Cartier

Cartier appears in the diaries less as an abstract luxury house than as the organizer and subject of a conspicuous social performance. The clearest episode is a costly anniversary party for the Santos Dumont wristwatch: aircraft were brought into an armory, guests received watches, and the evening gathered prominent figures around a product whose design was linked to aviation. Yet the event’s scale did not guarantee success. The diary calls it an occasion that “just didn’t work,” while its most memorable moments arise from the guests’ responses to the gifts and to one another.

The anniversary party

Ralph Destino gave the party to celebrate the anniversary of the Santos Dumont wristwatch. Cartier’s connection to the event was both material and theatrical: the watch had been invented for a pilot, so Destino spent heavily to bring airplanes into the armory. The diary estimated that the whole party probably cost about $100,000. Its elaborate staging made the product’s aviation association part of the room’s spectacle, rather than leaving it as a detail of the watch’s design.

The guest list included Lee Radziwill and Baryshnikov. The narrator arrived with Jed Johnson and Paulette Goddard, and also recorded the presence of several other guests. The account does not explain precisely why the event failed to make its intended impression. Instead, its judgment that the party “just didn’t work” sits against the extravagant expense and conspicuous effort, leaving the mismatch itself as the evening’s central observation: a very large production could still fall flat.

Watches, gifts, and social performance

The watches given out at the party were described as costing $1,300 apiece, while the diary estimated Cartier’s cost at about $600 each. Eight were given away. These figures make the gifts more than decorative accessories in the account: they register the difference between a watch’s stated value and the expense the host incurred to put it into guests’ hands. The watches also carried expectations of gratitude and public graciousness, expectations that not every guest met comfortably.

Paulette Goddard arrived wearing what the narrator estimated to be $3 million worth of ruby jewelry and spoke about selling paintings and how much money she had. She rejected the women’s watch and asked for a men’s one; Destino agreed. Her choice turned the gift into a small negotiation over preference and presentation, while her jewelry made the watch part of a larger display of wealth. The diary records no objection from Cartier’s representative to the switch.

Marion Javits, who did not know who Destino was, called the watches “crap.” When he identified himself as Cartier’s president, she became distressed and found herself unable to leave the situation easily. The narrator tried to soften the embarrassment by telling her, “Well look, Marion, it’ll be a memorable evening for him—he’ll never forget it.” The episode makes the party’s social rules visible: the gift was not simply assessed as an object but was entangled with the host’s identity, the guest’s response, and the obligation to maintain appearances.

The party’s afterlife

The watch giveaway also produced an expectation beyond the party itself. Later, Bob Colacello was upset because he had expected Destino to call and give him a Cartier watch, but no call came. The diary does not establish that Bob had been promised one; it records his expectation and the disappointment that followed. In this brief aftermath, Cartier’s gifts remain socially consequential even after the event: the watch could function as a coveted sign of recognition, and the absence of one could register as a slight.

Taken together, these references frame Cartier through a sequence of public display, personal choice, awkwardness, and unmet expectation. The anniversary celebration tried to join the watch’s aviation story to a grand social occasion, but the diary remembers its cost alongside its failure to work, and its luxury alongside the discomfort of negotiating a gift. Cartier’s presence is therefore clearest not in a description of the company’s wider operations, but in the varied responses its watches prompted among the people gathered around them.