Short answer
The Breguet Classique 7787 is a thin dress watch with a moon phase and a power reserve display, and fakes of it are usually mid-tier builds that look fine in a thumbnail and fall apart under a loupe. There is no famous "1:1 super clone" of this reference the way there is for a Submariner. Demand is small, the dial is hard to copy, and the moon phase plus power reserve combination is exactly the kind of thing cheap factories fake with glued-on hands. If you want a replica that survives a second look, the 7787 is one of the worst picks in the whole catalog.
breguet 7787 watch replica specifications
What the real 7787 actually is
It sits in Breguet's Classique line: a 39mm round case with the fluted caseband that shows up across the brand, welded lugs, and a slim profile that slips under a cuff. Depending on the reference you get a silvered guilloché dial or a fired enamel dial. The hands are Breguet's own pomme shape with the hollow eccentric tip. Down at 6 o'clock there is a moon phase aperture, and the upper half of the dial carries a power reserve sector.
- Self-winding calibre with roughly 38 hours of reserve
- Moon phase computed on the real lunar month, about 29.53 days
- Sapphire caseback with hand engraving and an individual serial
- Case finishing that mixes polished and brushed surfaces by hand
That list is the reason copies struggle. Each item is a separate manufacturing problem.
Where replicas fall apart
The dial
A fired enamel dial has depth. It reads slightly creamy, the printing sits in the glaze, and the surface reflects light in a soft way. Fakes use printed metal or a resin coat. In photos, look at the edge of the chapter ring and at how the guilloché pattern behaves under direct light. Machine-stamped barleycorn is uniform to the point of looking flat, and the real hand-turned pattern has small variations.
The moon phase
This is the giveaway. On most fakes the disc is stamped with a generic sky and stars that does not match Breguet's layout, and it often advances off the hour wheel instead of a proper lunar gear train. Set the watch forward a few days and watch whether the moon moves at the right rate. If it jumps once per day, it is decoration.
The power reserve
I have seen replica power reserve hands that are simply fixed in place, and others geared to the winding stem so they sweep instead of stepping down over 38 hours. Wind the watch fully, note the hand position, and check it 12 hours later. A real reserve indicator drops steadily. A fake either does not move or moves wrong.
Case and caseback
Fluting depth is hard to fake cheaply. Real Breguet caseband flutes are crisp and evenly spaced, with the transitions polished. Replica cases often have shallow, rounded flutes and a case that is 1 to 2mm thicker than spec. The engraving on the back is usually laser-etched rather than hand cut, and the serial numbers repeat across batches.
Price tiers you will run into
- Under $150. Quartz or a basic automatic, printed dial, fixed moon disc. Not worth the shipping.
- $250 to $500. Decorated automatic movement, better dial printing, working moon phase on some examples. Case still too thick.
- $600 and up. Sellers use "Swiss super clone" language. Ask for a movement photo and a video of the reserve hand moving. Most cannot supply one, because true high-end 7787 builds are rare.
A quick photo checklist
- Dial shot in raking light, not straight on
- Macro of the moon phase aperture
- Video of the watch being wound for 20 seconds
- Caseback engraving close up
- Side profile against a ruler to check thickness
Legal side
Trafficking in counterfeit goods is a federal crime in the United States under 18 U.S.C. § 2320, and customs seizes incoming parcels on a routine basis. Replicas also cannot be serviced by Breguet, carry no warranty that means anything, and have almost no resale value. Buy one as a novelty if you like, but treat it as a novelty and never as an investment.