Ultimate AP Royal Oak Buying Guide

This is a guide will outline the best replica factories for the following references: 15202, 15400, 15450 & 15500.
General information:

    Royal Oaks tend to wear larger than their size due to the way the lugs expand further out from the case back. The 15450 (37mm) will wear like a 39mm watch, the 15202 (39mm) will wear more like a 41mm watch and so on. I have an 18cm/7 inch wrist and the 39mm wears best for me. 15500, 15202 and 15450 size comparison.

    With rep AP bracelets, it's recommended to clean them with an ultrasonic cleaner and then giving them an oil bath (baby oil). Out of the box, Royal Oak rep bracelets are comfortable to wear without any issues but feel much better after a clean.

    Every RO rep listed here uses the Miyota 9015 movement. They're known for being a little loud due to the rotor winding up the mainspring to power the watch. The noise can be reduced and sometimes eliminated completely by adding a drop or two of watch-specific oil into the rotor or getting your local watch smith to do it.

OMF reps are not covered because they are the lowest quality for the highest price point. spits
Model: 15400

Gen Specs:

    Case size: 41mm
    Case thickness: 9.8mm
    Dial colours: Black, blue, grey & white
    Case colours: Stainless steel & rose gold

Best factory: ZF

    Case size: 41mm
    Case thickness: 9.8 - 9.9mm
    Dial colours: Black, blue, grey & white
    Case colours: Stainless steel

With the release of ZF’s 15400 at the end of 2019/early 2020, many people including myself were sceptic that it would be any better than JF’s version which has gone through 5 iterations. Even though ZF has a strong reputation producing other replica brands (IWC, JLC, Patek, Tudor etc) this was their first AP Royal Oak release.

They delivered.

The ZF improves over the JF in two important aspects, the dial (tappisserie and colour) and the thickness (case back and bracelet).

I’ve covered the 15400 alone in its own guide which can be read here.
Model: 15450

Gen Specs:

    Case size: 37mm
    Case thickness: 9.8mm
    Dial colours: Black, blue, grey & white
    Case colours: Stainless steel & yellow gold

Best factory: JF (V2)

    Case size: 37mm
    Case thickness: 10mm – 10.5mm
    Dial colours: Black, blue, grey & white
    Case colours: Stainless steel & rose gold

Currently JF is the only factory that reps the 15450, which also makes it the best!

New members may be confused as to why the JF 15450 is only V2. Simple answer is trusted dealers and I assume the factories too, decided not to update the name. However, do note that the 15450 has received identical updated to the JF 15400 V5 such as improved bracelet engraving, improved printing, thinner date wheel font etc. Original guide on the JF 15400 can be found here

My biggest complaint with JF is the thickness. Although the 15450 is 37mm, it wears like a larger 39mm watch due to the way the lugs extend from the case. Still a relatively small watch, the JF’s rep is around 0.2 - 0.7mm thicker than gen. In addition, JF bracelets are ever so slightly thicker than gen (and ZF). It doesn’t seem like much but the smaller size case with the added thickness is quite noticeable once you start wearing the watch frequently. Unfortunately, this is a common issue with the JF 15400/15450.

Wearability, and maybe comfort can be improved be slimming the case back to gen specifications. This can be done by a modder which can be found on RWI.
Model:15500

Gen Specs:

    Case size: 41mm
    Case thickness: 10.4mm
    Dial colours: Black, blue, grey & white
    Case colours: Stainless steel & rose gold

Best factory: ZF

    Case size: 41mm
    Case thickness: 10.6mm
    Dial colours: Black, blue, grey & white
    Case colours: Stainless steel

ZF’s second AP release and slowly becoming my favourite AP rep.

When AP released the 15500, they made a number of updates from the 15400 which included added thickness, a larger display case back and an overhauled dial layout which gave ZF some breathing room to construct the watch. The dial details (tappisserie pattern, hands, printing and hour markers) are all finished very well. ZF also improved the bezel screws on this model to be identical to gen. Screws are nicely shaped with sharp corners and fit perfectly within the bezel.

You can read more about how to QC AP reps here

Flaws include thickness (About 0.2 – 0.3mm thicker than gen) and the date wheel which isn’t as sharp as gen because gen printing has some insane tolerances and gaps between the corners of the font, refer to this picture..

Regarding thickness, the bracelet is ever so slightly thicker than the 15400 (as per gen) but a thicker case back. At first, I assumed the 15500 would wear pretty bulky, like an older JF V3. However, I soon realised that with the newer dial layout making the watch face feel larger, it somehow makes the watch wear smaller. The thickness wasn’t an issue at all with my 18cm wrists.

