POP GOES THE WATCH: PIAGET UNVEILS A LIMITED EDITION ANDY WARHOL COLLECTION

words by VERONICA TLAPANCO SZABÓ

Through more than a century and a half, Piaget has always kept one eye on art, more precisely on those making it. Among them was none other than Andy Warhol, Pop Art’s prince; few know this about him but he was also a collector, both of trivial and exquisite objects. Warhol was never one for moderation, by the time of his passing in 1987, he had gathered over 300 watches, seven of which were Piaget. One in particular, the cushion-shaped model he acquired in 1973, has since become something of a mythic object. Piaget eventually reclaimed four of these watches after they were auctioned by Sotheby’s, returning them home to Switzerland. Fast forward to 2024, Piaget officially partnered with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, naming the present-day incarnation of that same watch the Andy Warhol Watch.

images courtesy of PIAGET

Now, a year on, this relationship is strengthened by The Andy Warhol Watch Collage which takes cues from one of Warhol’s self-portraits, particularly the 1986 polaroid collage that captured the artist in fractured, chromatic form. At its heart lies the dial, a triumph of Piaget’s artistry and one of its most ambitious exercises in the decorative arts to date, brought to life through the age-old métier d’art of gemstone marquetry. The dial thus becomes a canvas, of ornamental gemstones in pink opal, green chrysoprase, and yellow Namibian serpentine. All pieced together over a base of black onyx. Framed in a stepped 45mm case of 18-carat yellow gold (a nod to the artist’s own 1973 model.) Mind you only fifty of these watches were made! 

This collaboration made sure to take no shortcuts, under the eye of Piaget’s Artistic Director, Stéphanie Sivrière, the maison travelled to New York to dive deep into Warhol’s archives, walking the same city streets that inspired him, absorbing his world through exhibitions and books. For this first chapter of their partnership, colour became the language of the electric pulse of Warhol’s universe. Instead of repeating the obvious icons (no bananas, no soup cans, no Marilyns), the team decided to settle on something indicative of Warhol's genius without being too obvious, to suggest, rather than to show.  Enter, the colourful approach with engraved lines that trace the contours of his self-portrait. In this collaboration Piaget becomes once more wearable art, this time with a wink from Warhol with every tick!