By TEEEMPUS · Published
You know the Royal Oak by its bezel: an octagon held down by eight screws, on a steel case that flows into a steel bracelet. The Royal Oak Selfwinding 41, reference 15510ST.OO.1320ST.06, puts that bezel around a blue dial covered in small raised squares, which Audemars Piguet calls the Grande Tapisserie, with white gold hour markers and a date at 3. The case is 41 mm across and 10.5 mm thick, it's water resistant to 50 metres, and inside is the selfwinding Calibre 4302, with 70 hours of power reserve. In the US, Audemars Piguet lists it at $31,900, which it calls an indicative price.
That's a lot of money, and the look comes much cheaper than the watch. We went through watches like the Royal Oak on sale in the US today and kept seven with its blue dial, its steel bracelet and as much of its octagon as we could find, from $158 to $15,000, and the dearest of them costs about half of the Royal Oak's price. Each one comes with what it gets wrong. Prices are regular US list prices, not sale prices, checked on 24 October 2026. The photos are to scale, so if a watch looks smaller here, it is. The one exception is the Pagani, whose only photo is taken from an angle, so its size is approximate.
One of the seven is marked as a homage, the watch world's word for a watch that follows a famous design on purpose, under its own name. Retailers often sell for less than the list prices here. Where we couldn't confirm that Amazon lists the exact watch, its Amazon button runs a search instead.
This is the watch every pick is measured against, the Royal Oak Selfwinding 41, reference 15510ST.OO.1320ST.06:
Nothing below has all of it. Only the Pagani puts screws on an octagonal bezel. The G-Shock, the Citizen and the Girard-Perregaux have the octagon without them, the Christopher Ward has twelve sides, and the Tissot and the Maurice Lacroix have round bezels. Every pick is rated deeper than the Royal Oak's 50 metres, and only the Christopher Ward is thinner.
| Watch | US list price | Case | Bezel | Movement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pagani Design PD-1673 (homage) | $158 | 40 mm | Octagonal, 8 screws | Automatic |
| Casio G-Shock GM-2110D-2B | $330 | 44.4 mm | Octagonal | Quartz |
| Tissot PRX 40 Powermatic 80 | $850 | 40 mm | Round | Automatic |
| Citizen Series 8 890 | $1,425 | 42.6 mm | Octagonal | Automatic |
| Christopher Ward The Twelve 40 | $1,635 | 40 mm | 12-sided | Automatic |
| Maurice Lacroix Aikon Automatic 42 | $2,800 | 42 mm | Round, 6 claws | Automatic |
| Girard-Perregaux Laureato 42 | $15,000 | 42 mm | Octagonal | Automatic |
| Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, for comparison | $31,900 | 41 mm | Octagonal, 8 screws | Automatic |
Nothing here copies more of the Royal Oak, and nothing costs less. Pagani puts eight screw heads on an octagonal bezel, fills the navy dial with a raised square grid, and adds applied baton markers, baton hands and a date at 3, on an integrated steel bracelet. The 316L steel case is 40 mm across and 12 mm high, under a sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating, and it's water resistant to 100 metres. The version here has a Miyota 8215 automatic, with 42 hours of power reserve.
What you give up: the case is a millimetre narrower and 1.5 mm thicker than the Royal Oak's, the dial says Pagani Design, and the power reserve is 42 hours against 70. Pagani doesn't publish the lug-to-lug length, and its only photo of this version is taken from an angle. It costs $158 with the Miyota movement, less than a hundredth of the Royal Oak. Pagani also sells it with an NH35 for more.
This is the octagon at its most casual: G-Shock's version, the shape nicknamed the CasiOak, here with a steel bezel and a steel bracelet. The navy dial mixes baton hands and markers with a small sub-dial and two digital displays, under an octagonal bezel with G-Shock's lettering around it. Casio gives the case as 44.4 mm wide, 49.3 mm long and 11.8 mm thick, in resin and stainless steel, and it's water resistant to 200 metres.
What you give up is most of the Royal Oak's face and its mechanical movement. The bezel has no screws and carries lettering, the case under it is resin, and the digital displays are a long way from the Tapisserie. It runs on quartz, from two SR726W batteries that Casio says last about three years, under mineral glass rather than sapphire. At 44.4 mm it's the widest watch here, 3.4 mm wider than the Royal Oak. It costs $330.
