THE CURATED EDITION.
Reportage /
Created in New York in 1969, the bracelet made a visible screw and a small tool part of the language of jewellery.
STYLE
Cartier’s LOVE bracelet made fastening part of the meaning of a jewel. When Aldo Cipullo designed it in New York in 1969, the visible screw was not an engineering detail to conceal. It became the object’s defining sign.
Cipullo had worked at Tiffany & Co. and David Webb before joining Cartier. His approach gave a familiar declaration of affection an unfamiliar form: an oval bracelet, close to the wrist, whose mechanism asked the wearer to make a deliberate gesture when putting it on or taking it off.
The original design’s polished surfaces and screw motifs differed from jewellery whose effect depended on elaborate setting and ornament. The small screwdriver that accompanied the bracelet connected the finished object with the language of a workshop.
Cartier’s own history offered a precedent. Visible screws were already part of the Santos watch, associated with Alberto Santos-Dumont. Cipullo brought that vocabulary into a bracelet conceived for different wearers rather than a narrowly gendered occasion.
Stories about the precise hour of its conception and a relationship’s end contribute to the mythology. They should not obscure the idea that is visible in the object itself: removal requires an action, giving the fastening a symbolic weight as well as a function.
The bracelet’s early association with well-known couples helped carry it into photographs, films and social life. The important change was not simply that famous people wore it. The tool and the act of fastening gave the gift a recognisable ritual.
That ritual should not be mistaken for a practical rule that only a partner can remove the bracelet. The wearer and the tool can perform the operation. Likewise, stories of hospitals keeping special screwdrivers are part of its popular lore, not universal medical guidance.
LOVE developed into different metals, sizes and stone-set versions, alongside rings, earrings and other forms. The range expanded while the screw motif kept the connection between them visible.
LOVE Unlimited belongs to a newer chapter, publicly presented by Cartier in 2025 rather than the 2024 date previously given. Its more flexible construction develops the collection without making the original 1969 mechanism irrelevant.
Cipullo’s work extended beyond LOVE. The nail bracelet now known as Juste un Clou offers another example of an ordinary piece of hardware being transformed through proportion and material. His authorship deserves to remain within the story, instead of allowing the house’s name to erase the designer behind a familiar object.
The bracelet’s commercial success does not establish a guaranteed future resale value, and unverified claims about its share of Cartier’s revenue are unnecessary to understand it. Its influence can be read in the design.
A visible screw gave a simple shape a durable identity. More than half a century later, the object still asks for the same deliberate act. Cipullo made a technical decision carry an emotional one.
Further information: collection history · 2025 account of LOVE Unlimited.
Cover: Cartier LOVE bracelet. Archive image.
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