Bright lights and intermittent laser displays punctuate the beats that fill the air. The vast hall of Shanghai Exhibition Centre, where Audemars Piguet (AP) is hosting its 150th Anniversary bash, is filled with guests dancing along to the deejay on stage, who is expertly curating the vibes for the evening. It’s Mark Ronson at the decks, and the crowd shouts out cheers of appreciation as he remixes crowd-pleasing tunes (“APT” and other K-pop songs included) with his distinctive genre-blending sound. It’s evident that the man of the moment is in his element and having fun—and doing it with much more energy than when I caught up with him a couple of hours ago.
“I flew in this morning, and I'm here for such a short time (I fly back tomorrow), so I think I'll just sleep when I can. It's silly to even try,” he tells me in his deliberate, lilting cadence during the interview. Having just braved a 15-hour flight from New York, it’s understandable that he is exhausted. Especially since he spent the whole flight editing his upcoming memoir, Night People: How to Be a DJ in '90s New York City, which is slated for a September release. “I read the proof and fixed all the typos. I was like, ‘this is really the last time I can fix anything. ’ So it truly is put to bed now, but I'm very proud of it.”
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Considering who Mark is, and the extensive roster of music stars he has worked with, the book is essential reading for anyone whose music foundations are anchored in that era. Born in London and raised in New York, the accoladed 49-year-old British-American producer, deejay, songwriter, and musician shot to fame when he produced Amy Winehouse’s pivotal 2006 Back to Black album and brought home three Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year. Since then, Mark has had his name tied to collaborators the likes of Adele, Miley Cyrus, Dua Lipa, Paul McCartney, Queens of the Stone Age, and, of course, Bruno Mars for 2014’s chart-topping single, “Uptown Funk”. You also have him to thank every time you hear Lady Gaga’s “Shallow” being belted out at karaoke.
“I wanted to write a book about deejaying. Not like when you're a superstar deejay, but when you're just a regular deejay, going to work every night, five nights a week, sometimes playing for 50 people, sometimes for 300. The isolation of being alone in the booth and the joy and connection to the crowd; your ears bleeding, your hands ripped up from carrying these records everywhere... I wanted to write about that experience because, obviously, the 90s were this celebrated time before camera phones, so it's not very documented,” he shares. “There were these nights in a club in New York where, you know, there were Aaliyah, Jay Z, Q-Tip and Janet Jackson… all these amazing people coming in and out of the clubs. So there are stories like that [in the book]. And then there's a bit about family too.” He pauses in thought for a second before continuing, “But, yeah, if I knew it would take so long, I don't think I would have done it. It took over my life.” Happily for the rest of us, this life-consuming project didn’t prevent his teaming up with British phenom Raye on a new single, “Suzanne”, which hit the airwaves just this June.
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The made-for-summer tune marries Mark’s signature funk-soul grooves with the singer-songwriter’s powerhouse vocals. This is all thanks to AP, which wanted an original track to mark its milestone year under its APxMusic programme. It’s a match made in music heaven.
“Raye and I have crossed paths, but we’ve never been in the studio together. So when AP brought us together, I made this track with the musicians I work with and brought it to her. She loved it and said, ‘I don’t know why, but we should write a song called Suzanne’,” he recalls. “I was like, okay, she’s such a great writer, she’s amazing. If she says we’re going to write a song called Suzanne, then we’re going to write a song called Suzanne.”
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Little did Raye know that Mark had someone very close to him, called Suzanne, who had recently passed. And to make things even more serendipitous, the duo found out after the fact that Suzanne is also the name of an important yet unsung figure in AP’s history: Suzanne Audemars, a widowed mother who guided her three children into watchmaking, making them the Vallée de Joux’s first Audemars watchmakers. “So it was just all these funny coincidences, and it became this thing of almost keeping all of the Suzannes represented in some way. I can't wait for you to hear it.”
It’s experiences like these that make Mark appreciative of his four-year relationship with AP. “Not to sound corny, but it has been a bit of a dream,” he says of his ambassadorship. “The projects that I've gotten to do, like curating a night at the Montreux Jazz Festival, bringing all my favourite musicians to do this song with Raye, who's someone I've wanted to work with for a long time… it has been a really great journey.”
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Later in the day, as I walk through the brand’s House of Wonders exhibition, which was flown in specially for the occasion, it becomes clear how deeply the brand’s 150-year legacy is woven with moments like these. The immersive, experiential showcase, complete with 11 thematic rooms, delivers a slice of the brand’s birthplace of Le Brassus straight to the heart of Shanghai. Showcasing heritage alongside innovation, rare timepieces with more contemporary ones, the conceptual pop-up lays bare the AP universe, bringing guests on a journey from its 1875 founding to the present day.
Yet, the exhibition is more than just a retrospective. Instead, it highlights the craftsmanship, heritage and people who have shaped the brand (and the watchmaking industry) for 150 years. And it expertly illustrates how everything that came before influences and affects the modern creations of today. It’s a celebration of the artistry, culture, and creative collisions the brand fosters, resulting in watches that meld age-old craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology—an ethos that Mark strongly shares through his work.
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As I drift through the exhibition, I am reminded that AP’s enduring appeal lies not just in its boundary-pushing designs, but in the way each timepiece is a testament to a 150-year pursuit of passion, ingenuity, and excellence; an ever-evolving dialogue between history and modernity that —an ethos that Mark strongly shares through his work—lasts long beyond the moment.