talking about limited edition, astronomically-priced items that you might only ever see on the page in your hands right now.
So in ascending order, here are some of the more extravagant, one-of-a-kind gifts you can find and, if your savings account balance ends in at least six zeroes, potentially even buy. Just remember: these companies probably don't do layaway.
Price: Est. $71,000
The 1980s car with the wing-shaped doors that took us backwards and forwards in time is back. It does not come with its own flux capacitor or require any plutonium, but it's a vehicle meant to help take drivers into the future … in style.
With the popularity of the Back to the Future trilogy, the DeLorean was resurrected and put into limited production, with the Texas company now pumping out about 20 cars a year. Now DeLorean has given the DCM-12 a futuresque facelift and announced that, in 2013, it will begin production and sale of the DMCev, an all-electric version of the movie classic, for a cool $71,000 CDN.
And this DeLorean is no slow-moving hybrid. In its press kit, the company announced the DMCev will be powered by a 400-volt AC induction cooled electric motor that will produce a maximum 260 h.p. and 360 lb. ft. of torque. That translates into a zero to 60 miles an hour time of 4.9 seconds, which will make hitting the coveted top speed of 88 m.p.h. even easier than before. And when it's time to fuel up, rather than consorting with jaded Libyan terrorists or rummaging through trashcans, all you'll have to do is plug it in. Whether at your standard 110 V household electrical outlet or a specialized 220 V charging station, you'll be able to top up your lithium iron phosphate battery using the car's Flux Power Charger in anywhere from two to four hours.
Price: $509,000 CDN
Anyone who has visited Las Vegas since 1998 has likely wandered by the Bellagio Hotel to take in a performance of Fountains of Bellagio. Choreographed to music, the show features specific sequences of arching and dancing water using 1,200 nozzles of four different designs and approximately 4,500 lights.
Now high-end American retailer Neiman Marcus is offering an online-only experience to be a guest choreographer for one of the shows for a cool $500,000 US. Listed under the fantasy gifts section of The Christmas Book, one person will get the chance to first visit the headquarters of WET, the Sun Valley, Calif. company that designed the Bellagio's fountains, for a crash course in fountain choreography and to select a piece of music with the company's chief choreographer. Then it's off to Vegas for the debut of your show where you'll stay in the Bellagio's swankiest suite and eat at its best restaurants. Neiman Marcus will donate $5,000 of the cost to water.org, an American non-profit agency devoted to providing safe drinking water in developing countries.
And if you miss out on that opportunity, WET and Neiman Marcus are offering one more. For a little more than $1 million CDN, WET will come to your home and install a personal fountain in your own yard using two of its nozzles to create a private show you can enjoy every day — $10,000 will be donated to water.org.
To see it for yourself, dive into www.neimanmarcus.com and click on The Christmas Book.
Price: $7.95 million CDN
This particular iPhone might be a generation behind since the release of the iPhone 4S in October, but it's not the function so much as the design that makes this particular gadget a symbol of ultimate luxury.
Offered by British luxury retailer Stuart Hughes, the phone only has 32 gigabytes of memory, but the rest of it is bedecked in fine minerals and jewels — specifically gold and diamonds. Its rear and sides are inlaid with rose gold and dotted with 553 flawless diamonds totaling more than 100 carats. If that isn't enough, the home button is made from platinum and holds a single 7.4 carat pink diamond. Or, if you so choose, you can substitute the pink diamond for an eight-carat, single-cut flawless white diamond. At the end of the day, put your iPhone to rest inside its own granite case, lined with nubuck leather, weighing in at seven kilograms.
Only two of these phones have ever been made.
Price approx: $12.4 million CDN, specifics available upon request
When it comes to jewelry in North America, there are few names as synonymous with extravagance and beauty as Tiffany. Their powder blue boxes, regardless of what's inside, are enough to create tears of joy.
Every year Tiffany offers a signature piece for the holidays and this year the company has come out with one that truly dazzles. This year's Majestic Necklace, estimated at a cool $12.4 million CDN (as a signature piece, its true price is available upon request), is no exception. It consists of more than 300 hand-cut diamonds surrounding a 30.31-carat "E colour, internally-flawless diamond drop."
If you truly want to drape your loved one in diamonds, this might be the best way to do it.
Price: Not yet known
No man is an island but soon any man with several hundred million dollars could own his own island. And we're not just talking about a chunk of land in the middle of the ocean — this island is manmade and, under the right conditions, even moves.
Yacht Design Ltd. has teamed up with yacht design firm BMT Nigel Gee to develop Project Utopia, an artificial island like nothing seen before. The 11-deck monolith measures 100 metres by 100 metres — which rivals most commercial cruise liners — and comes with a retractable dome, swimming pool and deck as well as four helicopter decks. Four arms help stabilize the island, even in extreme weather, with the help of small propellers that can actually propel the island at slow speeds. Other amenities include a wet dock for mooring houseboats and jet skis. The interior can even be designed to incorporate retail areas, restaurants, bars, nightclubs and casinos. The observation deck, located 65 metres above sea level, offers what the brochure describes as 'breathtaking 360 degree views.'
