Eight Hours Is A Long Time To Sit In Something Ordinary.
You worked hard for the car.
You chose the engine.
The options.
The wheels.
The interior.
You know exactly why you bought a BMW instead of simply buying transportation.
Then you arrive at work...
and sit in a mass-produced office chair.
We've never quite understood that.
AutoStuhl does something about it.
The Tartufo Edition begins with an authentic BMW front Comfort Seat, beautifully upholstered in rich Tartufo Brown leather.
Then we build an entirely new piece of furniture around it.
BMW automotive seating.
AutoStuhl fabricated steel.
Hand craftsmanship.
Bespoke stainless steel personalization.
And only two opportunities to own one from this matching set.
SIT IN BMW.
EVEN WHEN YOU'RE NOT DRIVING ONE.
That's the idea.
Not matching model numbers.
Not trying to recreate the interior of your car.
And certainly not pretending your office is a racetrack.
Something much simpler.
BMW knows how to build a seat.
Automotive seating has to survive years of use, accommodate different bodies, provide meaningful adjustment and remain comfortable through journeys lasting hours.
BMW engineers its seating as part of the automobile.
We think that's exactly what makes it interesting outside the automobile.
You don't have to own an M4.
You don't have to own the exact BMW these seats originally came from.
You don't even need your BMW and your AutoStuhl to be the same generation.
You simply have to appreciate BMW.
YOUR CAR ISN'T YOUR CHAIR.
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO MATCH.
This is worth saying.
An AutoStuhl isn't a replacement seat for your automobile.
It's an entirely new object.
The automotive seat is its provenance.
Think of it the way a collector thinks about an extraordinary mechanical component.
Its origin matters.
But what matters more is what we've turned it into.
So whether there's an M3, M4, M5, X5, 7 Series, classic 2002, E30, Z8 or absolutely no BMW currently sitting in your garage, the question isn't:
"Does this seat match my car?"
The question is:
“Would I rather spend my working day sitting in this?”
Look at it.
We think you already know the answer.
HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SORE BUTT AFTER SITTING ON AN AIRPLANE TOO LONG?
This Is The Opposite Of That Experience.
If you spend eight, ten or twelve hours working, where you sit matters.
A lot.
Yet the office-chair industry has somehow convinced us that increasingly elaborate combinations of plastic, mesh, foam and cast components are the pinnacle of seating.
Automotive engineers approach the problem differently.
A luxury automobile seat has to support a human being through hours of driving.
Different heights.
Different weights.
Different postures.
Thousands upon thousands of entries and exits.
Hot days.
Cold days.
Years of use.
And it still has to feel like it belongs in a BMW.
That's an enormous amount of engineering devoted to somewhere to put your backside.
We decided to put that engineering behind a desk.
TARTUFO.
Some Colors Just Look Expensive.
Black is classic.
Red is dramatic.
Tartufo is something else.
Rich brown leather has an old-world quality to it.
Warm.
Sophisticated.
Understated.
It works beautifully against walnut.
Steel.
Stone.
Glass.
Concrete.
A traditional paneled office.
A modern architectural space.
A private library.
A boardroom.
Or an automotive collection.
It doesn't look like somebody dragged a car seat into the office.
Done properly, it looks as though somebody designed an extraordinary chair and happened to begin with BMW.
That's the difference.
BMW BUILT THE SEAT.
AUTOSTUHL BUILDS EVERYTHING THAT MAKES IT A CHAIR.
We could make these much more cheaply.
That's not difficult.
Imported office-chair bases cost astonishingly little.
Add an adapter.
Bolt on an automotive seat.
And technically you've created furniture.
We refuse to do that.
An AutoStuhl begins underneath.
A substantial purpose-built steel foundation.
Heavy-duty casters.
Engineered mounting.
Individually fabricated components.
Hand assembly.
Careful finishing.
The structure is intentionally overbuilt because we don't believe an extraordinary automotive seat belongs on the same commodity foundation used beneath disposable office furniture.
We aren't trying to build something that survives its warranty.
We're trying to build something you won't want to replace.
THE THINGS YOU DON'T SEE MATTER.
That's part of our philosophy.
A cheap foundation can be hidden.
A thin bracket can be hidden.
An ugly weld can be hidden.
A compromise can usually be hidden.
Until it fails.
We would rather make the underside of an AutoStuhl almost unnecessarily substantial.
Why?
Because craftsmanship isn't what you do where people are looking.
It's what you refuse to compromise where they aren't.
THEN SOMEBODY WALKS INTO YOUR OFFICE.
This is the other reason AutoStuhl exists.
Someone sees it.
They pause.
They look again.
Maybe they recognize the BMW seat immediately.
Maybe they don't.
It doesn't really matter.
Eventually:
“Oh my God. What is that?”
Now you get to explain it.
