Juste un Clou, French for just a nail, is a Cartier jewellery collection originally designed by Aldo Cipullo in 1971 in New York and reintroduced under its present name by Cartier in 2012. The collection consists of bracelets, rings, necklaces and earrings in the form of a stylised carpenter's nail bent around the wearer's wrist, finger or neck, executed in 18-carat yellow, white and rose gold, sometimes with diamond pavé.

Origin and Aldo Cipullo

Aldo Cipullo (1935-1984) was a Roman-born jewellery designer who emigrated to New York and worked first at David Webb and then, from 1969, at Cartier New York. His best-known designs are the Cartier Love bracelet of 1969 and the Juste un Clou bracelet of 1971. Both designs share Cipullo's signature theme of taking everyday hardware, the screw and the nail, and elevating it into precious jewellery, and both reflected the New York countercultural moment of the late 1960s and early 1970s in which the boundary between fine jewellery and conceptual design was being deliberately tested.

Style and execution

The original Juste un Clou bracelet was a single length of solid yellow gold, formed in cross-section as a stylised round nail, bent into an open bangle so that the nail-head sits on one side of the wrist and the nail-point on the other. The bangle is rigid and is opened across a hinged or sprung joint to be put on. Subsequent versions added pavé diamond settings on the nail head and along the shaft, smaller and larger diameters, ring versions, pendant versions and earrings. The design has been produced in 18-carat yellow, rose and white gold and, in special editions, in platinum.

The 2012 reintroduction

The Juste un Clou was discontinued in the late 1970s and remained out of production for several decades. In 2012 Cartier reintroduced the collection under the present name, with a major international marketing campaign that explicitly drew the lineage from Cipullo's 1971 piece. The reintroduction coincided with broader trade interest in 1970s-era jewellery design and benefited from the strong continued performance of the related Love collection.

Trade significance

For Cartier the Juste un Clou is one of three pillar collections, alongside Love and Trinity, that anchor the firm's identity in everyday wearable jewellery rather than in haute joaillerie. For the wider trade the design is a reference point for the conceptual-jewellery tradition that runs from Cipullo through to contemporary designers such as Anita Ko, Jennifer Fisher and David Yurman. Pre-1980 Cipullo-era Juste un Clou pieces command serious premiums on the secondary market relative to current production, and authentication of vintage examples turns on hallmarks, the original Cartier numbering system, and the mechanical detail of the nail-form construction.