Say hello to the Tudor Royal M28500-0003 – a stunning timepiece with a lovely integrated bracelet. At 38mm it wears relatively well on my 16cm Asian sized wrist, where the black, sunray finished dial gives a different look as you expose it at different angles in the light. It comes with a notched bezel in 316L steel, with the interesting and unique alternating cut grooves and polished finish that we don’t see on many other pieces. It definitely helps that the integrated bracelet reflects light as you move the timepiece in the light, making it seem like light is dancing on this timepiece!

The roman numerals make the dial a little busier than I’d like but I would not go so far to say it is out of place. Now on to the technicals – This piece is waterproof to 100m (not that I’m going swimming with it), and is powered by a self-winding mechanical movement (Calibre T601) which gives it a power reserve of approximately 38 hours – not too bad, but it would have been great if it came with Tudor’s in-house movement. In addition, it also has a date function at 3 o’clock. For those who are particular about having a date function, this piece definitely checks this box.

This Tudor Royal would be a great addition to a collection of pieces especially since it is relatively versatile – wear it to work, and it would not look out of place, nor would it look out of place if you paired it with say t-shirt and shorts. One downside of this piece though is that if you have an awkward wrist size, finding the right fit could be challenging given the integrated bracelet. All in, you probably can’t find a better built piece at this price point with so much going for it. I’d say go for the Royal if you want to feel royal without breaking the bank!