Cartier and Tiffany rivalry has exploded into a sensational court case over spying allegations

For 150 years the world’s most glittering jewellers have been bitter rivals. But now it’s exploded into a sensational court case over spying allegations.

You’ll know it as the most effective product placement in Hollywood history. Good time girl Holly Golightly — played of course by Audrey Hepburn — stares longingly at the glittering baubles in the window of Tiffany in New York. 

In Breakfast At Tiffany’s nobody remembers Holly’s sarcastic quip that ‘it’s tacky to wear diamonds before you’re 40 and even that’s risky’. 

They just remember the world’s most beautiful and elegant actress admiring Tiffany jewellery in the 1961 romantic comedy’s opening scene. 

And even though the title came not as a result of some backroom marketing deal but from a Truman Capote novel, Tiffany & Co’s great rivals at Cartier were reportedly furious. 

After years of triumphantly adorning stars for the Oscars, it had been well and truly trumped. 

Any professional jealousy would be quite understandable given the long battle between the two jewellery houses over whose products graced the world’s richest and most elegant men and women. 

Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend but Tiffany and Cartier have never been chums. That rivalry — usually quietly played out in the world’s most expensive shopping streets — erupted into the open on Monday when Cartier sued Tiffany in a New York court. 

Cartier accuses its competitor of poaching one of its employees specifically to glean information about its High Jewellery — a collection of gem-studded rings, necklaces and wristwatches reserved for the sort of customer who would never embarrass anyone by glancing at the price tag. 

According to Cartier, Megan Marino, a junior manager, downloaded trade secrets about pieces that cost anything up to $10million (£7.5million) as part of a ‘desperate’ attempt by Tiffany to revive its own fine jewellery collection that had been left in ‘disarray’ following the departure of key staff. 

On the day of her job interview with Tiffany last December, Ms Marino allegedly forwarded ‘very sensitive and valuable’ internal company documents to her email. 

After she was hired for a job way beyond her abilities, says Cartier, she was debriefed personally by Tiffany’s president for the Americas who asked her for ‘highly valuable, detailed confidential information that would foster unfair competition’, as well as encouraged her to help them poach more staff from their rival. 

The Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle is part of the Cartier Crew with her Tank watch. The Tank — whose price ranges from a ‘mere’ £2,000 up to more than £18,000 — has long been Cartier’s ace card in its game of celebrity poker with Tiffany

Even more shockingly, it’s alleged, this Tiffany boss was ‘in the same breath disparaging Cartier in an unseemly manner’. 

Ms Marino was sacked by Tiffany after only five weeks and now says in an affidavit that the company was ‘more interested in hiring me as a source of information than as a High Jewellery manager’. 

Marino said that although she grew concerned about all the information she was sharing, she was repeatedly told by Tiffany to ‘not worry’ about it. In legal documents, Cartier claims the affair has ‘opened a window into Tiffany’s disturbing culture of misappropriating competitive information’. 

For its part, Tiffany has not yet filed its defence with the court, but said in a statement: ‘We deny the baseless allegation and will vigorously defend ourselves.’ 

The allegations are certainly serious given the rarefied reputations of both companies, and predictions of a ’24-carat’ courtroom slugging match certainly seem fair. 

But then high-end jewellery in a world in which the super-rich are growing ever wealthier has become a very high stakes game. 

Marilyn Monroe mentions the two duelling jewellers in the same breath in Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend and their super-smart showrooms are only separated by a short walk in areas such as London’s Bond Street and New York’s Fifth Avenue. 

But while, publicly, Tiffany and Cartier executives say they welcome the competition, the companies have been at each other’s throats commercially for decades

But while, publicly, Tiffany and Cartier executives say they welcome the competition, the companies have been at each other’s throats commercially for decades. 

Tiffany is the older firm but only by ten years. 

Founded in 1837 by part, say industry experts, to Breakfast At Tiffany’s. 

Holly Golightly’s warning about under-40s wearing diamonds not withstanding, Tiffany’s new owners want to make them young and hip — and has paid bling-friendly stars handsomely to help. 