All in all, the ZF 15500 is one of the best AP reps OOTB.
Model: 15202

Gen Specs:

    Case size: 39mm
    Case thickness: 8.1mm
    Dial colours: Blue & white (And a few special editions)
    Case colours: Stainless steel, rose gold & yellow gold

Best factory: Undecided

Currently there are three factories that make the 15202 – JF, XF and ZF. As mentioned in my previous AP Buying Guide, I won’t be covering JF because their rep is subpar compared to XF and ZF.

XF vs. ZF

I have left this section of the guide undecided as I feel that specifically for 15202 reps, the decision as to which version you should get is dependent on which flaws/improvements matter to you.

Both versions have their pros and cons so in order to simplify things I will only cover a portion of the features distinct between the XF and ZF as many areas overlap.

The following areas are indistinguishable between XF and ZF and thus they are even:

    Bezel screws – XF V2 updated included sharper bezel screws, ZF already does.
    Brushing - identical
    Date Wheel – Both have roughly the same font and thickness.
    Hour Markers - identical
    Minute/hour hands - identical
    Movement – Both use a modified Miyota 9015 with no decoration plate.

Dial Tappisserie

In order to understand this next section, you must first know the difference between a gen dial and a replica dial. Once it clicks, you’ll easily be able to spot a gen from a rep and even identify reps based on the dial alone.

The dial pattern or ‘tappisserie’ is one of the hardest parts of an AP to replicate. The manufacturing process for this requires a specialised tool called a guilloche which engraves the tappisserie onto the dial. Obviously Chinese factories don’t bother with this manufacturing process, so they have come up with their own methods of replicating these dials.

In simple terms, a gen AP dial consists of squares that are raised out of the dial. The edges of these squares have a gradual slope that reconnects back to the dial. Emphasis on the gradual slope. There are also no sharp corners anywhere with gen tappisserie.

Gen picture 1 & picture 2

Think of a tray of ice-cubes that have melted slightly.

At certain angles and lighting, the gen AP dial will have a sort of optical illusion that makes it look like the tappisserie squares are sunken, instead of raised out of the dial.

Example of a grey gen dial.

Now onto a replica, and more specifically the JF V5 pictured here. Notice how each square on the dial is raised out of the dial similarly to gen, but without the gradual slope. The shadow cast by the sharp edges of the squares further highlights this flaw

XF was the first factory that replicated the gradual slope on their 15202 V1. XF did a good job replicating the individual squares in the tappisserie as well as the gradual slope. However, it still looks a little off because the height of the tappisserie squares are slightly higher than gen. In other words, the squares raise out of the dial too much (I’m talking 0.25mm).

XF V1 dial picture 1 & dial picture 2

A minor detail that /u/MajorWilliams pointed out that is relevant for the XF V1 only is the number of grooves per tappisserie square. XF has 6 larger grooves whereas gen has 9 smaller grooves. The larger grooves on the XF subtract from the elegance of an AP dal.

Gen on the left and XF V1 on the right

Unfortunately, when XF released V2 they overhauled the dial tappisserie pattern and dial colour. The dial tappisserie itself has taken a step back and the XF V2 now has a similar style of dial to the JF 15202 V2 – not good.

JF 15202 V2

XF 15202 V2

Regarding the dial colour, the V2 is less grey like the V1 and more blue like gen. However, because of the tappisserie pattern update, the light catches the V2 dial differently and makes each square stand out in a weird way. You’ll notice in the photo above that each square is lighter in colour than the rest of the dial itself due to the raised squares.

XF V1 left and V2 right.

This area is where the ZF 15202 really shines. Immediately the dial draws you in with the deep shade of blue that is similar to gen. The tappisserie squares have depth and you can even see the gradual slopes on each square unlike the XF V2. This dial design is consistent with the ZF 15400 and 15500 which share a similar style of dial tappisserie.

ZF 15202

Looking closer at the photos, the ZF appears to have a similar dial design to the XF V1 with each tappisserie square and a gradual slope. Though it does look like the height of these squares may even be higher than the XF V1.

Even at an angle, the ZF dial has no harsh shadows between each tappisserie square.

The dial tappisserie, dial colour and the finer grooves in the within the tappisserie squares makes the ZF dial superior to the XF.
Dial Colour

As mentioned above, the ZF 15202 has the best colour dial compared to the XF V2 even though the V2 received a colour updated from the greyish V1.
Lume

The XF V1 commonly had mismatched lume between the hour markers and the hour/minute hands. V2 sometimes has mismatched lume but I think that’s more of a batch issue and should pass. That leaves ZF which consistently has matching lume and also isn’t too green which makes it the winner.
Hand stack

This refers to the centre of the dial where the minute and hour hands are connected to the movement. On gen the hand stack is pretty slim but so far no rep has been able to keep it slim, infact it’s getting bigger with every release…

Reference photo

Using the dial tappisserie as a reference, we can see the gen hand stack is slightly larger than two squares, the XF also looks the same size but the distance between each tappisserie square is larger. If you compare just the hand stacks between gen and XF you can see the slight size difference.

