【Paris, Franc】Cartier, The Technology of Designing Love

In 2025, Cartier has once again positioned itself at the center of the jewelry market. The iconic ‘LOVE’ collection, spanning half a century, has been reborn in a new form, demonstrating how luxury can transcend time.
Cartier’s status in the global jewelry market is solid. Its parent company, Richemont Group, recorded sales of approximately €21.4 billion (about ₩35 trillion) for the 2024-25 fiscal year, with the Jewelry Maisons division accounting for about €15.3 billion (about ₩25 trillion), representing over half of the total.
At the heart of this is Cartier. It is the brand with the highest sales within the Richemont Group. According to the Brand Finance 2025 report, Cartier’s brand value is approximately €14.6 billion (about ₩24 trillion), a roughly 15% increase from the previous year. This figure shows that Cartier remains a central pillar of the high-end jewelry industry.
However, Cartier’s story has always been completed beyond the numbers. Its essence lies in ‘value’. From being called the ‘Jeweler of Kings’ in the 19th century to leading ‘Sustainable Luxury’ in the 21st, the central question for Cartier has always been, ‘How can we give form to love?’
The new ‘LOVE Unlimited’ collection is the most contemporary answer to that question. Expanding its philosophy from ‘locking love together’ to ‘connecting love together’, this collection combines a flexible link structure with an invisible clasp, showcasing Cartier’s way of treating technology and emotion as a single language. The evolution of this one collection alone is sufficient reason why Cartier is still called the ‘standard of luxury’.

In 1847, when Louis-François Cartier first crafted jewelry in a small workshop on Rue Montorgueil in Paris, he already aimed for ‘beauty that does not change with time’. Growing by receiving orders from royalty and nobility, Cartier earned the title ‘Jeweler of Kings, King of Jewelers’ in 1856 by supplying jewels to Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III’s nephew. Subsequently, Cartier expanded to London and New York, establishing itself as the world’s first global jewelry house.
In 1904, Louis Cartier created the world’s first wristwatch, the ‘Santos’, for aviator Alberto Santos-Dumont. The exposed screws and geometric proportions were an aesthetic born from function and the origin of Cartier’s design language. Later, it gave birth to numerous icons like the Panthère, Trinity, and Tank, establishing the ‘aesthetics of formal balance and proportion’.

To this day, Cartier has maintained the same design principles for over 170 years, based on the ‘aesthetics of formal balance and proportion’. Their jewelry is not mere decoration but a structural language where function, emotion, and relationships intersect. This aesthetic has captivated the sensibilities of celebrities and artists across generations.
In 1956, American actress Grace Kelly became Princess of Monaco upon marrying Prince Rainier III. She received a Cartier diamond ring as an engagement gift, solidifying the image of ‘royal jewelry’. Elizabeth Taylor added to the brand’s legendary allure in 1969 by purchasing the ‘La Peregrina’ pearl necklace from Cartier, becoming a topic of the era.
Recently, a new generation of cultural icons like Rihanna, Dua Lipa, Kendall Jenner, and Meghan Markle have frequently worn the LOVE bracelet, Juste un Clou, Trinity ring, and Panthère collection, demonstrating that Cartier’s classics still function as a contemporary language. Even as generations change, the structure of emotion continues. That is why Cartier is beloved.

In 1969, New York designer Aldo Cipullo wished to embody in jewelry design the desire to “create a symbol of love that, if not eternal, is not easily removed.” He conceived a structure where two arches interlock in an oval shape, with screws aligned on a flat surface and locked with a dedicated screwdriver. This simple idea gave birth to the ritual of ‘locking love together’, and the LOVE bracelet instantly became a Cartier icon.
LOVE binds loving partners through a gold band on the wrist that can only be locked with a specific screwdriver. The act has been likened to a kind of ‘noble handcuff’, as locking the bracelet’s screws requires two people.

Lovers wearing LOVE were effectively publicly declaring their relationship to the world. The oval silhouette naturally wrapped the wrist, achieving an ergonomic proportion, while the parallel screws created a linear tension. The ritual of locking the gold bracelet together symbolized commitment between partners, and its wear by iconic couples of the time like Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, firmly established its symbolism as couple’s jewelry.
In 1978, the LOVE ring, applying the same design, appeared, completing the collection. It was later presented in white gold and pink gold, and the collection evolved across generations with lightweight, delicate mini versions and open-form bracelets that sit on the wrist without a screwdriver.

Half a century later, LOVE still symbolizes the times. For today’s generation, which speaks of ‘relationships over ownership, sustainability over transience’, LOVE is once again becoming a language that newly defines the ‘structure of love’.

In September 2025, Cartier presented LOVE Unlimited, offering a new definition of ‘limitless love’. The new bracelet combines a flexible gadroon link structure that flows along the wrist’s curve with an invisible clasp system, simultaneously enhancing wearability and sculptural completeness.
The screw details running along the surface are hand-polished, reflecting delicately depending on the light angle, and the form that naturally adheres along the curves gently wraps the wrist like a second skin. It is also designed to connect two or more bracelets, demonstrating Cartier’s philosophy of love expanding beyond relationships into a ‘structure of connection’. If the original LOVE symbolized ‘locking love together’, LOVE Unlimited proposes the evolution of emotion into ‘connecting love together’.
Cartier co-founded the Watch & Jewellery Initiative 2030 (WJI 2030) in 2021 with the French luxury group Kering. WJI 2030 is a global sustainability platform aiming for climate resilience, resource preservation, and enhanced inclusivity across the watch and jewelry industry. Through this, Cartier is practicing responsible supply chain building and ethical raw material sourcing.
Furthermore, through the Cartier Women’s Initiative, it supports female entrepreneurs and social innovation projects, expanding the value of luxury into social responsibility.

Cartier has always designed love. However, the love they speak of is not a transient emotion but a structure that sustains relationships. Cartier’s design, which connects people and people, era and era, technology and sensibility, achieves ‘sustainable beauty’ that transcends time.
LOVE Unlimited is a new extension of that philosophy. The act of locking love on the wrist now connects through flexible links, and individual ownership expands into a legacy connecting generations. This change shows that Cartier is not merely a brand preserving tradition but a house designing tradition in the present tense.

Cartier’s practice, combining sustainable materials, transparent supply chains, and social responsibility, is also a declaration that luxury should not simply be an object of desire but a standard of value. Luxury must last longer and create more meaning. Cartier is the brand that first responded to that proposition.
The technology of designing love. It is the work of building the structure of emotion and the method of connecting today’s beauty to tomorrow. Cartier still is, and will continue to be, redefining the language of beauty.