In 2018, after touring the stadiums of the world, Bruno Mars gave the seven members of his now-defunct band, the Hooligans, customized best fake Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. The watches were solid-gold modern Royal Oak reference 15202s, decorated to commemorate Mars’s 24K Magic album and tour. Accordingly, “XXIVK” and “Magic” are engraved around the case-back, and each timepiece spins a customized solid-gold rotor with each band member’s initials.
Mars also gave an eighth UK high quality replica Audemars Piguet to his manager at the time, Aaron Elharar (as evidenced by the skeletonized “AE” of the rotor). This one-of-a-kind watch wears a blue dial, rather than the gold dials on the band members’ watches. The current seller, M.S. Rau, a rarities dealer in New Orleans, recently delivered the blue-dialed Royal Oak to the Robb Report offices in New York so that we could photograph it and learn more.
As with any cheap super clone copy Audemars Piguet Royal Oak 15202—which closely recreates the original reference 5402 of 1972 designed by Gerald Genta—the thinness, exceptional bracelet, and form factor of the Royal Oak were striking. My colleague (and preferred wrist model) Sebastien Laforest looked casually upscale wearing the watch with a navy polo and white jeans. Macro photos reveal the uncanny details of the petit tapisserie dial.
It’s a solid gold perfect replica Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, so it’s a joy to wear and photograph, as I expected. What I didn’t expect when handling this watch—as well as one previously belonging to Mars’s bass player at Sotheby’s earlier this year—was sadness.
Putting emotions to the side, however, we can’t fault the collectability of these customized UK online replica Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks, nor can we fault the timing of these flips. In 2018, when Mars gifted the watches, the watch market was just building serious steam. By 2020 the watch market was booming, and by 2022 it was off the chain—especially for Royal Oaks. It’s hard not to imagine that some of these musicians found their bank accounts hungrier than their sense of horological nostalgia. (One collector I spoke with suggested that Mars may have given his band these Swiss fake watches as a kind of nest-egg, though I think that’s a stretch, especially given the customization.)