Don't Flip Out, It's a Vertu

When is a mobile phone not a mobile phone? The answer is obvious and, if you're reading this, you already know it

All photographs courtesy of Vertu

Vertu has a flip phone. You wouldn't know it just to read that rather innocuous and inoffensive sentence but this fact caused quite a ruckus when news of the Vertu Constellation Ayxta broke (right here on Luxury-Insider.com, as it happens). In the world of luxury watches, this same phenomenon occurs when brands associated with a particular shape or style do something out of the box (cue shock and horror). For example, if Patek Philippe were to make a 50mm dodecahedron watch, all hell would break loose. On the face of it, this seems absolutely ridiculous (the shock and horror that is, never mind the dodecahedron) but that's only until you realize that Patek Philippe does not make watches – they make Patek Philippes.

Press releases fly fast and furious from luxury brands all trying to convince the buying public that they are selling unique symbols, dreams even. In the case of Patek Philippe, it is certainly true. It is also true of Vertu, whose product may look and act like a mobile phone but it is as far from a gadget as heaven is wide, to borrow from Shirley Manson.

To backtrack a little, this story began life at immigration at London's often-terrifying Heathrow Airport. The friendly mustachioed chap behind the counter sized me up (being in the express lane, thanks to the folks from Singapore Airlines) and of course wondered if I had any business being there. He asked what I was doing in Great Britain and I told him I was in London for the international launch of the Vertu Constellation Ayxta. True to form, he remained impassive and returned what I can only characterize as the proverbial blank stare. Whereupon, the following exchange took place.

Immigration official: Vertu?
Me: Yes, you know, the chaps who produce handcrafted luxury mobile phones over at Church Crookham?
Immigration official: Handmade mobile phones?
Me: Well, yes. Hand-assembled I should say. By actual human beings. In the case of one particular model, the Signature, one craftsperson assembles one phone.
There is an awkward silence, occupied mostly by a look of incredulity from the official.
Me: It's the attention to detail really.
Immigration official: It's expensive?
Me: The model they're launching now, the Constellation Ayxta, starts retailing at €4,900.

In the end, the price does the trick. Sadly, it shows that Antoine de Saint Exupery's refrain about adults and their fixation on price is as true today as when he committed it to fiction (in the first half of the 20th century).

It is only after I've successfully navigated the airport and made it to my hotel, an old world wonder called The Dorchester, that this exchange begins to shape my thinking about the Ayxta. This entire trip is meant to showcase a mobile phone. Every experience the international press corps soaks up is courtesy of Vertu, including the aforementioned Dorchester.

City Briefs

To come to grips with the Ayxta, we must skip ahead in time and look at the phone itself. Although we already covered the basic specifications and such previously, it is worth going over the exclusive Vertu Select service again, especially the City Brief portion. Vertu Creative Director Frank Nouvo confirmed that this feature was launching with this phone and is a major part of the Ayxta appeal.

What Nouvo wants, ideally, is to create a system that always knows where you are without connecting to a GPS network or what have you. This means that when you touch down at an airport someplace from someplace else, your phone immediately gives you the correct time, local weather, destination information and so on, all without you doing anything at all.

Now, any Internet connection can give you all of the above but you would have to access it. In other words, you would have to actively seek it out. In Nouvo's mind, the key is to make this passive so that all you do is look at the screen of your phone and everything is displayed. Just a glance will suffice.

Just right now, the Vertu Select does not go quite so far but Nouvo for one would clearly love it to. So, you still need a network to access the information but you need not tax your weary fingers or jet-lagged brain to seek it out. You need not even flip open the phone as the control is accessible via the screen and it displays the information there as well. This is the attention to detail that I spoke of with the immigration official.

Since it was announced in December 2008, this service is known to include live world news, lifestyle recommendations, exclusive ringtones (long a Vertu-trademark) and content (from the Robb Report). The new City Brief digest includes destination restaurant recommendations, exhibitions, shopping guides and cultural etiquette tips. Once again, all this sort of magically appears, without you having to seek it out every single time you get hungry or want to figure out if a handshake or a hug is appropriate.