The short answer: the Jules Audemars is one of the hardest watches to fake well. The whole point of the line is an ultra-thin case built around an in-house ultra-thin movement, and nobody has cloned that movement. What you can buy is a round dress watch that reads as an Audemars Piguet from across a table, usually 2 to 4mm thicker than the real thing and running a Miyota, Seagull, or 2824 clone. If thinness matters to you, this is the wrong model to chase.
What the Jules Audemars Actually Is
Audemars Piguet named the family after Jules Louis Audemars, who founded the company with Edward Auguste Piguet in 1875. It served as the brand's classic dress line: round cases from 36 to 41mm, thin profiles, precious metal, leather straps. The Extra-Thin 39mm came in at roughly 6.7mm. Moonphase, perpetual calendar, tourbillon, and skeleton versions all existed. AP retired the collection when the Code 11.59 launched in 2019, so anything you see on a dealer page today is either pre-owned or counterfeit.
Why There Is No Super Clone
Caliber 2120, the movement the line was built around, descends from the Jaeger-LeCoultre 920 and measures about 2.45mm thick. The clone-market workhorses are not close. A Miyota 9015 is 3.9mm. An ETA 2824 pattern movement is 4.6mm. Stack that on a caseback and you land at 9 to 11mm total. Anyone who has worn a real Extra-Thin will feel the difference when you hand it over, because a dress watch that thick rides up under a shirt cuff instead of sliding beneath it.
What a Typical Replica Gets Right and Wrong
- Case: steel instead of white gold. Polishing is passable on the $200 and up tier, soft and wavy on cheap ones.
- Dial: printed or thin applied markers rather than solid gold. The AP logo font tends to run a touch wide.
- Moonphase: on almost every cheap copy, that aperture is a 24-hour day and night disc that rotates once a day. A real moonphase advances once every 29.5 days.
- Perpetual calendar: subdials spin, but they are calendar-driven or decorative. None track leap years.
- Crystal: sapphire on the better tiers, mineral glass on the $60 quartz models. Mineral scratches and hazes over within a year.
- Strap: embossed leather on a generic buckle. Swapping it improves the watch more than any other single change.
What I Check Before Anything Else
- Measure case thickness. If the seller will not give you a number, that is your answer.
- Ask what happens to the moonphase. If the reply is "it moves," ask how often.
- Look at the caseback engraving under a loupe. Laser etching is shallow and gray. Stamping has depth.
- Work the crown. A gritty, wobbly crown on a $400 watch tells you the case was not finished well.
- Weigh it. A steel dress watch of that size should have some mass to it, not feel like a tin can.
Price Tiers, Roughly
Quartz models run $40 to $80. Miyota 9015 and Seagull ST18 builds run $120 to $250. The best finished examples with sapphire and a decorated movement run $300 to $500. If someone offers a working perpetual calendar Jules Audemars replica for $600, they are selling a calendar watch with a busy dial. A real perpetual calendar module costs more than that to produce on its own.
The US Legal Side
This is not a technicality. Counterfeit goods bearing a registered trademark can be seized by US Customs and Border Protection at import, and the personal-use exemption that covers some categories does not cover counterfeits. Selling them can bring criminal charges under 18 U.S.C. 2320 and civil liability under the Lanham Act. Audemars Piguet will not service a counterfeit, no authorized dealer will take one in trade, and no auction house will touch it. Budget for a watch with zero resale value.
If You Want the Look
A pre-owned Jules Audemars in yellow or rose gold is the honest route, and neo-vintage dress watches from other Swiss makers deliver the same proportions for less. If the silhouette is all you want, any 38 to 39mm thin dress watch on a leather strap does the job. The AP name is the only part you cannot buy legally at a discount.