This is our pick for value. Tissot's blue waffle-pattern dial is the nearest thing to the Tapisserie under $1,000, and the integrated bracelet's stepped steel links come straight out of a faceted case, much as the Royal Oak's do. The 316L steel case is 40 mm across and 10.93 mm thick, a fraction thicker than the Royal Oak's, under a sapphire crystal with an anti-reflective coating on the underside, and it's water resistant to 100 metres. Inside is Tissot's Swiss automatic Powermatic 80, with 80 hours of power reserve, 10 more than the Royal Oak. Tissot's US store had it in stock.
What you give up is the octagon. The bezel is round and has no screws, so across a room it reads as a PRX before it reads as a Royal Oak, and the dial says Tissot. It costs $850, about a fortieth of the Royal Oak. Tissot also makes a quartz PRX 40 for less, but its dial is a plain sunray, without the grid.
Pick this one if you want the octagon on an automatic rated to 200 metres. Citizen builds the octagon into the case itself, around a blue grid dial with bold applied batons and a date at 3, on an integrated steel bracelet. The steel case is 42.6 mm across, under an anti-reflective sapphire crystal, and inside is Citizen's Calibre 9051 automatic. Citizen's US store had it in stock.
What you give up is the Royal Oak's uncluttered dial. Inside the bezel sits a turning ring with 10, 20 and 30 on it and dots of lume, which gives the 890 the look of a dive watch. The case is 1.6 mm wider than the Royal Oak's, and the power reserve is 42 hours against 70. Citizen leaves the thickness out of its spec list, but the data behind its product page gives 12.07 mm, and Citizen doesn't publish the lug-to-lug length. It costs $1,425, a twenty-second of the Royal Oak.
If thin matters to you, this is the one: at 9.95 mm it's the only watch here thinner than the Royal Oak. Christopher Ward's bezel has twelve sides, finished three ways, around a blue dial stamped in three dimensions with a twin-flag pattern, on an integrated steel bracelet. The steel case is 40 mm across and 44.5 mm from lug to lug, a figure most of the makers here don't publish, under an anti-reflective sapphire crystal, and it's water resistant to 100 metres. Inside is a Sellita SW200-2 automatic in Christopher Ward's Power+ version, with at least 60 hours of power reserve and typically 65.
What you give up: twelve sides read differently from eight, there are no screws, and the date sits at 6 rather than 3. The power reserve is a little short of the Royal Oak's 70 hours. It costs $1,635, about a twentieth of the Royal Oak. You can't have one straight away, though: when we checked, Christopher Ward's US store took pre-orders only, for delivery at the end of November 2026.
The Aikon gets closer to the Royal Oak's dial and bracelet than to its bezel. The blue dial is a Clous de Paris pattern of small pyramids, with rhodium baton markers and a date at 3, and the integrated steel bracelet comes out of the case the way the Royal Oak's does. The 42 mm steel case is 11 mm high, under a sapphire crystal with a double anti-reflective coating, and it's water resistant to 200 metres. Inside is Maurice Lacroix's ML115 automatic.
What you give up is the octagon and most of the power reserve. The bezel is round, with six raised claws where the Royal Oak has eight screws, and the ML115 runs for 38 hours against the Royal Oak's 70. The case is a millimetre wider, and Maurice Lacroix doesn't publish the lug-to-lug length. It costs $2,800, about an eleventh of the Royal Oak. If 42 mm is more than you want, the 39 mm version, AI6007-SS002-430-1, costs the same.
This is the one luxury watch among the picks, and the closest-looking one we found at its price. The Laureato sets a polished octagonal bezel on a raised case, over a blue Clous de Paris dial with applied batons and a date at 3, on an integrated steel bracelet. The 42 mm steel case is 10.68 mm thick, with a sapphire crystal and a sapphire caseback, and it's water resistant to 100 metres. Inside is Girard-Perregaux's GP01800 self-winding movement, with at least 54 hours of power reserve.
What you give up: the bezel has no screws, the dial is a pattern of pyramids rather than the Tapisserie's squares, and the case is a millimetre wider than the Royal Oak's. The power reserve is at least 54 hours against 70, and Girard-Perregaux doesn't publish the lug-to-lug length. It costs $15,000, and Girard-Perregaux's US page offers a reservation request rather than a cart.
