Cartiers, The - Francesca Cartier Brickell

At its heart are the three Cartier brothers whose motto was "Never copy, only create" and who turned their grandfather's humble Parisian jewellery store into a global luxury icon, thanks to their unique and complementary talents: Louis, the visionary designer who created the first men's wristwatch to help an aviator friend tell the time without taking his hands off the controls of his flying machine; Pierre, the master dealmaker who bought the New York headquarters on Fifth Avenue for a double-stranded natural pearl necklace; and Jacques, the modest globe-trotting gemstone expert whose trips East gave Cartier access to the most phenomenal gems on the planet. Francesca Cartier Brickell has travelled the world researching her family's history. Now she reveals never-before-told dramas, romances, intrigues, and betrayals, while taking a behind-the-scenes look at the firm's most iconic jewellery and the long line of stars from the worlds of fashion, film, and royalty who wore them. The Cartiers is a magnificent, definitive, epic social history shown through the deeply personal lens of one legendary family.