HARRY WINSTON

Of the regulars in the Polo Lounge, Count Enrico Carimati di Carimate is not your typical local deal maker. One recent noontime, he swept into the restaurant, kissed the hand of Barbara Davis (whose husband, Marvin, of course, now owns the Beverly Hills Hotel) and then sat down Please see and ordered his usual--a “double size” tuna sandwich on rye with jalapeno peppers.

As West Coast director of Harry Winston, Count Carimati (he should not be called “mister,” a publicist points out) oversees the operation of the firm’s first store outside of New York. It is tiny, decorated with Louis XVI furnishings and can be found behind electric gates off the hotel’s lobby.

The cosmopolitan Carimati doesn’t say much about what goes on behind those gates, except to say--in heavily accented Italian--that “California is very important at this moment. The West Coast is very rich and the Orient . . . we have the intention to go East.”

Although you can buy a ring at Harry Winston for as low as $4,000, most price tags have more zeros. A 41-karat sapphire sells for $1.3 million, an 18-karat ruby for $2.5 million, a 16-karat flawless diamond ring for $750,000.

Carimati, however, maintains that the company is interested in expanding its range to a younger audience, which, at Harry Winston, means people who can spend in the range of $50,000 to $100,000.

“Now everybody is young. Ronald Winston (son of Harry Winston) is a young man. Claude Saujet, the president, is also young. I’m not so old. (He just turned 40.) The company is changing, and so is the mentality of the company.”