Searching for a fake Audemars Piguet Edward Piguet usually means one of two things. Either you spotted a rectangular AP dress watch at a price that cannot be real, or you went hunting for a replica of this line and found nothing but Royal Oaks. Both roads lead to the same place. The Edward Piguet was a niche, precious-metal dress collection, and the copy market never had much reason to chase it. What you find instead is a mix of real watches, crude fantasy builds, and Royal Oaks listed under the wrong name.
The quick answer
Edward Piguet replicas exist, but they are rare next to Royal Oak replicas, and the ones out there are mostly low-end. No major factory builds a super-clone of this line. If someone offers you a "1:1 Edward Piguet" for a few hundred dollars, you are looking at a generic rectangular case with an AP logo glued on, not a copy of anything AP made. If you want the look, understand the original first.
What the line was
The collection took its name from Edward Auguste Piguet, one of the two men who founded the firm in 1875 in Le Brassus. AP positioned it as its dress watch while big sports models dominated the catalog. Production ran through the 1990s and 2000s before the brand wound it down.
Three things define it. The case: rectangular or gently tonneau-shaped, narrow across but long lug to lug, so it wears larger than the width suggests. The material: gold and platinum, with steel essentially absent. The movement: thin hand-wound and automatic calibers, chronographs on slim bases, and at the top end skeleton work and tourbillons with hand-finishing that is hard to copy at any price.
Why replicas are scarce
- Demand sits on the Royal Oak, the Nautilus, and the Submariner. Tooling does not pay for itself on a discontinued dress watch.
- The case is the hard part. A rectangular case with curved lugs and a stepped bezel needs its own machining, and buying that for a low-volume model makes no sense.
- The halo models were skeleton and tourbillon pieces. Nobody fakes those well at a mass-market price.
Spotting a bad one
Genuine dials read Audemars Piguet. The collection name was marketing, not dial text, so a face stamped "Edward Piguet" is a strong sign of a fantasy build. Beyond that, check weight and metal. A gold case should feel dense in the hand, and hallmarks and purity stamps should be crisp. Look at the printing under magnification. Real AP dial text is sharp and evenly spaced. Cheap work has fuzzy edges and fonts that run slightly wide or thin.
Turn it over. Solid casebacks carry engraved references and serials with clean edges, not burned-in text. Skeleton and tourbillon models expose the movement, and that is where fakes fall apart. Real finishing means polished bevels, straight Geneva stripes, and screws with polished heads. Find stamped, unfinished bridges and you have your answer.
Check the strap and buckle too. Original pieces came on alligator with an AP-signed buckle or deployant, and the hardware matched the case metal.
Where to put your money instead
If you like the shape, a vintage rectangular dress watch from a mainstream maker gives you the same silhouette with real history and resale value. If you want the AP look, the Royal Oak replica market is deeper, better documented, and easier to compare side by side.
One legal note
In the United States, importing counterfeit goods is illegal and shipments can be seized. Selling a replica as genuine is fraud. Know where you stand before you buy, whether you are buying the watch or the story behind it.