The Love Bracelet, created by Italian designer Aldo Cipullo in 1969, took the high fashion world by storm with its unique design and origin. Since that time, the Love Bracelet stands strong as one of Cartier’s most celebrated designs. Accordingly, the Cartier Love Bracelet has been produced in huge variety of configurations. With all the Love Bracelet designs, unique sizing, and countless counterfeits on the market, shopping for your first Love Bracelet can feel daunting. As usual, we’re here to help: read on for an industry-expert’s guide on how to buy a Cartier Love Bracelet.
The Love Bracelet’s design inspiration
Inspired by chastity belts, the Love Bracelet is composed of two “C” shaped halves that are held together with two miniature screws, locking the bracelet onto the wearer. Screwhead motifs adorn the length of the bracelet, making the fully removable screws seamlessly blend in.
When explaining the Love Bracelet’s unique design, Aldo Cipullo stated, “What modern people want are love symbols that look semi-permanent – or, at least, require a trick to remove. After all, love symbols should suggest an everlasting quality.”
To further illustrate the Love bracelet’s tie to romanticism, Cartier gifted famous couples with Love Bracelets, such as Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as well as Ali MacGraw and Steve McQueen.
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How to open a Cartier Love Bracelet
To put on the bracelet, the wearer must use the miniature golden screwdriver that comes with their Love Bracelet to secure the two bracelet halves onto their wrist. The two screws are carefully secured on opposite sides of the bracelet. As this is most easily done with the help of a partner, it makes sense that when Love Bracelets first came onto the market they were exclusively sold to couples where the man was to hold onto the screwdriver, like a modern-day Chasity belt. Happily, anyone can buy a Love Bracelet for themselves today.
Cartier Love Bracelet styles
Cartier’s Love Bracelet comes in several charming designs. Your first step is to decide which style combination is perfect for you:
Metal
Love Bracelets are available in 18k white, yellow and rose gold.
Gemstones
While the solid gold Love Bracelet is a classic, you may want to add a little extra glamor onto your wrist with pave diamonds, sapphires, garnets, and other captivating gemstones adorning the bracelet.
Width
You can select between the standard Love Bracelet width or opt for the smaller width for a more delicate style.
Variations
If screwing yourself into your jewelry isn’t quite for you, consider getting a Love cuff that slips on easily or a delicate Love chain bracelet which features two small Love bands linked together.
Price
Love Bracelet prices start as low as $4,000 and the most outstanding, diamond-adorned designs cost well over $40,000.
What size Cartier Love bracelet should you choose?
After you decide on your favorite configuration, you should figure out what size you need. Finding your perfect Love Bracelet size can be a little tricky because of the bracelet’s unique oval shape, so you should familiarize yourself with Cartier’s Love Bracelet sizing system.
Cartier Love Bracelet Sizing System
Love Bracelets are sized in centimeters, with standard sizes running from 15cm to 21cm. Sizes that fall out of this range require specialty orders that cost a bit extra.
To get your Love Bracelet size:
- Use a measuring tape to measure the part of your wrist where the bracelet will rest. Note, if your wrist measures as a half size, round up (i.e. 17.5cm should be rounded up to 18cm).
- Next, decide if you want a tight or looser fitting bracelet. For a tighter fit, add one centimeter to your measured wrist size. For a looser fit, add two centimeters to your measured wrist size.
If you don’t have a tape measurer handy, you can print our bracelet sizing guide.
Where to buy a Cartier Love Bracelet
Cartier Love Bracelets can be purchased for full retail price at a Cartier boutique, but can regularly be found below retail on the secondary market. The bad news is that the Love Bracelet is also one of the most counterfeited pieces of jewelry in the world. While you may have no problem spotting a $20 mock Love Bracelet sold on the street, there are plenty of counterfeit Love Bracelets on the market that can dupe even the most careful of buyers.
You can always use our helpful guide to learn how to spot a fake Cartier Love Bracelet. Of course this is never fool-proof. Your safest best is to buy a Cartier love bracelet from a trusted jewelry reseller instead of comparing countless brand hallmarks, analyzing miniature stamping on bracelets, and carefully reviewing paperwork to see if a bracelet is real.
As always, our recommendation is to buy the seller, not the product. For authentic, pre-owned Love Bracelets sold with a money-back guarantee, see our collection of Cartier jewelry.
How to stack Cartier Love Bracelets
The Love Bracelet looks great stacked, either in the same metal or in different variations. Whether just two side-by-side or five (like pictured below), the Love Bracelet stacks effortlessly and looks like a set, however many you choose to wear at once.
Celebrity Cartier Love Bracelets
When the Love Bracelet was released in the late 1960’s it quickly caught the attention of celebrates and became the must-have accessory. Nearly 50 years later, the Love Bracelet makes plenty of appearances on the red carpet, in film, and on style-forward Instagram influencer posts.
From the likes of Rihanna, Mila Kunis, Jennifer Aniston, and even Megan Markel (who wore cascades of jaw-dropping Cartier jewels on her wedding day) the Love Bracelet is just as classic today as it was half a century ago.
Kylie Jenner, who can still be seen wearing stacks of Love Bracelets on her arms, was famously trapped in one of her Love Bracelets for years; even the Cartier team could not free her without destroying the bracelet. With the help of the fire department, Kylie was able to eventually break free from her $6,000 golden shackles. Let Kylie be a warning for anyone who messily screws on their Love Bracelets!
Love Bracelets still bring couples together, just like when English actress Kaya Scodelario’s future husband, Benjamin Walker, gifted her with a Love Bracelet during their first Christmas together. At that moment, Benjamin realized that he really wanted to buy Kaya an engagement ring, but the Love Bracelet was the first tangible step in cementing their everlasting love and commitment.
