10-year anniversary! Cartier Love vs. Van Cleef Alhambra

[AuroraSeraphina]

Hi everyone!

I am absolutely new to the Cartier and Van Cleef world and have been doing a bit of research in the last month on PurseForum, YouTube and the Internet so as to help decide between the Cartier Love bracelet and Van Cleef Alhambra bracelet. Our 10-year wedding anniversary is coming up this summer and initially my husband mentioned that he would like to get us matching Cartier bracelets as a gift. In speaking with his sister, she suggested Van Cleef Alhambra instead; when he mentioned to me, I quickly brushed it off as I have seen it here and there on influencers and marketing but just never really gravitated towards it.

On doing some more reading on the Cartier Love bracelet, I am now stuck debating the pros/cons of both and would love your honest opinion and experience with these two bracelets. I know some ladies have both so would really appreciate your insight!

My values/thoughts are that ultimately, I would like the anniversary bracelet to:

• Be easygoing to wear, easy to dress up/down. The Cartier screw piece has me a bit hesitant because of this.
• Be durable as I generally prefer to be carefree with my jewellery and handbags.
• Have meaning. Initially I thought ouuu, 10 diamonds on the Cartier piece is lovely as it’s our 10-year anniversary but in reading a comment about all the diamonds taking away from the original Love design and the severely overpriced diamonds for tiny size, it had me second-guessing.
• Value for price. The Cartier pieces are 11-20k, depending on # of diamonds or bracelet thickness. The Van Cleef Alhambra yellow gold 5-motif pieces I’m eyeing are 5-7k.
• I don’t plan on reselling this sentimental gift of course but have noted general comments about lower resale value? But I have also noticed Cartier had a huge jump in prices!

Which bracelet would you pick? Any other advice/tips to consider?

Thank you!

 

[ehy210]

Happy anniversary! I have both and I’d pick the Cartier love bracelet. It’s extremely easy to wear. I forget that it’s on my wrist sometimes. Once you screw it on, it stays on. I was in between the plain and 4 diamond one for a long time and ultimately picked the plain YG bracelet without diamonds as I like the simplicity of the design. The diamonds aren’t very noticeable and wasn’t worth the up charge to me. It is personal preference. I definitely have to baby the VCA Alhambra piece more. The hammered gold can be worn care free everyday but I’d be hesitant to wear the guilloche everyday due to scratches that can’t be removed. Whichever way you choose, you can’t go wrong!

 

[sparklywacky]

Definitely the Love, especially if he wants to have a matching piece with you.

 

[Deneuveness]

The Love. Always the Love.

 

[DeryaHm]

Hi everyone!

I am absolutely new to the Cartier and Van Cleef world and have been doing a bit of research in the last month on PurseForum, YouTube and the Internet so as to help decide between the Cartier Love bracelet and Van Cleef Alhambra bracelet. Our 10-year wedding anniversary is coming up this summer and initially my husband mentioned that he would like to get us matching Cartier bracelets as a gift. In speaking with his sister, she suggested Van Cleef Alhambra instead; when he mentioned to me, I quickly brushed it off as I have seen it here and there on influencers and marketing but just never really gravitated towards it.

On doing some more reading on the Cartier Love bracelet, I am now stuck debating the pros/cons of both and would love your honest opinion and experience with these two bracelets. I know some ladies have both so would really appreciate your insight!

My values/thoughts are that ultimately, I would like the anniversary bracelet to:

• Be easygoing to wear, easy to dress up/down. The Cartier screw piece has me a bit hesitant because of this.
• Be durable as I generally prefer to be carefree with my jewellery and handbags.
• Have meaning. Initially I thought ouuu, 10 diamonds on the Cartier piece is lovely as it’s our 10-year anniversary but in reading a comment about all the diamonds taking away from the original Love design and the severely overpriced diamonds for tiny size, it had me second-guessing.
• Value for price. The Cartier pieces are 11-20k, depending on # of diamonds or bracelet thickness. The Van Cleef Alhambra yellow gold 5-motif pieces I’m eyeing are 5-7k.
• I don’t plan on reselling this sentimental gift of course but have noted general comments about lower resale value? But I have also noticed Cartier had a huge jump in prices!

