Vertu Is Its Own Reward

It's the most obsessively used accessory in your bag — so why shouldn't your mobile phone also be the most beautiful? That's the idea behind Vertu phones, which began selling last week — for €6,000 and up — at Selfridges department store in London and recently opened boutiques in Paris and Beverly Hills. Handcrafted from precious materials, Vertu hopes the devices will appeal to those who live luxe: Gwyneth Paltrow has already got hers. But though the company says Tom Ford has ordered one, his p.r. says he hasn't.

In many ways Vertu is an old phone in...