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Implicit Guarantees May Not Be Worth the Paper They're Not On  

True, Richemont's "grand luxury" brands should be more resilient than many less-exclusive peers. Cartier and stablemates such as Van Cleef & Arpels and Piaget are accessible only to the world's wealthiest, consumers who are expected to keep spending, credit crunch or no. A strong presence in China, predicted to be the world's second-largest luxury market by 2015, should also help.

But Mr. Rupert has gone to some trouble to set up a fund that can invest in anything other than premium trinkets. It looks like one of the titans of luxury goods is hedging his bets.

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