You probably don’t know Andy Warhol ‘s passion for watches as much as you’re familiar with Campbell and Marilyn artworks.
Don’t worry … Italian Watch Spotter is here to help you!
Intro
We often focus on the microscopic details of a bezel insert, where a dot has been moved by a few millimeters, dissecting our favorite watches as in an MRI of which we know every detail.
None of this, no reference numbers, not even the right time… he only cared about pure aesthetics of the common object, what the mass sees but does not look.
Go to the nearest supermarket and get yourself a can of Campbell’s soup…
Today we talk about Andy Warhol.
Born in Pittsburgh in 1928 in a family of Slovak immigrants, he showed from a very young age an artistic talent and after graduating in advertising art, he moved to New York.
In the effervescent catwalk of the Big Apple, he realized that society was enslaving itself to routine, seeing millions of products every day without ever really looking at them.
He decided to start portraying well-known faces of the time, to which everyone had undergone daily (Marilyn Monroe, Che Guevara, Diana Spencer…), with the use of advertising printers and screen prints, repeating so many times the same images with different colors until they lost their meaning.
The following one, representing Marilyn, is a typical example of Warhol’s art.
From the familiar faces he moved to the supermarkets’ shelves
Bottles of Coca-Cola, cans of Campbell’s soup… according to Warhol, art had to be consumed just like any other product.
Art was no longer that thing distant from people that had to be admired in museums, art was inside our houses: Pop Art was born.
We all agree that art can be worn on our wrists.
If we take an enameled dial or a minute repeater movement, for example, they unquestionably are artistic masterpieces.
But let’s think for a moment about the conception of “art” according to Andy Warhol, that wonderful product of a practical nature that we all have under our eyes but never look at.
So, if we were in the international jet set of the 60s, the quintessential watch can’t be any other, with his industrial but refined look, called as an armored vehicle but with a gold armor:
The Tank by Cartier
It surely is Andy Warhol’s watch par excellence, a simple Tank Louis Cartier. It’s common opinion, by the way, that Warhol contributed to the diffusion and appreciation of this watch, that led to it’s iconicity in today’s society.
“I don’t wear a [Cartier] Tank watch to tell the time. In fact, I never wind it. I wear a Tank because it’s the watch to wear.”
Patek Philippe
In addition to the “dutiful” Cartier Tank, for which he had a real obsession, the artist also appreciated other watches, only caring about aesthetics and not on the name printed on the dial or the movement. If he liked it, he bought it.
We can therefore find in his collection very different pieces, all with clean lines and symmetry, in accordance with the artist’s aesthetics. The peculiarity, if we like to call it that way, is that the artist often bought watches without even wearing them: years ago, a more than 100 pieces collection was found. Today we have brought you some of them!
Let’s begin with a Patek Philippe Calatrava ref. 2526, the maison’s first automatic watch, in yellow gold with Breguet applied numerals and small seconds at six. Sold by Christie’s in 2013 for more than 62.000€.
Then follows a Patek Philippe ref. 2503 in 18-karat yellow gold, with “curvex” glass and “bunny ears” lugs. Perfect example of Warhol’s understated eclecticism, it was auctioned at Christie’s in 2006 for about 68.000€.
A Patek Philippe Ref.3448 surely doesn’t go unseen.
Among the famous 100 pieces we can find that one, probably the most desirable among Andy Warhol’s watches. It was sold by Sotheby’s in November 2014 for more than 265.000€.
All of Andy Warhol’s jewels and watches appear in excellent shape, so much so that we can think he kept them in a safe, but that’s not the case. They were hidden in a box at the bottom of the closet, in his house, to always be at hand, as he often loved to look at their colors and touch them to feel their silhouettes.
Rolex
We then find three Rolex watches, two of them are very rare.
On the left, a ref. 4021 in yellow gold and, on the right, an exceptional chronograph.
We are talking about a Rolex ref. 3525 chronograph in steel and rose gold recently auctioned by Christie’s for CHF 471,000 (just under 430,000€).
Eclettic and peculiar, Andy Warhol couldn’t miss ladies watches too.
In this picture we are sure he is wearing a Rolex, because of the unmistakable bracelet. Further researches has led us to affirm that it was a Ladies Date ref.69278 with a tiger’s eye dial, worn with great ease.
Piaget
Three more watches, kept in Piaget’s private collection – a maison for which Warhol had a real passion – must be mentioned.
After having personally befriended with Yves Piaget, the American artist asked him to be sent all the pictures of new watches, fascinated by the unusual shapes and materials that have always characterized this brand. So, Andy Warhol collected a little at a time dozens and dozens of promotional photos in a box of chocolates.
He also decided to buy three watches, which are now part of Piaget’s private collection, decidedly eclectic, therefore perfect for him: a secret watch hidden in a 24-karat gold ingot, one moved by the avant-garde electric Beta21 caliber and the last consisting of a gold bracelet with a tiger’s eye dial.
To complete the collection of the King of Pop Art, a quartz Flinstones watch, of which chronicles tell but we cannot find any photos, in addiction to the several pieces we’ll discover in the following years, due to the multitude of his collection.
Well, this article is at its end but since you like discovering what watches icons used to wear, here is our article about Eric Clapton’s Watch Collection!
Final thoughts
Today people often choose a watch to impress someone, buying what others are able to recognize, or see watches as speculations, buying what the market wants. Too many times, we forget to consider the only thing that matters: what do we like?
Let’s all take inspiration from Andy Warhol and his watches every now and then and remember that it’s fine to geek out on that dot that’s been moved one millimeter on the bezel or the microscopically different print from last year’s model… but only if that’s what we really like!
