...Rolex Coolness...
Sir Jony Ive
Rocking a Rolex Daytona
There are certain people you would love to see rocking a Rolex, but you think that it's just not possible. One such example is legendary former Apple Chief Designer, Jony Ive. Why do I say I never expected to ever see Sir Jony rocking a Rolex? Two reasons:
1. I never saw him wear a Rolex in the past, and assumed that if he "got" Rolex he would have owned one a long time ago.
2. Since he designed the Apple Watch, I assumed he was too cool to go back to wearing a mechanical watch, but man was I wrong...
It’s quite unusual to see the former lead Apple design director wearing a Rolex. Imagine the reverse: the former CEO of Rolex sporting an Apple Watch—it would be almost sacrilegious. Perhaps a better analogy would be if Apple started making analog watches that looked like Rolex, or if Rolex started making smart watches that looked like Apple Watches. You get the idea...Speaking of sacrosanct, some hardcore Ferrari enthusiasts would say that saying "Electric Ferrari" is like saying "Digital Rolex", and that's one of the things that make this story so interesting...
For the record, I once met Jony Ive, years ago when he and Steve Jobs, who I also knew, were opening the first Apple store in San Francisco, California. Ive was the most humble, sweet, shy, unassuming man I think I have ever met, and Jobs was the literal antithesis, which may explain why they got along so marvelously.
Jony Ive is arguably the most famous industrial designer today, as he was the lead Apple designer for decades. He left Apple years ago and started his own San Francisco based design firm named, Love From. Ive was recently interviewed, after having designed the highly polarizing new Ferrari Luce, and as a fellow designer, and design fanatic of the highest order, I was watching this fascinating video interview, which I share later in this story.
In the photo above we see Sir Jony Ive in the Ferrari archives with Piero Ferarri, who is the son of Ferrari founder, Enzo Ferrari, and we see Jony rocking a platinum Rolex Daytona. Piero Ferrari serves as the Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Ferrari today, and he has long worn Rolex watches as well. Mark Newsom, who is Jony Ive's design partner is pictured above on the left, and my understanding is he also played a role in the design of the interior of the new Ferrari.
In this subsequent set of images, we observe Sir Jony Ive driving his platinum Daytona. The unmistakable sky blue dial, with its contrasting subdials and dark bezel, stands out prominently.
The First All-Electric Ferrari
Sir Jony Ive, the renowned designer, crafted the interior of the all-new, all-electric Ferrari LUCE. However, it’s somewhat perplexing to determine if he and Mark Newsom were involved in the design of the exterior, which has been met with significant controversy. The LUCE (which means 'light" in Italian) stands as a groundbreaking vehicle, marking Ferrari’s inaugural foray into the realm of electric vehicles. Despite its impressive features, it comes with a hefty price starting around $640,000. Notably, it is slower than the Tesla Plaid Model S. Additionally, the LUCE holds the distinction of being the first five-seater vehicle ever produced by Ferrari.
As a hardcore Tesla Fanatic, and Publisher of TeslaMagazine.org, I would argue the Ferrari LUCE is a non-starter as it lacks any Full Self Driving technology, which would allow the vehicle to drive itself. Even the most basic, and least expensive Tesla that is around $40K, features FSD, which is a revolutionary game-changing technology. If you are not familiar with FSD, it's Tesla software, built into every recent model made in the past 5 years, that allows the car to drive just about anywhere on earth by itself.
"If I were to say what I really think, it would be unpleasant, so I prefer not to comment. We risk destroying a legend, and I'm truly sorry about that. I hope they at least remove the Prancing Horse from that car. It is certainly a car that at least the Chinese won’t copy."—Luca Cordero di Montezemolo
(former Chairman of Ferrari)
The Tesla Model S Apple Car?
Let's examine the supremely ironic relationship between Tesla and Ferrari.
Ironically, Tesla recently discontinued their Tesla Model S (pictured above), and a week or so later, Ferrari introduced the Ferrari LUCE (pictured below), which—for all intents and purposes—is their version of the TeslaModel S, and ironically it's slower doing 0-60, than the recently discontinued Tesla Model S Plaid.
The incoming Ferrari LUCE is almost identical to the outgoing Tesla Model S in length, width and wheelbase, with the exception being the LUCE is 4.5 inches taller. This was very smart as the Tesla Model S was always way too low of a sedan, as it was low like a Ferrari sports car, which made getting in and out a pain.
Comparing the LUCE to the Model S, made me wonder what it might look like without that bizarro front (pictured in blue above) air intake shell, especially after carefully studying the silhouette of the Ferrari LUCE underbody which is pictured below. I will point out I could not help but notice the LUCE lacks a front trunk "Frunk", which the Tesla Model S has famously always featured.
I ended up creating the rendering below, which removes all the goofy blue cover, exposing the underbody while using its lines. Doing so makes it much more masculine. In my opinion, we end up with a Tesla Model S looking Ferrari LUCE. In other words, it appears to my way of thinking as as designer that Ferrari made their own version of a Model S sedan, but styled it way differently to make it NOT look like a Tesla Model S. In my opinion, if Ferrari had simply made it look like this, it would have been a HUGE HIT!!!!!