Lady Gaga famously appeared at the 2019 Oscars wearing the Tiffany Diamond, a, 128-carat yellow diamond — more than an inch wide — that has been set in a 100-carat white diamond necklace. 

It’s estimated to be worth between £15 million and £22 million. Tiffany boasts it’s only been worn by four women since its discovery in South Africa’s Kimberley Mine in 1877. 

Another member of the Cartier Crew: The brand’s dozen-strong line-up of well remunerated ‘brand ambassadors’ include British actresses Maisie Williams (from Game Of Thrones). Pictured her attending The 2021 Met Gala Celebrating In America with a Cartier necklace

The foursome includes includes Audrey Hepburn (who wore it to promote Breakfast At Tiffany’s) and Beyonce who wore it for a lavish Tiffany advertising campaign last summer in which her rapper husband Jay-Z filmed her singing Moon River — the song from Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

 Industry experts warned that Tiffany’s older and largely American clientele — the ones rich enough to actually buy the stuff — won’t have been impressed. But Tiffany bosses don’t seem to care, recruiting ever younger celebrities as their ‘brand ambassadors’ as they look for new diamond-wearing markets. 

These ambassadors include the Korean pop sensation Rose and Anya Taylor-Joy, star of chess drama The Queen’s Gambit. 

British tennis champion Emma Raducanu also signed a deal with Tiffany that saw her dripping in the company’s trinkets — including earrings, ring, bangle and cross pendant — during her U.S. Open victory last September. 

At her post-match Press conference, she’d had time to swap the earrings for a gold pair. Tiffany, again. 

As befitting the less racy (but some say classier) Cartier, the company has dominated the jewellery collections of the Royal Family, past and present. 

It was not just Edward VII who liked them. 

After the abdication of Edward VIII, the Duchess of Windsor was no longer able to dip into the royal jewellery box, so commissioned various pieces, mainly brooches, from Cartier. 

Before he died, the Duke reportedly asked for the New York jeweller Charles Lewis Tiffany as a ‘stationery and fancy goods emporium’, it only really became famous as a maker of delicate, exquisite jewellery in the early 20th century when his more artistic son Louis took over. 

Cartier was set up in Paris by Louis-Francois Cartier in 1847 and remained under family control until 1964 when it was taken over by the Swiss Richemont Group. It quickly established itself as the jeweller of choice to royalty. 

Audrey Hepburn showed her Team Tiffany credentials as Holly Golightly in 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s 

Edward VII hailed it as ‘the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers’ and, for his 1902 coronation, ordered Cartier to make 27 tiaras. 

More recently, the long-standing rivalry for the jewellery crown appears to have escalated since Tiffany was bought in January last year by the French luxury goods giant LVMH. 

Looking to expand its market into China and Europe, the new management made clear it planned big changes and a shake-up of Tiffany’s conservative, slightly faded image. 

Just two months after the takeover, LVMH cancelled the restrained advert Tiffany had regularly placed on page three of the New York Times since 1896.

Instead, it ran billboard adverts in New York and Los Angeles featuring surly-looking, dresseddown models wearing necklaces and bangles under the headline ‘Not Your Mother’s Tiffany’. 

While Cartier beats Tiffany in high-end sales — the company has been valued at £9.1 billon compared to £4.1billion for Tiffany — (although LVMH paid nearly three times that amount) Tiffany has long had the edge in celebrity marketing — that’s thanks in large part, say industry experts, art, to Breakfast At Tiffany’s.  

Holly Golightly’s warning about under-40s wearing diamonds not withstanding, Tiffany’s new owners want to make them young and hip — and has paid bling-friendly stars handsomely to help.

Lady Gaga famously appeared at the 2019 Oscars wearing the Tiffany Diamond, a, 128-carat yellow diamond — more than an inch wide — that has been set in a 100-carat white diamond necklace. 

It’s estimated to be worth between £15 million and £22 million. 

