What do a safe, a $1.5 million watch, a decorative case for a champagne bottle, a $300,000 billiards table, a carbon fiber smartwatch, and a $900 Costco e-scooter all have in common? They’ve all had the Bugatti badge hastily slapped onto them in order to make them cost more.
All of the above-mentioned products and more came about as a result of the automaker’s lifestyle business, and business is a-booming. Bugatti International celebrated 20 percent growth year-on-year in 2022, something it calls unprecedented in its history.
Bugatti is “synonymous with excellent, innovative and exquisite creations that go beyond the automotive sphere,” says Wiebke Ståhl, Bugatti International’s managing director. “The success that our brand expansion arm of Bugatti has experienced in 2022 is underscored by our highly focused approach and in teaming up only with the right partners for the right projects at the right time, ensuring the partner’s brands and the creations embody Bugatti’s core values and a shared vision.”
Read: Jacob & Co Celebrates Jean Bugatti With A $250,000 Watch
And that’s good news for people with big bank accounts and no self-control, because Bugatti International says its “high-class experiences will continue to illuminate in 2023.” While the choice of the word “illuminate” is—well, the opposite of illuminating, I think it’s meant to hint at the fact that the company intends to continue hawking so-called lifestyle products for rich people with garish taste—but I repeat myself.
Indeed, the brand says that it will break new ground in 2023, slapping the Bugatti badge onto products in marketplaces that it has not reached before. Already, the brand has released a Lego model of the Bolide hypercar this year, though that’s hardly a new frontier for Bugatti. With these new products, though, it hopes to attract new buyers to the automotive brand.
“Bugatti is the world leader in designing, developing, building and delivering hyper sports cars that are at the vanguard of performance, engineering and style,” says Ståhl. “We seek to create new stories for our existing customers and surely invite new ones to discover our beautiful luxury brand.”
