With love: in 1969--while social, artistic, and sexual revolutions rocked the culture--Cartier introduced a revolutionary two-piece bracelet that had to be locked together or unlocked by somebody else, preferably a loved one. Now it looks like lightning is about to strike twice.

In the summer of 1969 Carrier's Love bracelet, a solid-gold cuff studded with tiny screws, was designed by Aldo Cipullo. Inspired by medieval chastity belts, he created a two-piece bracelet that was bolted together with a separate screwdriver and worn tight on the wrist until unlocked by the same screwdriver. But it wasn't just the design that was inspired. The timing was perfect: It was a year dominated by hippies, peace and love, Easy Rider, Woodstock, Stonewall, and the first man on the moon. In other words, it was the right moment to introduce a piece of jewelry that symbolized commitment without having the weightier social or religious connotations of a ring.

Even the marketing campaign for the Love bracelet was visionary. As part of the product launch and to stress the bracelet's lovers-only message, in light-hearted ceremonies conducted in Cartier's Fifth Avenue boutique in New York City, 25 famous couples chosen from the fields of entertainment, business, communications, society and sports--including Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Cary Grant and Dyan Cannon, Ali MacGraw and Steve McQueen, Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor--locked the bangles on each others' wrists and formally exchanged screwdrivers. As many of those couples found out, it's easier, and less painful, to get another screwdriver than it is to get a divorce. "It's not on my wrist anymore," observes Dyan Cannon. "What else can I say?"

For her part Ali MacGraw insisted on incorporating the Love bracelet onscreen. "I played the role of Carol McCoy opposite Steve McQueen in the movie The Getaway," she says today, "and as part of the costume I insisted that Carol wear that specific bracelet." The Cartier boutique, in fact, so believed the Love bracelet was symbolic of a relationship that they refused to sell the bracelet to anyone purchasing it for themselves. In 1972 Liz Taylor attended the Rothschild's Proust ball in Paris ...