Which bracelet would you pick? Any other advice/tips to consider?

Thank you!

If you want matching do Love. But for a 10 year piece for you I would get neither and instead suggest a 10 motif VCA necklace.

I know it's a bit awkward to say on the Cartier forum, but I have both Cartier and VCA pieces and like both, but depending on where you live a Love bracelet is so ubiquitous that to me it would not be appealing as a special present for a milestone anniversary. I live mostly between NYC/Eastern LI beaches and Loves are a dime a dozen here and would not feel like a special anniversary thing to me, although I am definitely glad to have one and enjoy wearing it (mine was a Valentine's Day present, which feels more appropriate for something this commonly used by others). VCA bracelets are also fairly common, but it is more unusual IME to see a 10 motif and I like the idea of the sentimentality. But of course you should go with whatever pleases you the most. I think the 10 motifs run around 9K, full/partial pave probably start more like 25-30.

I wouldn't consider resale value for an anniversary gift. For a milestone anniversary pick something you're positive you wouldn't want to sell. Despite what I wrote above, it sounds like that might not be VCA for you since it sounds like you're not a big fan and mostly consider it based on SIL's recommendation.

Can you try these on in person? That is what I would most seriously advise. It sounds like you are most drawn to the love w diamonds, which also has the nice sentimental tie to 10. No disrespect to our TPF community, but I would not make a decision like this based on anyone else's opinion. If you are near a Cartier, go check out the 10 with diamonds in person and if you love it, go with that.

 

[Emily1830]

Would your husband want to wear an Alhambra piece?

I think Cartier works better here personally. Why not do the 10 diamond one if you love it? If you don’t want to deal with screws then the cuff is a good option too.

 

[AuroraSeraphina]

Happy anniversary! I have both and I’d pick the Cartier love bracelet. It’s extremely easy to wear. I forget that it’s on my wrist sometimes. Once you screw it on, it stays on. I was in between the plain and 4 diamond one for a long time and ultimately picked the plain YG bracelet without diamonds as I like the simplicity of the design. The diamonds aren’t very noticeable and wasn’t worth the up charge to me. It is personal preference. I definitely have to baby the VCA Alhambra piece more. The hammered gold can be worn care free everyday but I’d be hesitant to wear the guilloche everyday due to scratches that can’t be removed. Whichever way you choose, you can’t go wrong!

Thank you for your insight! Do you wear the Love bracelet 24/7? Have you noticed much scratching over time? That was one thing I read about as many said with soft 18k gold, it scratches fairly easily?

 

[AuroraSeraphina]

Definitely the Love, especially if he wants to have a matching piece with you.

Excellent point about the matching pair! He’s definitely looking forward to some bling, haha

 

[AuroraSeraphina]

If you want matching do Love. But for a 10 year piece for you I would get neither and instead suggest a 10 motif VCA necklace.

I know it's a bit awkward to say on the Cartier forum, but I have both Cartier and VCA pieces and like both, but depending on where you live a Love bracelet is so ubiquitous that to me it would not be appealing as a special present for a milestone anniversary. I live mostly between NYC/Eastern LI beaches and Loves are a dime a dozen here and would not feel like a special anniversary thing to me, although I am definitely glad to have one and enjoy wearing it (mine was a Valentine's Day present, which feels more appropriate for something this commonly used by others). VCA bracelets are also fairly common, but it is more unusual IME to see a 10 motif and I like the idea of the sentimentality. But of course you should go with whatever pleases you the most. I think the 10 motifs run around 9K, full/partial pave probably start more like 25-30.

I wouldn't consider resale value for an anniversary gift. For a milestone anniversary pick something you're positive you wouldn't want to sell. Despite what I wrote above, it sounds like that might not be VCA for you since it sounds like you're not a big fan and mostly consider it based on SIL's recommendation.

Can you try these on in person? That is what I would most seriously advise. It sounds like you are most drawn to the love w diamonds, which also has the nice sentimental tie to 10. No disrespect to our TPF community, but I would not make a decision like this based on anyone else's opinion. If you are near a Cartier, go check out the 10 with diamonds in person and if you love it, go with that.

