A few months after officially being renamed the Andy Warhol watch through a partnership between Piaget and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, this 1970s iconic design steps out for Watches and Wonders in new playful and colorful animations.
Launched in 1972 as the 15102, then renamed the Black Tie watch in 2014, with the then innovating Beta 21 movement at its beating heart, this boldly-scaled design masterpiece was the most beloved of all seven Piaget watches in the collection of Andy Warhol – cultural icon and key member of the aspirational Piaget Society. Now officially known as the Andy Warhol watch, thanks to a partnership between two entities – Piaget itself and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts – this creation stands in recognition of the genuine and long-lasting friendship Yves Piaget and Warhol enjoyed since they met in the United States, between New York, chez Regine’s or the glitzy Washington galas. With its generous 45mm case, and its voluptuous, sweeping gold gadroons curving around the bezel, the design, instantly joined the pantheon of great collectible icons.
PIAGET’S ART OF COLOUR
The ultimate expression of Piaget’s prowess with colour, and only the second High Jewellery iteration of the Andy Warhol watch, a new version in opal and blue sapphires takes all the codes of the original 1972 design and renders them in dazzling, couture hues. Following the inclusion of an entirely singular piece in 2023’s High Jewellery collection Metaphoria, featuring a dial of petrified wood, hour markers in custom-cut emeralds, and a triple row of baguette-cut emeralds encircling the case, the new High Jewellery Andy Warhol watch switches earthy browns and greens to kaleidoscopic greens and blues.
The extraordinarily lustrous opal dial, alive with sparks of blue and green, is a wonder in itself – a sweep of deeply radiant gemstone in a size large enough to make up the 45mm case is rare indeed. Opal –Yves Piaget’s favourite stone – has long been seen as a symbol of purity and truth, and in this case, it is only made more vibrant by the perfectly calibrated blue of the triple-row baguette-cut sapphire gadroons that encircle it; a collection of stones in a uniformly scintillating blue that was a true challenge for Piaget’s gemmologists to collect. “The world to me is like an opal, made of different tastes and colours", used to say Yves Piaget. Sporting elegantly tapered dauphine hands, this new High Jewellery creation combines Piaget’s particular mastery of colour and its affinity with precious gems to imbue it with all the Maison’s know-how, from watchmaker to jeweller.
TIGER’S EYE
Piaget’s love of ornamental stones has seen watches and jewellery hewn from the entire array of precious, colourful minerals over the years, from gold-flecked, velvety blue lapis lazuli and radically striped pink and red jasper, to verdant green jade and pretty boulder opal.
Joining a new watch range that includes 2024’s blue meteorite Andy Warhol Clou de Paris watch is a new vision with a dial hewn from tiger’s eye, a silky, richly amber ornamental stone with deep orange and brown tones, particularly beloved in designs from the 1960s on. Expertly cut to enhance the stone’s delicate golden needles, the dial is a combination of natural graphic stripes and opalescent luster. This new addition to Piaget’s ornamental stone dial range joins the blue meteorite Clou de Paris version, as well as examples with green and white meteorite dials showcased at Watches & Wonders. The deep green meteorite face matching with white gold gadroon case, while the graphically flecked white meteorite face is beautifully juxtaposed with soft, rose gold.
Powered by the in-house 501P1 Manufacture self-winding movement the new Andy Warhol tiger’s eye watch is an obvious member of a line up which already includes a made-to-order offering. Ten different ornamental stone dials, five differently coloured leather straps, a choice of hand styles (baton or dauphine) and in white or rose gold – endless iterations for collectors to play with to create their own unique Piaget Andy Warhol identity and make it their sign of distinction.
