We developed an Abbe-type comparator using a laser interferometer and a linear variable differential transformer (LVDT) probe as displacement sensors, which can measure the diameter of ring and plug gauges up to 300 mm. The measurement system is configured according to the Abbe principle, and consists of translation stages, a laser interferometer, an LVDT probe and an electronic controller. The main translation stage is made by using a precision ceramic guide and air bearing pads, and is driven by a backlash-free lead screw and a micro-stepping motor. The laser interferometer measures the displacement of a moving mirror aligned with the probe coaxially. The environmental effect is corrected automatically during the measurement. The effective diameter of the probe ball is calibrated using a reference gauge block. The performance of each component was evaluated through experiments and the measurement uncertainty of the overall system was analyzed. We measured three diameter artifacts, which are 11.95 mm and 100 mm ring gauges and a 98.5 mm plug gauge, and compared the measured values with the calibrated ones. They were consistent with each other within 0.3 μm, which is less than the expanded measurement uncertainty (k = 2).