While most dads will be getting their fill of biltong, chocolate, new ties and socks this father’s day, there are the elite few fathers out there who might be getting something much cooler – and way more expensive.
Sony Bravia XBR 70-Inch LCD HDTV
Cost: $22,000 (R184,300)
When watching the Bokke take on the world isn’t quite good enough on any old TV, billionaire dads can feast their eyes on Sony’s top of the range Bravia XBR 70-inch LCD HDTV which comes in at a cool $22,000. If a R180,000 TV is the cheapest gift on this list, just imagine what comes next.
If a simple HDTV is too stock-standard for you, then perhaps start looking into the LG 84LM9600 84″ 4K resolution 3D TV, which is LG’s biggest TV yet, which was shown off at CES 2012. There’s no pricing attached to the visual 84-inch behemoth yet, but you can expect it to be costly.
Sony SRXS110 Projector
Cost: $102,000 (R853,000)
Perhaps TVs aren’t extravagent enough – so why not go for a home cinema? The Sony SRXS110 is a top-end projector that’s probably ahead of its time. Not because it does anything particularly futuristic, but rather because its native resolution is a whopping 4096 x 2160 resolution, similar to the LG 84-inch TV.
These projectors are out of production, so if you want one and happen across it, expect to pay a premium – or go for the Christie HD8K projector, which at $80,000 is a bit cheaper, but only go as high as full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution.
The PAL-V ONE heli-cycle
Cost: $279,000 (R2,330,000)
The PAL-V ONE is a two seat hybrid car and gyroplane – that is, your very own personal helicopter-motorcycle hybrid. It would be a pain for billionaire dads to be getting stuck in traffic on their way to big business meetings, so this would be the perfect gift to side-step the problem completely.
According to the vehicle’s website: “when airborne, the PAL-V usually flies below 4,000 feet (1,200 m), the airspace available for uncontrolled Visual Flight Rules (VFR) traffic; so there will be no interference from commercial air traffic”. The heli-cycle can reach speeds of up to 180 km/h on both land and in the air.
To enjoy this, all you need is R2,4 million and a sports/recreational/private pilot’s license.
Flying Car
Cost: $350,000 (R2,925,000)
Helicopter not cool enough? The let’s go with the flying car. Developed by MIT graduates, the flying car is a legitimate small sports plane as well as a perfectly legal road vehicle – and can switch between the two in 30 seconds.
Hitting road speeds of 105 km/h and flying speeds of 185 km/h, this might just be what a billionaire dad needs to take those quick flights to the nearest coast or remote location to get away from the rat-race. All he needs is about R3 million, a sports pilot license – and a personal runway wouldn’t hurt, either.
Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon 5002 P
Cost: $1,500,000 (R12,570,000)
While not a technological extravagence, the Patek Philippe Sky Moon Tourbillon is certainly a technical marvel in its own right – and one of the most expensive analogue wrist watches in the world (excluding anything encrusted with tonnes of diamonds).
Why so expensive? First off, it’s extremely rare; but more importantly, the watch has two faces. The first face shows hours, minutes and seconds; a perpetual calendar; retrograde date; equation of time; and the moon phase.
The second face gives a celestial view of time – sidereal time; a skychart showing the placement of the stars; phase and orbit of the moon; as well as a 24 hour hand.
The watch is platinum and has a snakeskin band, and finishes off its full-menu details with some sapphire on the celestial end.
Bugatti Veyron Supersport
Cost: $2,700,000 (R22,600,000)
If TVs, cinemas, hybrid travel and complicated watches simply aren’t your billionaire dad’s thing (or he has them all already) – one can never go wrong with a Bugatti. More specifically, the Bugatti Veyron Supersport. Even if a billionaire has three of these, one more would still be awesome.
Currently the fastest road-legal car in the world – hitting a top speed of 431 km/h – the Veyron Supersport has to be engineered down to limit its speed to 415 km/h so that the tyres don’t disintegrate.
With only 30 of these beasts ever going to be on the planet, it certainly tops our list of coolest gifts for loaded dads. The fastest and most expensive, and pretty rare, too.
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