Then there’s the ZF with its giant UFO hand stack…

XF wins
Dial Printing

With the updated XF V2 and ZF 15202, faded or misaligned printing is a rare occurrence but it should be noted that gen printing is very thick in terms of the ink used as well as a brighter tone of white.

Reference photo

Using the same photo as before, you can see that gen printing looks flat even though we know the tappisserie pattern has texture to it. When we move onto the XF you can see a line of lighter printing cutting across horizontally along the ‘AUDEMARS PIGUET’ text and the ‘AUTOMATIC’ slightly. This is down to the amount of ink used to print or stamp onto the dial.

Due to the tappisserie pattern of the ZF discussed previously, the printing is much more like gen in the sense that the dial pattern does not affect the thickness or boldness of the printing.
Thickness

The gen 15202 is 8.1mm thick with a case size of 39mm. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of wearing a genuine AP rep you’ll notice how exceptionally thin it wears combined with the unfathomably comfortable bracelet. The XF is consistently 8.2 – 8.3mm thick with the skeleton rotor. The ZF has been measured up to 8.6mm but usually around 8.4mm.

Not much of a difference but XF wins against the ZF in terms of thickness.
Bracelet

When ZF released their 15202, I was excited for a better bracelet because honestly XF V1/V2 bracelets aren’t as good as the bracelets used in the ZF 15400/15500. However, that never ended up happening. For some reason the ZF bracelet is really bad. I mean really bad. It’s hard to describe the difference in AP quality but the ZF bracelet links fold and bend in a way that makes it feel flimsy – almost like a DHGate AP bracelet that’s been rebrushed and polished except they didn’t bother doing any work on fitment or the pins within the bracelet.

Therefore, the XF V2 currently has the best bracelet for a 15202 rep.
	XF V2 	ZF
Bezel screws 	- 	-
Brushing 	- 	-
Date wheel 	- 	-
Hour markers 	- 	-
Minute/hour hands 	- 	-
Movement 	- 	-
Dial tappisserie 		✓
Dial colour 		✓
Dial printing 		✓
Lume 		✓
Hand stack 	✓
Thickness 	✓
Bracelet 	✓

If you’ve read this far into figuring out which 15202 factory is the best, high-five. I’ve included the table above so you can easily see which aspect each factory is the best. If you want a 15202 rep that looks closest to gen on your wrist then get the ZF. If you prefer a rep with a thinner case back and better bracelet, get the XF.
Modding

A lot can be done in terms of modding your AP. This can be done to achieve a ‘closer to gen’ look or to simply improve comfort or reliability for your rep.
Thinning case back:

Thinning an AP case back used to be a pretty popular mod back when JF was the only decent Royal Oak factory. JF reps were always much thicker than gen so most rep 15400 on that used market that have been thinned are usually JF. Though, this can still be done for the XF/ZF 15202, ZF 15500 and JF 15450.

I would highly recommend thinning a JF 15450 if you have one. Because of the smaller 37mm case size, the extra thickness is very noticeable. Get it thinned down as per gen and it’ll feel 10x on the wrist.
Anti-reflective Crystal (2XAR)

Stock AP reps have decent crystals so there’s nothing you really need to worry about. A regular crystal only has anti-reflective coating on one side where as a 2XAR has it on both sides. This creates a sort of blackhole effect where your crystal doesn’t show any glare at all, from any angle – just like a Rolex Submariner cyclops.

However, if you don’t care about gen specs and prefer a better looking dial then I’d recommend getting a 2XAR crystal. You can easily source a 2XAR crystal from ‘rnrprof’ on RWI.
Bracelet clean and oil bath

Refer to this picture

A cheap and quick method to improve comfort and bracelet flexibility is with an oil bath. First, clean the entire bracelet (without the case) in an ultrasonic cleaner to remove any oil or residue left over from the factory. Once the bracelet is cleaned and thoroughly dried, leave the bracelet in a baby oil bath overnight. Wash again with water under a tap and dry thoroughly to avoid any rust forming. Forum members have also used dry teflon lube or mineral oil. The only reason I suggested baby oil is that it is the gentle on the skin in-case there is some leftover oil that comes out of the bracelet while wearing.
Other mods include:

    Re-brushing and polishing (Case back, bezel, bracelet etc)
    Water proofing
    Movement service
    Rotor silencing

Franken:

One step further is fitting gen parts to your rep watch. If you can source a gen dial, they usually pop up on eBay or Chrono24, a modder can fit that gen dial into your rep and you’ve got yourself a rep that would be indistinguishable to a gen on the wrist. Other people have also swapped over other parts such as a gen bracelet, hour/minute/second hands and even a genuine calibre 3120 movement into the rep case.

tl;dr

15400 - ZF

15450 - JF

15500 - ZF

15202 – you decide