“Art is what you can get away with”. Andy Warhol ’s oft-cited provocation challenged tradition, celebrated innovation, and embraced the subjective nature of modern creativity. It is also a philosophy that finds an unlikely yet natural counterpart in Piaget.
For more than 150 years, the Swiss maison has drawn deeply from the creative arts, crafting watches and jewellery that speak as fluently to collectors and creatives as they do to connoisseurs of fine watchmaking.
The relationship between Warhol and Piaget is neither incidental nor retrospective. It is organic, personal, and rooted in a shared appreciation for bold form, material expression, and the power of objects. An icon of Pop Art and a compulsive collector by nature, Warhol surrounded himself with items both banal and exquisite. Watches were no exception. By the time of his death in 1987, he owned more than 300 timepieces, seven of them by Piaget.
Among these was a cushion-shaped watch he purchased in 1973—reference 15102—a striking black-and-gold design imagined by Piaget creative director Jean-Claude Gueit. Produced in limited numbers between 1972 and 1977, the watch would later become known as the Black Tie, achieving cult status as a design emblem of its era.
In 2024, Piaget formally cemented what had long been an unspoken affinity. Entering into a partnership with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the maison officially renamed the contemporary expression of that historic design the Andy Warhol Watch. A year on, the relationship deepens with something rarer and more expressive still: the Andy Warhol Watch ‘Collage’ Limited Edition.
Limited to just 50 pieces, this new creation is less a tribute than a translation—of Warhol’s visual language, his love of colour, and his instinct for collecting—rendered through Piaget’s own métiers d’art.
At its heart is the dial, conceived as a miniature artwork. Drawing inspiration from one of Warhol’s most celebrated Polaroid collage self-portraits from 1986, Piaget’s artisans employ the ancient art of marquetry to compose an abstract, colour-rich motif.
Set against a base of black onyx—a direct nod to Warhol’s own 1973 watch—are thin slices of ornamental gemstones: yellow Namibian serpentine, pink opal, and green chrysoprase. Each stone is carefully shaped, cut, and arranged to create a composition that feels instinctively Warholian without becoming literal. The effect is graphic yet tactile, playful yet precise.
Surrounding the dial is the watch’s signature stepped cushion case, measuring 45mm and crafted in 18-carat yellow gold. The choice of metal is deliberate. Yellow gold, unavailable elsewhere in the contemporary Andy Warhol Watch collection, pays direct homage to Warhol’s personal timepiece and to the era in which it was first worn. A deep green leather strap completes the design, chosen to complement the dial’s chromatic harmony without competing for attention.
For Piaget, this collaboration was anything but casual. Artistic director Stéphanie Sivrière and her team approached the project with reverence and rigour, immersing themselves in Warhol’s world. Months were spent in research—travelling to New York, delving into archives opened by the Andy Warhol Foundation, visiting exhibitions, and poring over books dedicated to the artist’s vast and varied oeuvre.
Colour quickly emerged as the guiding principle. “With such a wealth of material to draw on, it was extremely difficult to know where to begin,” says Sivrière. “Should we look to one of his most famous works—a banana, a can of soup, Marilyn Monroe? We quickly learned that we wanted to express Warhol without being obvious. To suggest, rather than to show.”
Encouraged by the foundation to approach the project with creative freedom, Piaget chose to interpret Warhol through its own expressive lens. The result is a watch that speaks quietly yet confidently—one that tells the story of a collaboration while standing firmly on its own as a work of watchmaking art.
Turn the watch over and the artistry continues. The yellow-gold case back features a vertical satin finish and reveals Piaget’s in-house 501P1 self-winding mechanical calibre. Slimline and elegant, the movement offers a 40-hour power reserve and is decorated with circular Côtes de Genève. Overlaying the movement is an engraved rendition of the Andy Warhol self-portrait that inspired the dial, bearing both Piaget’s logo and Warhol’s signature.
In many ways, the Andy Warhol Watch ‘Collage’ Limited Edition reads as a conversation across time: between a Swiss maison and an American artist, between precision and pop, between collecting and creating. With just 50 examples in existence, it is destined not merely to be worn, but to be coveted—an object that Warhol himself, consummate collector that he was, might well have added to his own extraordinary trove.
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