Taron Egerton wears a Chopard Imperiale

Taron Egerton plays Elton John in Dexter Fletcher's Rocketman, the 2019 musical that follows Reginald Dwight from a shy childhood to global fame, his songs built with the lyricist Bernie Taupin, played by Jamie Bell. Through much of it he wears a Chopard Imperiale, an ornate dress watch with Roman numerals and a fluted, coin-edge bezel.

The watch is there because of a friendship. Chopard was the film's exclusive jeweler, and its co-president, Caroline Scheufele, is a close friend of Elton John. The two have run charity events together for years, including Chopard's long support of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, which John started in 1992 and which has raised more than four hundred million dollars. Scheufele handed the film's costume designer, Julian Day, the run of Chopard's vault, and Day dressed Egerton in pieces from across the house, the Happy Diamonds and Happy Hearts lines among them.

There is one honest catch. As Quill & Pad noted, the watches and jewelry in the film are not the ones Elton John actually owned. They are interpretations, chosen by Day for the screen. The Imperiale that Egerton wears while his Elton prepares to film the 'I'm Still Standing' video is a costume in the same sense as the sequined Dodger Stadium uniform: made to look like Elton John, not taken from his collection.