Breitling Articles, FAQs and Resources

How To Spot Fake And Replica Dials

Spotting Fake Dials - 06/07/2007

When buying watches online, it's always best to be armed with the most knowledge possible when looking at a potential purchase.

There are several things that you are going to see that are wrong with almost every single replica Breitling out there. Replicas are never painted and embossed with the same level of precision that the genuine article will be. Take a look below.

On the left you have a genuine Breitling Navitimer dial, with a perfect Breitling anchor on the second hand, while the fake on the right has an imperfect second hand anchor, and as you can see the embossed wings logo is blurred and smeared into itself. You will notice that most if not all fakes will have smeared writing on the dials, especially if looked at under a loupe.

Models that have an applied logo are easy to spot with a trained eye. The applied logo on a replica is never done very well. On the left you have a genuine applied wings logo from a Wings Automatic model, and on the right you have a fake applied wings logo. The fake logo is thin and fragile looking, and the real one is substantial and filled-in. All Breitling logos are "filled-in" and do not have that white-space that you see in the fake.

On the poorly made fake on the right, you will notice the subdials have calendar functions. This is incorrect for a Breitling, as they do not have calendar functions on the subdials. The subdials should have Chronograph functions as they do on the left, and not only should they look like a chronograph, but they should operate like one also.

Hope you found this article on fake Breitling dials useful. Good luck!