Just in time for the festive and gifting season, Cartier has introduced a new chapter in one of its most enduring love stories: the Cartier Love bracelet. Since its debut in 1969, this slim gold bangle designed by Aldo Cipullo in New York, has been more than jewellery. Locked in place with a miniature screwdriver, it became a wearable vow, a declaration of permanence when love itself often felt fleeting.
Elizabeth Taylor had hers; Richard Burton wore one to match. Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw, Sophia Loren, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. They all sealed their wrists with Cartier’s vision of modern devotion. The bracelet’s symbolism was so strong that New York hospitals kept tiny Cartier screwdrivers on hand for emergencies. Half a century later, it remains the maison’s most popular piece of jewellery, retailing today from around $6,900 to over $56,000, depending on gold and diamond setting.
Now, Cartier is rewriting the code with Love Unlimited. The screws remain visible, burnished, unapologetic, but the bangle itself bends. It is composed of more than 200 components and perfected after over a hundred prototypes. The new design drapes around the wrist like second skin. Its clasp hides in plain sight: a functional screw that clicks open without assistance, making this version as easy to wear as it is to gift.
More than five decades later, Love Unlimited doesn’t ask you to be rigid. It bends and curves. It slips on like second skin, with a clasp that hides its secret in plain sight. The screws are still there, a reminder of the original provocation. But this Love doesn’t demand a partner to secure it. It lets you fasten yourself. And personally, I love that. It signals buying it for yourself instead of waiting for your s/o to get the memo.
Where Cipullo’s original Cartier Love bracelet was a lock: a statement that permanence could be engineered, Love Unlimited offers a different metaphor. It is flexible, modular, self-fastening, reflecting relationships that bend without breaking, that change shape without losing strength.
This festive season, Cartier hasn’t just refreshed an icon. It has reimagined how we might wear love itself: not as a handcuff, but as movement. The gold version is $9,400 USD. A splurge, yes. But also a forever piece. The question is, is it about to land on your wishlist (or in your cart)?