Bugatti Now Wants To Sell You An Incredibly Weird TV

Every marque knows there’s money to be made selling objects of speed, but there’s also money to be made from merchandising an image. Just look at Ferrari’s incredibly expensive line of clothes and accessories, BMW’s M cologne, or um, Renault’s Twingo-themed pinball machine. It’s effectively a way of making people pay to advertise for you, and it’s resulted in some very weird stuff over the years. Take the latest Bugatti offering, for example. It’s a television, but not just any television.

The concept of a luxury TV is a bit silly given how you can now buy a TV with a 4K screen the size of a Smart Fortwo’s wheelbase for about the cost of a slightly rusty 2007 Chevrolet Cobalt SS. Granted, at that price, you’re looking at a device loaded with bloatware, but still. Over the past 25 years, big televisions have gone from a luxury to something you inherit when your roommate moves out. Maybe not televisions this big though.

Because size seems to be everything for this sort of clientele, the smaller Bugatti TV features a 110-inch screen, while the larger one features a 137-inch screen. They might not be legally classified as walls, but they’re pretty close in practice. Obviously, Bugatti doesn’t make the TVs itself, which is why the following weirdness is so interesting.

On first glance, this doesn’t look like a television. A fancy chest of drawers, perhaps, but that’s about it. Bugatti claims the TV’s opaque form is “inspired by the iconic side profile – the iconic ‘C-line’ – of all legendary Bugatti cars.” Maybe sort of, if you squint. There’s definitely a contour here, but it’s more like the rising character line down the flank of any generic 2010s sedan than anything else. Still, it’s all silver and carbon fiber, but where does the screen come from? Well, the actual manufacturer of the TV—Austrian firm C Seed—has a trick up its sleeve.

Yep, it’s supposed to tip up like that, and in fact does so all on its own. Best to clear off anything you put on it beforehand, coasters and cats and what have you. You know the whole “billionaire doors” thing? This is a billionaire TV. Oh, and it’s not done yet. Wait until you see the next phase of its transformation.

Well, that’s certainly different. Perfect for someone who’s always wanted something that looks like a 5G tower in their lounge. If you’re going to hide this much screen, panels of micro LED displays that come together to form one continuous surface is a bit more elegant than pretending your TV is a painting, and C Seed allegedly’s found a way to make the seams virtually invisible.

Presto, one television with a Bugatti logo. The whole transformation takes just 45 seconds, and the deployed television even comes with built-in speakers. Strange, because someone shopping in this echelon probably has a built-in surround sound system or Nautilus stacks or something similarly high-end. Ah yeah, price. A regular 137-inch C Seed TV starts at around $200,000, so don’t be surprised if this one costs even more thanks to its Bugatti branding. Which brings us back to the original problem: With decent TVs being cheap, why spend this much on one when you could order one from Costco or Amazon and spend the savings on another supercar? Answers on a postcard, please.

Top graphic image: Bugatti