Andy Warhol‘s Camouflage paintings began as a plain, everyday print. In 1986, near the end of his career, he turned a piece of military camouflage fabric into bright, unnatural abstractions. Piaget has now taken that same pattern and rebuilt it in stone and gold on the dial of the piaget warhol camouflage watch.
The result is the second Piaget wristwatch made with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The first, the Collage edition, drew on one of Warhol’s self-portraits. This one takes its cue from the Camouflage series, which also sits alongside his Oxidation and Rorschach works.
From surplus fabric to stone
The source pattern has a modest origin. Warhol’s assistant Jay Shriver bought the fabric at an army surplus store in Manhattan. Warhol liked how the motif combined pure abstraction with an image everyone recognised.
Piaget’s designers did not simply reproduce the painting. They extracted the pattern and scaled it to a watch face. Stéphanie Sivrière, director of the Piaget Design Studio, describes the approach: “We have deconstructed the original work by Andy Warhol and reinterpreted it through the contemporary lens of Piaget.”
The dial uses 27 separate pieces of sodalite, turquoise, satin-brushed yellow gold and mirror-polished rose gold. Small cuts of turquoise and sodalite are matched with the gold to add visual depth. The yellow gold is satin-brushed and the rose gold is mirror-polished.
Watch dials can be just as playful when designers lean into illusion and craft. Spinnaker’s playful phantoms meet precise watchmaking shows how whimsy and exacting engineering can share a single timepiece.
Building the piaget warhol camouflage watch dial
The difficulty lies in the shapes. The pattern is organic and layered, and realising the piaget warhol camouflage watch dial takes a daunting amount of effort. The organic, irregular outlines of the Camouflage pattern require several very thin pieces that must meet their neighbours closely enough to look continuous. Piaget says more than 100 hours went into research, design and assembly.
Warhol’s own method ran the other way. Each dial is cut by hand from individual pieces of stone and gold. A stone marquetry watch like this cannot be repeated so easily, so each dial is effectively handmade.
The watch and its history
Warhol was a committed collector of Piaget watches and a friend of Yves Piaget. Sources disagree on how many he owned. Piaget’s own materials state he had seven timepieces, while a separate review counts six, four of which now sit in the brand’s collection.
The collection traces back to the ref. 15102. Piaget made only 26 examples between 1972 and 1977. It ran on the Beta 21 movement, the first mass-produced Swiss quartz calibre. The model returned 37 years later as “Black Tie Vintage,” but collectors knew it as the Andy Warhol after photographs of the artist wearing one. In 2024, Piaget acquired the rights to use the name officially.
Michael Dayton Hermann of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts frames the partnership in terms of relevance. “Andy Warhol’s influence continues to transcend generations, geography, and disciplines,” he says. He adds that the project is “especially meaningful” given Warhol’s friendship with Yves Piaget.
Key specifications
- Reference: G0A51242
- Case: 18k white gold, 45 mm diameter, 8.08 mm thick
- Crystal: Sapphire, with 30 metres of water resistance
- Movement: In-house calibre 501P1, automatic
- Power reserve: 40 hours
- Functions: Hours and minutes
- Strap: Blue alligator leather with a case-matching pin buckle
- Limitation: 86 pieces worldwide
- Price: Not yet published, available on request from Piaget boutiques
The stepped, cushion-shaped case of the piaget warhol camouflage watch keeps it thin and visually light. The lugs blend into the case band, which gives a short lug-to-lug length. The movement is the least distinctive part of the package, and a longer power reserve would be welcome. Still, the dial carries most of the appeal.
Luxury houses have long borrowed from artists, and the results often blur the line between object and artwork. Damien Hirst’s butterfly wings reimagine Dom Pérignon bottles offers another example of an artist’s motif turned into a luxury object.
At the permanent collection’s starting price of US$57,000, buyers will expect exceptional craft. This piaget warhol camouflage watch is best judged as wearable art with a working movement. It is less a horological showcase than a precise, labour-intensive response to one of the twentieth century’s most recognisable images.
Source: wallpaper.com
Frequently asked questions
How many pieces are used to make the Piaget Warhol Camouflage watch dial?
The dial uses 27 separate pieces of sodalite, turquoise, satin-brushed yellow gold, and mirror-polished rose gold. Small cuts of turquoise and sodalite are matched with the gold to add visual depth.
How many Piaget Warhol Camouflage watches will be made?
The watch is limited to 86 pieces worldwide. Its reference number is G0A51242.
What movement powers the Piaget Warhol Camouflage watch?
The watch uses the in-house calibre 501P1, an automatic movement. It has a power reserve of 40 hours and offers hours and minutes functions.
How much work went into designing the Piaget Warhol Camouflage dial?
Piaget says more than 100 hours went into research, design, and assembly of the dial. The organic, irregular Camouflage pattern required several very thin stone and gold pieces that had to fit closely together.
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