When Rolls-Royce celebrates, it never does so quietly. For the 100th anniversary of its most iconic nameplate, the Phantom, the company has unveiled the Phantom Centenary Private Collection, a creation that pushes craftsmanship, patience, and imagination to their absolute limits. Only 25 examples will be made, each one valued at around $3 million and built as a love letter to the model that defined automotive luxury for a century.
The Phantom first appeared in 1925 and has since evolved through seven generations before reaching the current Phantom VIII. The Centenary edition pays homage to early experimental models such as 17EX and 18EX, as well as to distinguished owners like the legendary speed pioneer Sir Malcolm Campbell. The foundation of this masterpiece is the Phantom Extended, the flagship of Rolls-Royce’s lineup. Yet every visible surface has been transformed by the brand’s Bespoke Collective, a team of artisans, designers, and engineers who spent a year exploring the car’s history to find inspiration in its past. The result is a design that reads like an illustrated biography of the Phantom, told through thread, wood, and gold.
Inside, the rear seats become a tapestry of history. Rolls-Royce’s craftspeople created 45 individual panels stitched with over 160,000 threads, each depicting moments and places significant to the Phantom’s story. From the marque’s original Conduit Street showroom to sketches of early models, the seats resemble fine art more than upholstery.
Even the headliner tells a story, with 440,000 tiny stitches forming a mulberry tree inspired by a photograph of Henry Royce seated beneath one in his garden as he discussed early Phantom designs.
Up front, the dashboard takes the form of an art installation called the Anthology Gallery. Fifty aluminum fins have been 3D printed, engraved with press clippings and historical references that can be read from both sides. Every fin represents a moment in the car’s timeline, assembled together like pages of a century-old story. The doors, meanwhile, feature blackwood inlays created through a combination of laser etching, gold leafing, and 3D marquetry, portraying maps and journeys made by Phantoms over the decades.
The exterior follows suit with its own quiet flamboyance. A two-tone white and black paint finish glimmers with particles of crushed champagne-colored glass suspended in the clear coat. At the front sits the Spirit of Ecstasy, cast in solid 18-carat gold and plated in 24-carat gold, a shining reminder of the marque’s unmatched attention to the smallest detail.
Mechanically, all the examples will be identical, powered by the marque’s twin-turbocharged 6.75-litre V12 engine. The cover is finished in Arctic White and detailed with more 24-karat gold. With this Centenary edition, Rolls-Royce has created something beyond transport. It is not a car for the road as much as a moving celebration of time, a century’s worth of craftsmanship distilled into 25 remarkable works of art that will forever carry the Phantom name.
