Watch Paparazzi

Singer Ed Sheeran spotted wearing Audemars Piguet

Ed Sheeran has long been open about his passion for horology, but this sighting confirms he operates at the very top of the watch-collecting hierarchy: the bespoke Pièce Unique commission. Photographed mid-performance, the black ceramic Royal Oak Chronograph on his wrist is not a limited edition or a boutique exclusive — it is a single object that exists nowhere else on earth, built to a personal brief that Sheeran developed directly with Audemars Piguet.

The base movement is AP's calibre 2385, a column-wheel integrated chronograph with 40 hours of power reserve, beating at 21,600 vph. The architecture sits inside a 41mm forged ceramic case — a material AP mastered over decades — paired with yellow gold octagonal screws on the bezel, yellow gold pushers, and what appears from the close-up to be a smoked, dark-toned Grande Tapisserie dial with champagne-gold chronograph registers. The combination of matte black ceramic and warm gold is a contrast AP has explored in limited editions, but the execution here is tailored exclusively.

What elevates this watch beyond a spec sheet is the symbolic programme embedded throughout the design. An eight-point star references August — the birth month of Sheeran's first daughter, Lyra. The name itself is drawn from the Lyra constellation, a detail the watchmaker honoured with celestial iconography. Two butterfly motifs complete the narrative: one positioned at the seconds hand on the dial, a second rendered on the caseback — an intimate detail invisible during wear, known only to the owner.

Sheeran has previously been spotted in Royal Oak references and has spoken publicly about his appreciation for AP's craftsmanship. Commissioning a Pièce Unique places him in a category of collector that includes heads of state and museum-level enthusiasts. AP reserves this programme for clients with whom it has an established relationship, and the level of personal narrative encoded here suggests a deep collaborative dialogue.

As a Pièce Unique, no retail or grey-market price applies — comparable bespoke AP commissions, when they do surface at auction, routinely command multiples of the equivalent production reference. The standard black ceramic Royal Oak Chronograph retails in the $50,000–$70,000 range; a piece of this biographical complexity and singularity would represent a significant premium above that baseline, placing it conservatively well into six-figure territory at any major auction house.