The short answer
A "fake Cartier Tank Chino" is a replica of the Cartier Tank Chinoise, a 1922 Tank variant whose case is extended by two horizontal brancards and a lattice of bars that echo Chinese portico architecture. Searches often drop the last letters, so "chino" and "chinoise" point at the same watch. Unlike the Submariner or the Santos, the Chinoise is a niche, low-volume, manual-wind, precious-metal piece. That keeps the replica pool small and, oddly, easier to judge: most fakes fall apart on case geometry, movement, or dial printing, not on one microscopic detail.
What the genuine watch is
Cartier introduced the Tank Chinoise in 1922, riffing on the Tank Louis Cartier. The brancards above and below the dial stretch past the case corners, and horizontal bars run between them, framing the square dial. The effect is architectural, and Cartier built it in yellow gold, rose gold, white gold, and platinum. Later runs included Chinoise models with lacquer on the brancards or dial, a Chinoise XL, and an openworked skeleton version. Movements on the modern references are mechanical and Cartier's own, including the 430 MC and, on the skeleton, the 9611 MC.
The tells that matter
Case and brancards
The brancards are the whole design, and they are the first thing a replica gets wrong. On a real Chinoise the bars are thick, evenly spaced, and finished on the flat outer edge with a polished chamfer that catches light in one clean line. On fakes the bars are usually thinner, unevenly spaced, or softly rounded because the case was cast from a photo rather than a drawing. Plating is common. Look at the lug tips and the caseback edges, where gold plate wears through to a duller base metal within months of daily wear.
Movement
If the watch ticks, it is not a genuine Chinoise. Genuine pieces are hand-wound. Replicas almost always hide a quartz module, or occasionally a Miyota 6T33 with a decorated rotor that should not be there on a manual-wind watch. Ask for a photo of the movement and the crown position through the caseback, then compare it with the reference you are looking at.
Dial and hands
Cartier's dial printing is crisp and thin, with Roman numerals that have sharp serifs and a railroad minute track that sits evenly inside the chapter. Replica printing looks heavier and slightly fuzzy under magnification, and the Roman numerals often tilt or sit off-center. Hands should be blued steel on most references. Painted blue hands with a visible brush texture are a giveaway. The secret signature, where Cartier hides a word inside a numeral stroke, is either missing entirely or painted on top of the numeral instead of integrated into it.
Crown, caseback, and strap
The crown carries a cabochon, usually blue sapphire or spinel set into gold. Fakes use glass or dyed resin that looks flat and dull in daylight and never shows the same depth. Caseback engraving on a genuine watch is deep and clean, with reference and serial numbers that match the paperwork and the movement. On replicas the engraving is shallow, sometimes laser-etched, and the fonts drift between letters. Straps are a secondary tell: genuine Chinoise pieces ship on alligator with a signed gold deployant, while replicas come on embossed calf with a stamped steel clasp.
Why the Chinoise is a poor target for copyists
- Low production numbers mean fewer reference photos for a factory to work from.
- The brancard and lattice geometry is hard to cast and finish convincingly.
- Genuine examples are gold or platinum, so weight and case material are easy to test.
- Most Chinoise references are hand-wound, which rules out the cheap quartz internals used elsewhere.
Legal and practical reality in the US
Counterfeit watches are illegal to sell or traffic in the United States, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection seizes counterfeit merchandise at ports of entry. Buying one is not a shortcut to owning the design. Cartier will not service or authenticate a counterfeit, no independent watchmaker will touch it for anything beyond a battery, and resale value is effectively zero because the serial number cannot be verified. If a listing uses phrases like "1:1 Swiss super clone" or "AAA quality," treat that as a marketing label with no grading standard behind it. Anyone quoting a "Tank Chinoise" at a fraction of gold-case pricing is selling plated metal, a quartz movement, or both.
If you are trying to authenticate one
Work in this order: confirm the case metal, confirm the movement is manual-wind, check the brancard spacing and finish, then examine the dial print and the crown cabochon. Any single failure ends the conversation. A watch that passes all four still deserves a hands-on inspection by a watchmaker who has handled a Chinoise before, because these references are rare enough that most people, including most dealers, have never held one.