A few months after being officially renamed Andy Warhol thanks to an exclusive partnership between Piaget and Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the iconic watch of the 1970s is making a remarkable comeback on the international watchmaking scene.
In the living room Watches and Wonders, the legendary Andy Warhol watch is enjoying a dazzling renaissance, reinterpreted with audacity and fidelity in the abundant world of color dear to Maison Piaget.
A cult watch, a legendary artist
Born in 1972 under the reference 15102, this watch with its avant-garde design was later named Black Tie in 2014, before finding its definitive identity: Andy WarholThe New York artist, a central figure in pop culture and a prominent member of the very select Piaget Society, owned seven models, but swore by this one. Home to the revolutionary Beta 21 movement at the time, it combined radical aesthetics with avant-garde technical prowess.
Today, this masterpiece is celebrated as a symbol of the deep friendship between Yves Piaget et Andy Warhol, born between the champagne scents of New York evenings, between Washington and the salons of Régine. The 45 mm case and the bezel edged with gold gadroons give this timepiece a sculptural presence, as bold as its illustrious wearer.
The art of color according to Piaget
Reinterpreted in a version Fine jewelry exceptional, the watch Andy Warhol is adorned with an opal dial of rare intensity. Irridescent with kaleidoscopic green and blue reflections, this stone—Yves Piaget's favorite—dresses the entire surface of the dial, enhanced by a triple row of gadroons set with baguette-cut blue sapphires. A feat as much aesthetic as technical, the result of rigorous selection by the Maison's gemologists.
With its slender dauphine hands, this new edition pays tribute to Piaget's chromatic talent and its deep love for stones. After a notable first appearance in 2023 in the collection Metaphoria — with a petrified wood dial and sculpted emeralds — the 2024 version imposes a more celestial and dreamlike vision, while retaining the couture spirit of its origins.
Mineral radiance, the DNA of the House
Piaget has never hidden its attachment to ornamental stones, which it has been enhancing since the 1960s through creations spanning the entire color palette: lapis lazuli, jasper, jade, boulder opal, etc. This is evidenced by the remarkable arrival of a new tiger's eye variation. Its amber-toned dial, traversed by delicate golden threads, offers a natural and hypnotic contrast between light and matter.
This model joins an already rich range, alongside the meteorite versions—blue, white, or green—which combine celestial textures with the nobility of precious metals. Each Andy Warhol timepiece is powered by the self-winding caliber 501P1, giving the collection all the reliability and finesse of a manufacture movement.
One watch, infinite expressions
True to the spirit of Warhol, who saw repetition as an art form, Piaget offers its collectors the chance to create their own masterpiece: ten types of dials in ornamental stones, five leather straps in refined shades, baton or dauphine hands, pink gold or white gold... All with total freedom of personalization.
With the watch Andy WarholPiaget combines heritage, pop culture and jewelry excellence to offer much more than a timepiece: a signature, a manifesto, a work of art to wear on the wrist.
Andy Warhol : Between icons and illusions of the modern world
Born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, into a Ruthenian immigrant family, Andy Warhol is the product of a changing world. Starting out as a commercial illustrator in the 1950s, he became the leader of Pop Art, a movement that reacted against Abstract Expressionism and celebrated popular culture. Warhol died in 1987, but his impact on contemporary art remains immense.
His artistic style: between mechanical and mystical
Seriality and reproduction
Warhol uses the serigraphy, an industrial technique allowing the identical reproduction of the same image. This choice is not neutral: it erases the “hand” of the artist to better highlight the dehumanisation of the modern world, like a "rreflection on mass production and the loss of authenticity".
Saturated and contrasting colors
Warhol often applied bright, almost garish colors to his portraits. These artificial hues attract the eye, but also create a emotional distance : " Appearance takes precedence over essence: the image becomes a mask..
Hypnotic Repetition
Repeated patterns (such as Marilyn Monroe's faces or electric chairs) produce an effect of desensitizationBy repeating, he trivializes the subject, whether it is glamour or tragedy: a critique of the automatic consumption of images.
La office, his New York studio, becomes a theater of artistic experimentation. There we encounter musicians (Lou Reed, the Velvet Underground), underground models and actresses (Edie Sedgwick), outcasts, poets, art lovers...
Andy Warhol films, photographs, observes. He transforms life itself into a work of art. The Factory is a living installation, a mixture of art, performance, culture and chaos. The artist is not just a provocateur or a merchant of Pop Art. He is a visual philosopher which highlights the flaws of our society. His approach, both cold and ironic, continues to influence not only art, but also advertising, fashion, social networks...
Andy Warhol not only represented his time: he anticipated ours !
Ema Lynnx
