Short answer
A fake Cartier Tank Louis Cartier is worth buying well or not at all. The cheap ones look wrong from three feet away: too thick, wrong cabochon, dull dial printing. The good ones cost $400 to $900 and get the 33.7 by 25.5 mm case, the Roman numerals, and the blued steel hands close enough that most people never notice. What they do not get is the movement, the solid 18k gold, or the finishing you feel when you turn the watch over. If you want the look and accept the trade-offs, buy from the top tier. Anything under about $120 is a costume piece.
What the genuine Tank Louis Cartier actually is
Louis Cartier drew this shape in 1922, and the proportions have barely moved since. That is the problem for replica makers: a design this simple hides nowhere. Any error in the brancards, the dial layout, or the crown shows up right away.
The current Large model measures about 33.7 mm by 25.5 mm and roughly 6.6 mm thick. The case is solid 18k yellow, rose, or white gold. The crystal is sapphire. The crown carries a blue sapphire cabochon in a gold claw setting. Dial work varies by reference: silvered opaline, guilloche, or flinque enamel. Hands are blued steel, sword shaped, and matched in length to the minute track. The standard engine inside is the 430 MC, a hand-wound caliber about 2.1 mm thick with a 38 hour reserve. The strap is alligator with a gold ardillon or deployant buckle.
The three tiers you will see
Tier one: quartz costume
$25 to $90. Mineral glass, plated base metal case, printed dial on a flat surface. The cabochon is plastic or dyed glass. Thickness runs 8 mm or more because of the quartz movement and the battery. The buckle is pot metal. These fool nobody who has held the real thing.
Tier two: mid grade
$150 to $350. Sapphire crystal on some, better dial printing, a decent leather strap. The movement is usually Swiss or Japanese quartz, or a low grade automatic if the case allows it. The case is thicker than genuine, and the gold tone is a plating that wears through at the crown and lugs within a year or two.
Tier three: super clone
$400 to $900 and up. This is where the money goes. Correct 33.7 by 25.5 mm footprint, 1:1 case profile, sapphire crystal with the right dome, hand-set Roman numerals, and a movement built to resemble the 430 MC. Some use a Chinese hand-wound caliber, others a modified Seagull. Gold plate runs 3 to 5 microns on the best examples, sometimes 18k wrapped. Weight lands close to genuine. This is the only tier I would bother with.
Tells that separate good fakes from bad ones
- Cabochon: should be domed and translucent, not flat or cloudy. The claw setting should be four rounded prongs, not a glued bead.
- Dial printing: Roman numerals should be crisp with no ink spread. Blobby or fuzzy numerals are the fastest tell.
- Hands: blued steel, not painted blue. The color should shift in light rather than sit flat.
- Minute track: thin, even, and continuous. Gaps or a thick line ruin the dial.
- Caseback engraving: depth and font matter. Laser etching looks shallow and grey; genuine engraving cuts into the metal.
- Thickness: measure it. Over 7.5 mm on a Large is wrong.
- Strap hardware: gold tone or solid gold, never chrome.
Movements are where replicas cheat
No replica runs a real Cartier 430 MC. What you get is a hand-wound or quartz substitute dressed to resemble it. That is fine if you accept it. Quartz means you set the watch twice a year and never wind it. Hand-wound means you wind daily and you get a smoother sweep, though the beat rate and finishing will not match genuine. Ask what is inside before you pay. Sellers who dodge the question usually have something to hide.
Gold, plating, and hallmarks
Solid gold replicas exist, but they cost near the price of a used genuine watch, which defeats the point for most buyers. Expect plated steel or brass. The best plating holds up for two to four years of daily wear, less if you sweat on it. Genuine Swiss hallmarks such as the 750 stamp and the Helvetia head appear on real cases. If a replica carries them stamped, that is a legal problem rather than a feature.
The US legal picture
Counterfeit watches are illegal to import and sell in the United States. US Customs seizes shipments, and trafficking in counterfeit goods carries federal penalties. Buying one for personal use is a different risk level than selling, but the parcel can still be stopped and destroyed. Keep that in mind before you order. This is not a normal retail purchase.
What I would check before buying
- Case dimensions to the tenth of a millimeter.
- Thickness, measured, not quoted.
- Cabochon shape and color under daylight.
- Dial printing at 3x magnification.
- Movement type, and whether the seller will name it.
- Plating thickness in microns, if they will say.
- Return policy. A seller without one is not worth the wire.
Do that and you avoid the worst of the market. Skip it and you pay mid tier money for tier one goods, which is the most common way people get burned.