It's an AutoStuhl.
It's built around an authentic BMW seat.
The foundation was fabricated specifically for it.
The stainless panels were designed specifically for me.
There are only two Tartufo Editions from this matching set.
And no, you can't order it from BMW.
That's a conversation ordinary office furniture never gets to have.
IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE NOTICED.
We aren't interested in creating furniture that quietly disappears into a room.
There are excellent companies already doing that.
AutoStuhl is for the owner who enjoys objects with stories.
The entrepreneur.
The executive.
The collector.
The BMW enthusiast.
The architect.
The person who understands engineering.
The person who appreciates craftsmanship.
And particularly the person who takes some pleasure when a visitor discovers something in the room they've never seen before.
That's part of the experience you're buying.
YOUR BMW DOESN'T MAKE IT YOURS.
YOU DO.
Perhaps the most important AutoStuhl component wasn't made by BMW at all.
Our Signature Panels allow us to personalize the finished chair around its actual owner.
Precision laser-cut stainless steel.
Designed specifically for your commission.
Your family crest.
Your corporate logo.
Your initials.
Your signature.
Your favorite verse.
Your personal motto.
The year you founded your company.
A significant date.
A racing number.
A meaningful symbol.
The silhouette of a favorite automobile.
Or something whose significance is understood by precisely one person.
You.
There are only two Tartufo Editions.
But after we create your Signature Panels:
there is only one of yours.
THE FOUNDER'S CHAIR.
This specification may be particularly suited to someone who's built something.
A business.
A career.
A reputation.
A family legacy.
Imagine your corporate identity cut from stainless steel into the side of the chair.
Not printed.
Not embroidered.
Not a decal.
Cut into metal.
Company mark on one side.
Founding year or personal philosophy on the other.
Tartufo leather.
Hand-finished metal.
A substantial AutoStuhl foundation underneath it all.
Suddenly it isn't a BMW seat converted into furniture.
It becomes your chair.
And someday, perhaps, someone else will know exactly whose it was.
USE IT.
Please.
We don't make automotive furniture so people can rope it off.
Sit in it.
Work in it.
Take meetings in it.
Spend a ridiculous number of hours building your company in it.
Read in it.
Think in it.
Put your feet up occasionally.
Use the damn thing.
Because although we care deeply about provenance, materials and craftsmanship, AutoStuhl isn't sculpture pretending to be furniture.
It's functional automotive art.
And the functional part matters.
WORK.
HOME.
BOARDROOM.
COLLECTION.
Tartufo changes the possibilities.
This doesn't have to live in a car-themed room.
Quite the opposite.
Put it behind a walnut executive desk.
Against dark cabinetry.
Inside a glass-and-steel modern office.
In a library.
At home.
In the boardroom.
Beside your BMW collection.
Or make it the one unexpected object in an otherwise perfectly restrained room.
The color makes it sophisticated enough to belong.
The provenance makes it interesting enough to be noticed.
ONE OF TWO.
MADE ONE OF ONE.
These two seats began as a matching pair.
Only two AutoStuhl Tartufo Editions can be created from them.
Each receives its own permanent commission number:
01 / 02
02 / 02
Commission one.
Or preserve the pair.
But once the first is individually commissioned, there is something money won't be able to buy afterward:
the matching pair.
CERTIFICATE OF PROVENANCE
Every Tartufo Edition receives an individual AutoStuhl Certificate of Provenance documenting its second life.
The original automotive component.
Its AutoStuhl commission number.
Completion date.
Configuration.
Materials and finishes.
Signature Panel artwork.
Original commission.
Why?
Because we aren't interested in building disposable furniture.
We want someone to find this chair twenty or thirty years from now and immediately understand exactly what they're looking at.
Interesting objects deserve documented histories.
NOT MADE TO BE REPLACED.
Most office furniture has an assumed ending.
Eventually something breaks.
The upholstery deteriorates.
The base develops play.
A wheel fails.
The mechanism gives up.
The whole thing gets replaced.
AutoStuhl began with a different premise.
Start with serious automotive seating.
Build a substantial steel foundation underneath it.
Use replaceable service components where practical.
Make the important parts worth repairing.
And create something sufficiently interesting that its owner actually wants to keep it.
Because longevity isn't merely about making something strong.
It's about making something worth saving.
THE BMW GIFT THEY DON'T ALREADY HAVE.
BMW enthusiasts are remarkably easy to buy for.
Until they aren't.
Eventually they have the books.
Models.
Artwork.
Driving shoes.
Jackets.
Accessories.
Maybe several BMWs.
Then things get difficult.
That's when you stop looking for another BMW-branded object and give them something they didn't know existed.
An authentic BMW leather seat transformed into a handcrafted AutoStuhl, individually numbered and commissioned around its owner.
That's not another accessory.
That's a story.