Tiffany boasts it’s only been worn by four women since its discovery in South Africa’s Kimberley Mine in 1877. The foursome includes includes Audrey Hepburn (who wore it to promote Breakfast At Tiffany’s) and Beyonce who wore it for a lavish Tiffany advertising campaign last summer in which her rapper husband Jay-Z filmed her singing Moon River — the song from Breakfast At Tiffany’s.

 Industry experts warned that Tiffany’s older and largely American clientele — the ones rich enough to actually buy the stuff — won’t have been impressed.

British tennis champion Emma Raducanu signed up for Team Tiffany in a deal that saw her dripping in the company’s trinkets — including earrings, ring, bangle and cross pendant — during her US Open victory last September

 But Tiffany bosses don’t seem to care, recruiting ever younger celebrities as their ‘brand ambassadors’ as they look for new diamond-wearing markets. 

These ambassadors include the Korean pop sensation Rose and Anya Taylor-Joy, star of chess drama The Queen’s Gambit. 

British tennis champion Emma Raducanu also signed a deal with Tiffany that saw her dripping in the company’s trinkets — including earrings, ring, bangle and cross pendant — during her U.S. Open victory last September. 

At her post-match Press conference, she’d had time to swap the earrings for a gold pair. Tiffany, again. 

As befitting the less racy (but some say classier) Cartier, the company has dominated the jewellery collections of the Royal Family, past and present. 

It was not just Edward VII who liked them. 

After the abdication of Edward VIII, the Duchess of Windsor was no longer able to dip into the royal jewellery box, so commissioned various pieces, mainly brooches, from Cartier. 

Before he died, the Duke reportedly asked for the jewels to be removed from their settings so ‘lesser’ women couldn’t wear them. 

She ignored this request and they were sold at auction in 1987, some snapped up by Elizabeth Taylor. 

When her marriage started to unravel, Princess Diana stopped wearing a Patek Philippe gold watch Prince Charles had given her and wrapped her wrist instead with a classic Cartier Tank Louis on an alligator strap, a present from her father. 

She had another Tank, a gold Francaise, for more formal occasions and left it to her sons when she died. 

Prince Harry later passed it to wife Meghan, who’d already bought herself a Tank in 2015 to celebrate a third series of her TV drama, Suits, being commissioned. 

The Tank — whose price ranges from a ‘mere’ £2,000 up to more than £18,000 — has long been Cartier’s ace card in its game of celebrity poker with Tiffany. 

The elegant watch (its Tank name supposedly inspired by the boxy first tanks in World War I) has proved a consistent favourite with the rich and famous. 

Team Tiffany’s Lady Gaga famously appeared at the 2019 Oscars wearing the Tiffany Diamond, a, 128-carat yellow diamond — more than an inch wide — that has been set in a 100-carat white diamond necklace

Duke Ellington, Yves Saint Laurent and Andy Warhol wore men’s versions while Ingrid Bergman, Catherine Deneuve, Madonna and Elizabeth Taylor wore the women’s watch. Matinee idol Rudolph Valentino insisted on wearing a Tank in his classic 1926 film The Son Of The Sheik, even though it was completely out of sync with his period costume. 

Jackie Kennedy Onassis wore one frequently. 

In 2017, reality TV star Kim Kardashian bought one of Jackie’s for a huge $395,000 (£295,000). 

Nor has Cartier let Tiffany scoop up all the young celebrity blood. Its dozen-strong line-up of wellremunerated ‘brand ambassadors’ include British actresses Lily Collins and Maisie Williams (from Game Of Thrones), Australian teen dreamboat singer Troye Sivan and Hong Kong rapper Jackson Wang (yes, Cartier also wants to expand into Asia). 

All of them appeared together in a glossy pop video, Love Is All, released last November and quickly watched four million times online. 

Collins, star of the drama series Emily In Paris, has been named the ‘face’ of Cartier’s supposedly punk-inspired Clash [Un]Limited collection. 

‘For me, being part of the Cartier family means joining a community of unique nonconformists who show great strength of character,’ she says. 

Gushing praise and vacuous words. But in the cut-throat world of cut-diamond sales, that hardly matters — it’s the glitz and glamour that usually counts. 

Now, a court case in New York threatens to wipe off some of that shine.