The Seven Best Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Alternatives
The timepieces of the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Collection are well known to many watch aficionados, but the prices make them prohibitively expensive to all but the most dedicated of collectors. Luckily, there are less costly alternatives that look just as dazzling on the wrist. These are seven of our favorites.
Parmigiani Tonda GT
Parmigiani is known equally for exquisite workmanship and breathtaking style, for being haute couture yet accessible for everyday wear. The watches of the Tonda GT collection are Parmigiani’s take on luxury sport watches, with the accent on luxury. Cases are available in stainless steel or rose gold with sapphire crystal casebacks. Patterned dials come in black, white or blue. There are a variety of available dial features including luminescent hands, a small seconds subdial, and a big date display. Complementary straps are offered in black or blue rubber, or stainless steel links.
Bell & Ross BR05
Bell & Ross was born of a partnership between watch designers and aeronautical control panel specialists, and that’s evident in the design principles that guide them—precision, reliability, functionality and legibility. The BR05 watches, part of the Bell & Ross Instruments collection, take their inspiration from the aeronautic and military fields. Choose from rugged cases in satin-polished stainless steel or 18K rose gold. Dial colors available include grey, black or blue, with a myriad of features: Appliqué numerals and index, Arabic numeral markers, a date indicator and Super-LumiNova coated hour markers and hands. Black rubber, rose gold or stainless steel straps finish each timepiece.
Girard-Perregaux Laureato
Originally designed as a limited edition tribute to Girard-Perregaux’s 225th Anniversary, the Laureato collection is now celebrated as a contemporary watch with a progressive, truly unique design. Cases feature an octagonal bezel in steel, two-tone steel, 18K white gold, 18K pink gold, titanium or black ceramic, and a sapphire crystal caseback. Patterned dials come in a variety of colors, and feature a show-stopping skeleton dial. Some models are available with chronograph counters, a date indicator, and a small seconds subdial. Straps include integrated stainless steel, rich alligator leather, black rubber or rubber with fabric effect.
Zenith Defy
Swiss watchmaking reaches its zenith with the Defy collection—timepieces that are just as technologically innovative as they are head turning. Each features an astounding 1/100th of a second Chronograph movement with an exclusive dynamic signature of one rotation per second for the Chrono hand. Case materials include microblasted titanium, microblasted titanium with 18K rose gold, brushed titanium, stainless steel and more. Additional features include transparent sapphire crystal casebacks, anti-reflective domed sapphire crystals, and unique dial features such as chronograph counters, a power reserve indicator, a small seconds sub-dial, Superluminova hands and hour-markers, diamond hour markers and a tourbillon carriage.
Breguet La Marine
The watchmaker whose timepieces adorned the wrists of such luminaries as Napoleon Bonaparte, Queen Marie-Antoinette, Tsar Alexander I and Sir Winston Churchill is today responsible for some of the world’s most breathtaking contemporary sport watches, including the La Marine collection. Case materials include 18K rose gold, 18K white gold or stainless steel, and caseback materials include sapphire crystal or sapphire crystal with diamond bezel and lugs. Dial colors run the gamut from black rhodium-plated gold to silvered gold to natural white mother-of-pearl with diamonds. All dials feature Roman numeral markers, and some include a center chronograph, small seconds subdial and more. Straps are available in black satin, black rubber, luxurious leather and stainless steel.
Baume and Mercier Riviera
Beautiful movements, exquisite materials and the expertise that comes with more than 190 years of experience—this is Baume and Mercier. All these descriptors are particularly apt when it comes to the Riviera collection, the fifth generation of a classic first introduced in 1973. Choose from a satin-finished steel case with a patterned silver sun satin-finished dial and a stainless steel strap, or a black DLC sand-blasted steel case with a patterned smoked sapphire grey dial and a black rubber strap. Both models feature sapphire crystal casebacks and an anti-glare sapphire crystal. Dials feature rhodium plated hands, a date indicator and Roman numeral markers.
Glashütte Original Seventies
As a part of the Glashütte Original Vintage collection, the Seventies timepieces pay homage to the time period with subtle details and unique charm, yet with all the sophisticated innovations of today. Rounded square cases come in polished stainless steel and are matched with straps of stainless steel, exotic alligator leather or black rubber. A variety of dial colors include galvanized silver, galvanized ruthenium and galvanized blue sunburst. Features included on various models include a 12-hour counter on aperture at 12 o’clock, a 30-minute subdial at 3 o’clock, Super-LumiNova inlays on hands and hour markers, a power reserve indicator, a small seconds subdial and more.
Discover these and other Royal Oak alternatives at Feldmar. Browse our online store or stop into our flagship location.
About The Author: Tom Roth
Born in Washington state, Tom developed an interest in photography during college at University of San Diego. There, he got started in music journalism, interviewing artists and taking photos at concerts. A life-long tinkerer and collector, it wasn’t long before Tom became fascinated with fountain pens and watches.
Those interests collided in November 2020 when Tom started at Feldmar Watch Company where he lives out every watch geek’s dream: photographing and writing about timepieces. When he’s not tinkering with his watch collection, Tom can be found traveling, biting his nails while watching PNW sports teams, and taking flying lessons.
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