It turns out I am not the only person to consider this, as we see in the renders in the video below, that shows much better lines on the Ferrari LUCE. I think this dudes renders look way better than mine, and a ZILLION times better than the actual Ferrari LUCE. If I were Ferrari, my top priority would be to redesign and retool to update the LUCE to look like this beauty!!!!!!!!:
It's also worth pointing out the Ferrari LUCE has its two windshield wipers fixed in the upright position on each side of the windshield, kind of like a CyberTruck blade as pictured below.
Since we are on the subject of trying to determine what the genesis of the Ferrari LUCE came from, it's worth pointing out that we may very well be looking at the actual Apple Electric Car come to life as a Ferrari!?!! Apple's long rumored Electric Apple car was officially axed by Tim Cook in 2024, or was it just sold to Ferrari? Apple's senior vice president of Services, Eddy cue has served as a non-executive director on the board of directors of Ferrari for the past 14 years. If you examine the lines on the original Apple prototype render pictured below, that matchup pretty well with the LUCE. Thus, my best guess is Apple originally tried to created a vehicle that would surpass the Tesla Model S, and it ended up as the Ferrari LUCE.
ONE MORE THANG
Upcoming 2026 Tesla Roadster
Here is where it gets even more interesting, Tesla is just preparing to showcase and launch their all-new 2026 Tesla Roadster, which is so state-of-the-art, it features cold thruster rockets on all four sides of the vehicle, that among other things can accelerate it from 0-60MPH in under a second, not to mention do the exact opposite to slow it down in a fraction of the time that standard brakes would take.
That's right. It has cold-fusion rocket thrusters—designed by Elon Musk's Space X rocket engineers—all around the vehicle that can fire on demand in a controlled manner to speed-up, slow-down, or control lean in hard cornering.
As an example, let's say you were driving in wintertime down the Waldo Grade on U.S. Highway 101, and after you drive through the rainbow tunnel, on the downhill road heading over the Golden Gate Bridge, on your way to San Francisco, you hit invisible black ice, which would render your car brakes useless, the car would sense this condition and apply its rear and side facing thrusters to basically fly/hover the car so it could stay perfectly in its lane, as if there was no black ice on the road.
In other words, under such adverse conditions any "normal" car could loose control and slide all over the place, but the Tesla could basically counteract the ice by hovering the car in place.
Also, the Tesla Roadster will be able to drive you anywhere in world, door-to-door, safely, using FSD, but no Ferrari can do such a thing, not to mention that Ferrari doesn't have it's own supercharging network. That's OK, though, as you would still be able to charge your $600K Ferrari LUCE at EV GO, or Electrify American chargers, if and when you can find one that is not out of order, and if it is working will charge you way more than Tesla to recharge.
On TeslaMagazine.org, as well as here on RolexMagazine.com, I have long argued that Tesla has had the entire automotive industry in Checkmate, and we are seeing this reality slowly becoming more and more obvious as time goes by.
In the meantime, I would argue the Ferrari Luce is just about as close as we will get to seeing what Apple's Electric car would have looked like had Tim Cook not cancelled its program. When I look at the Ferrari LUCE, it looks uninspiring to me. It looks like a neutered A-Sexual Ferrari, or a 1980s Chevy Impala wearing a Covid mask...or like somebody driving around by themselves in a car today, wearing a Covid mask...
In other words, I am NOT impressed, but deeply disappointed with Ferrari...I believe if you removed all the Ferrari logos and branding from the Ferrari LUCE, and drove it down the road, nobody would ever think it was, or associate it with the Ferrari brand.
Ferarri cars have always looked like verbs. Kind of like a NIKE Swoosh logo, that looks like it's in motion, even when it's standing still. Same with historical Ferrari design language. But the LUCE looks like a noun, or like a bizarre two-tone plastic soap dish. On a positive note, MHBHD, in the video below presents a superb walk around tour of the Ferrari LUCE, and points out a bunch of fascinating details:
Who know!?!! Maybe I am wrong with my initial impressions, and the Ferrari LUCE might grow on me. I have often said that I have to hate somebody or something before I can love it or them. Either way, congratulations to Ferrari as they have every dude on earth talking about their all-new, all-electric Ferrari, and as they say, "In the world of public relations, there is not such thing as bad news. Just great exposure." Also, if we look at the glass as being half full, I imagine Ferrari is excited to finally have a family car that can comfortably fit 4-5 adults, not to mention, I think its the first Ferrari where a wealthy person can be chauffeured in the back seat.
On a side note, in case you end up reading this article Jony, your platinum Daytona looks like a million bucks on your wrist, and welcome to the pantheon of Rolex Super Coolness...Wear it well!!!!
You can find out much more about the Ferrari LUCE on their dedicated microsite.
Abound in the C Suite at Ferrari
There is an excellent video I shared below from Ferrari and I could not help but notice that many of the top Ferrari executives wear Rolex Daytona watches. The first one I notice is on the wrist of Emanuele Cardono, who is the head of product marketing for Ferrari.
