These days, it’s hard to know what garners greater attention: Ed Sheeran down Portman Road cheering on Ipswich Town, new music from Ed Sheeran, or Ed Sheeran rocking a new grail.
This week, we got an answer that skews towards the latter. It shouldn’t be all that surprising because he is widely considered to have one of the best celebrity watch collections out there. Unlike a lot of rich and famous people who just seem to wear fancy UK perfect replica watches to look cool and gain street cred (or secure six-figure watch deals), Sheeran is a genuine horology nut who enjoys getting into the nitty-gritty of what makes watches tick. Let’s just say, if we were to test him on his tourbillons from his perpetual calendars, he’d pass with flying colours. Ten out of ten, top of the class type vibes.
Which is why whenever he’s seen out in the wild rocking a new piece, horological heads turn. Such is the case on his most recent public appearances – on The Jimmy Fallon show while strumming a guitar in High OG Smoke Grey Air Jordan 1’s (obvs) and court-side getting his NBA fix at the LA Clippers vs New York Knicks match and posing for selfies with Ciara. Both times, he was using a mysterious high quality copy IWC Ingenieur watches to tell the time, the sight of which has prompted excitement from IWC fans to swirl – in anticipation that some new Ingenieur pieces could be imminent.
Of course this is mere speculation but what we do know is that last year Brad Pitt was spotted wearing a supposedly piece-unique Ingenieur on set of the upcoming F1 movie. This was a year after IWC revisited the iconic sports watch for its 70th anniversary. 2024 was all about another of best fake IWC watches’ icons, the Portugieser, so perhaps this year is the turn of the Ingenieur.
From Sheeran’s perspective, we can say on safe authority that he likes ceramic UK cheap super clone watches. He has a couple of Audemars Piguet Royal Oaks in blue and white ceramic, which has led Instagram’s most prolific watch spotter Nick Gould to suggest what Sheeran is wearing here could well be ceramic bracelet and case. Indeed, a close up look at it would make sense because a) surely IWC wouldn’t dabble in a PVC-coated piece and b) neither would a man with Sheeran’s watch nous. It looks like a matte black dial with a simple date window at 3 o’clock.
Provided it does turn out to the ‘Shape of You’ singer teasing a new release (it could be a custom piece as IWC have been known to create one of ones for the likes of Lewis Hamilton), then he’ll be the latest celebrity to do so, following in the footsteps of David Beckham (who can’t help rock new Tudors) and Daniel Craig, who loves to wear new Omegas before they are released. We shall see – perhaps we’ll find out as soon as next week where IWC, among 60-odd other brands, will be unveiling new top replica watches at Watches and Wonders, aka the biggest watch fair in the world.