True to the collection’s roots, Piaget’s arty Andy Warhol watch collection has been going hard with the stone dials over the past year. The fact that stone dials are on fire right now helps too, of course. But for their latest interpretation of the legendary pop artist’s favourite wrist candy, Piaget has taken the idea one step further with a fittingly artistic interpretation in the Piaget Andy Warhol Watch Collage.
Ever since Piaget officially renamed their collection the Andy Warhol Watch in 2024, it’s been inextricably linked to the soup-obsessed iconoclast, and the new Collage limited edition strengthens that link. Rather than a single material, the dial’s constructed from four different stones: black onyx (the same colour as Andy Warhol’s own watch), yellow Namibian serpentine, pink opal and green chrysoprase. These impossibly thin slivers of stone have then been arranged mosaic-like in a way evocative of the coloured squares of Warhol’s collage works – hence the name.
I absolutely love this dial. I love the pop art colours, the overlapping arrangement, the unusual stones themselves. Yes, the serpentine has something cheesy about it –or perhaps a banana would be more fitting – but it’s that unusual texture that really makes it. The dial as a whole also evokes Warhol’s work, but not in such an obvious way as stamping Marilyn Monroe’s face or a Cambell’s Soup logo on there would.
It has to be said that it does need flattering light to really pop. We managed to take some shots of it earlier in the year at Geneva Watch Days, but in the spotlights of Piaget’s boutique and a storm brewing outside, the colours appear more muted than they perhaps should. It’s still lovely, but bear that in mind if you’re expecting Warhol-level colour.
The dial is set in the Warhol Watch’s signature stepped case in a substantial 45mm of rose gold, in line with the broader collection. It doesn’t feel like a big watch on the wrist as the dial itself isn’t huge, the lug-to-lug is actually a svelte 43mm and it measures just 8.08mm thick, despite the stepped case.
That thinness is largely down to the slimline 501P1 calibre automatic movement that itself is just 3.63mm thick, which boasts a punchy (for its size) 40-hour power reserve. I’d imagine it’s well finished – apparently there’s plenty of circular Côtes de Genève – but you wouldn’t know through the solid caseback, which instead features a Warhol self-portrait collage.
Only 50 pieces of the Piaget Andy Warhol Watch Collage will be made, which makes sense for a metiers d’art piece like this. But I’d be surprised if, in true Warhol fashion, they don’t start pumping out new versions in a host of different colours. If you’re going to honour the king of pop art’s legacy, do it properly.
Price and Specs:
More details at Piaget.
So, to paraphrase the famous Andy Warhol comment, maybe this will enjoy it’s own “15 minutes of fame”, but, at circa £67k and only 50 pieces being made available it may just be so.
But getting back to the watch itself, I think the different coloured inserts look more like “Post-It” notes than references to paint colours used frequently by the pop artist himself. Not one for me I’m afraid, too bold, too expensive (but, I hear you say Piaget watches are expensive).