Thank you for your thoughts, so very helpful as you considered many angles I didn’t think about.

I have never really been a necklace person (probably only remember to wear one maybe 10x a year) so the VCA necklace, while a great suggestion, may not be for me.

Haha, despite living in Toronto, Canada, I think I must only be semi-aware of fashion as I honestly cannot name a single person I know who owns these two pieces. I also work in a hospital so not many opportunities to dress up at work and down time is mostly with the fam…

I will definitely heed your advice to try these pieces on. I have to get over my discomfort of browsing in high-end boutiques…still feel intimidated when not going in for a straight purchase…

 

[bluebird03]

Hands down the Love bracelet. I was also very hesitant before buying my Love bracelet but I dont regret it for a minute.

 

[lovecartier]

Love. Love. Love.

 

[avcbob]

The Love bracelet for sure. My wife and I have matching Love's, actually Love stacks at this point!

 

[Fabfashion]

My vote is also for a Love bracelet if your husband would like a matching one (I think that’s really sweet). If you work in a hospital and need to take the bracelet off often, you may want to try the Love cuff bracelet so you don’t have to screw it on or off all the time which can wear down the screws over time. I don’t have any VCA jewelry but have tried them on. I personally think the Alhambra bracelet is more delicate compared to a Love bangle in terms of durability—link chains vs a solid bangle—but not in anyway saying the VCA bracelets are not well made and high quality. If you’re concerned about durability then may be try check out VCA Perlee bracelets which are bangle style.

When you purchase any of these luxury brands, you can’t really equate value for price because most of the dollar value goes to the brand equity. You’re buying the design, brand name, a sense of assured quality (not that they’re alway perfect but one would hope the company will address any issues) and other emotional benefits that are associated with buying a luxury branded item. I was deciding between a no diamond and 4 diamond Love a while ago. The 4D is about $1K per each 0.10 ct of diamond which if I was buying just diamonds it’d be insanely overpriced. So you may want to consider it from the perspective of which design you actually love and will want to wear all the time. A Love bracelet design is significantly different than an Alhambra motif. If you think you like the Love design more, then decide whether you’d like to see it with all screws, alternate screw and diamond or all diamonds. My first Love bracelet was for our 18th anniversary and I chose 10 diamonds because I just love diamonds. Lol. I know it’s a Love bracelet and don’t care that it doesn’t show any screws except the 2 that connect the 2 bracelet pieces together. I also live in Toronto and most people I know don’t know a Cartier from a Coach and don’t know what I wear 99% of the time. It doesn’t matter to me as I wear my jewelry for myself.

Also, you may also want to consider how you feel about wearing a bracelet 24/7 and scratches. The Love bracelet when worn all the time will lose its shiny surface but gain a warm patina—browse through the Action thread to see many gorgeous examples. I’m personally skittish about scratches so I don’t wear my Love all the time and I also don’t like sleeping with any jewelry on. The Alhambra is a lot less likely to show scratches and can be taken off easily. So you may want to consider how you’ll wear the bracelet. Many tPFers here wear their Love all the time for years.

If you’d like to try the Love at the Bloor St boutique, you’re welcome to message me and I’ll send you contact information for my favourite SA.

Happy Anniversary!

 

[Kellybuzzbuzz]

We had our 10 year anniversary last year and we were torn between the same ones as you. We ultimately chose the love regular sized and then had it engraved. My husband doesn’t wear jewelry though. This year I’m on the waitlist for the hammered 5 motif bracelet at our local boutique. But I’m happy that we went with the love for our anniversary-it feels solid and I love that we had it engraved with something very meaningful to us.

 

[Rockysmom]

As an owner of both bracelets, my vote is the Love. I wear mine 24/7. I do take it off about every 2 weeks for a cleaning and polish it myself. I hate putting on/taking off jewelry so my VCA doesn't get as much wear. My love is the rainbow version but I hope to add the regular love to my stack because I do like the screws showing.