The Watch That Warhol Might Have Collected Twice
When Andy Warhol began collecting watches, it wasn’t out of punctuality: he once admitted he never wound them. By the time he died in 1987, he had more than three hundred, and among them was a Piaget with a cushion-shaped gold case, acquired in 1973.
It was a study in contradiction: sleek yet eccentric, modern yet slightly baroque. This year, more than half a century later, Piaget has reinterpreted that very watch in collaboration with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The result is the Andy Warhol Watch “Collage” Limited Edition—a run of just 50 pieces that captures Warhol’s gift for turning luxuryLuxuryA lifestyle defined by exceptional quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity, and sophistication, encompassing the finest products, services, and experiences that represent the highest standards of refinement and excellence.Go to Luxury Glossary into commentary.
“The foundation encouraged us to approach the project with freedom and to interpret Warhol in Piaget’s expressive, unbounded style,” says Stéphanie Sivrière. “The result is a watch that tells the story of our collaboration but that stands on its own as a piece of watchmaking art, a collectible inspired by one of history’s most prolific collectors.”
The new timepiece builds upon Piaget’s historic reference 15102, imagined by Jean-Claude Gueit in the 1970s and later known as the Black Tie. Its 45 mm case, stepped and architectural, is crafted in 18-carat yellow gold—the same metal as Warhol’s original watch, which the brand reacquired at Sotheby’s in 1988. Inside lies the Calibre 501P1, a slim automatic movement with a 40-hour power reserve, finely decorated with circular Côtes de Genève and visible through an engraved gold caseback.
But the true conversation happens on the dial. Composed through the ancient craft of stone marquetry, it draws on the tonal vocabulary of Warhol’s Collage self-portrait from 1986. Against a base of black onyx—matching the color of Warhol’s own 1973 Piaget—the dial features pieces of pink opal, green chrysoprase, and yellow serpentine, cut and inlaid by hand into an abstract mosaic. The result is neither reproduction nor homage, but an interpretation.
“We spent six months researching Andy Warhol before we settled on a direction,” continues Sivrière. “With such a wealth of material to draw on, it was extremely difficult to know where to begin. Should we look to one of his most famous works and iterate on a banana, a can of soup, or perhaps Marilyn Monroe? We quickly learned that we wanted to express Warhol, but without being obvious.”
On the case back, the engraving of Warhol’s collage self-portrait looks half remembered, half reimagined—a gesture toward both the subject and his endless reproductions. It’s a fitting tribute: a watch that measures time while recalling an artist who blurred the line between object and artifice.
Even the strap, a deep green leather chosen to balance the palette, nods to Warhol’s fondness for unexpected contrasts, while the polished gold and layered geometry recall 1970s bold glamor.
Only 50 examples will exist; that scarcity feels apt, because the watch functions less as commodity than as punctuation—a small, luminous reminder of what happens when irony and devotion occupy the same wrist. It’s not a tribute to Warhol’s fame so much as to his curiosity: the way he looked at luxuryLuxuryA lifestyle defined by exceptional quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity, and sophistication, encompassing the finest products, services, and experiences that represent the highest standards of refinement and excellence.Go to Luxury Glossary not as privilege, but as texture. Time, after all, was one more thing for him to collect. Piaget answers not with nostalgia, but with movement—a design that keeps the past in play while the timepiece ticks forward.