India has produced some of the most exquisite diamonds in the world be it the Kohinoor or the Princie diamond, which was recently sold at a Christie’s auction for a record $40 million. The rare pink diamond was mined from the Golconda diamond mines and originally belonged to the Nizam of Hyderabad who then sold it to Van Cleef & Arpels for £46,000. It broke the record set by the Wittelsbach Diamond, which fetched $24.3 million in 2008. An anonymous buyer over the phone paid  $39,323,75 for this 34.64 carat beauty. The cushion cut diamond was called Princie in honour of the fourteen year old son of the Maharanee of of Baroda.
Aloke Lohia, the Thailand based billionaire of Indian origin is planning a huge wedding bash for his only daughter Aradhana in Florence. She got engaged to Kuala Lampur based businessman, Kevin Sharma in December last year. The three day festivities will be held at the Florence estate of the famous Corsini family. It will surely be one of the biggest if not the biggest wedding of the year. Florence seems to be a popular destination of billionaire Indian weddings. In 2010, Sajjan and Sangita Jindal’s daughter Tanvi got married to Krishna Shete at a 15th century villa owned by the Salvatore Ferragamo family. Aloke Lohia has an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion and is the sixth richest person in Thailand.
BaselWorld showcases some of the best timepieces in the world every year. We will get to see this year’s masterpieces from April 25th. But until then, here are some of the amazing Limited Edition Watches that were featured in the past couple of years at BaselWorld. Last year, Tag Heuer marked the 80th birthday of its honourary chairman, Jack Heuer with a limited edition Carrera watch with a silver dial. The same year, Maitres du Temps Chapter Three  brought out a 50 piece beauty with a blue dial that had a pusher in the crown which revealed two hidden panels – a time zone indicator and a day/night indicator when pushed. Papillon Voyageur from Bulgari’s Daniel Roth collection has become a favourite with collectors. In this unique watch, the hour is displayed at the position of 12o’ clock, but for the minutes, there is a separate disc in the center. Hublot brought out a watch that would make any bling lover drool. The Hublot Big Bang has 140 carats of diamonds encrusted in it. It costs $5 million and took 17 people and 14 months to make.
Before it gets too hot, here is a list of convertibles to make heads turn. Audi R8 Spyder is a powerful beauty. It is priced around 1.34 crore. At less than half the price at Rs 57 lakh comes the swanky BMW 3-Series 330d. Corvette Convertible 1LT comes for approximately 30 lakhs. Ferrari is the ultimate name in the world of sportscars. Its Ferrari 458 Spider is one of the most aspired for convertibles in the world. But its price tag is pretty steep at 2.5 crore. The Ford Mustang Convertible at 30 lakhs is a classic. It’s 2013 edition became even more desirable with a new hood, LED lighting and HID headlamps.
