The short answer

A replica Breguet 5287 is a copy of a very thin gold dress tourbillon, and the whole thing lives or dies on the movement. If the tourbillon cage is real and completes a rotation once a minute, the watch reads as a serious piece from across a table. If it is a decorative cutout sitting on a cheap automatic, anyone who knows watches will catch it fast. Budget somewhere between $280 and $900 for a version worth wearing, and lean toward the top of that range if you want the thin case profile to hold up in the hand.

What the original looks like

You cannot judge a copy without knowing the target. The Breguet 5287 sits in the Classique Tourbillon Extra-Plat family, and the traits people recognize are consistent across that line.

• Case: rose gold or platinum, roughly 40 mm across, and thin enough to disappear under a shirt cuff.
• Caseband: the fluted coin edge Breguet has used since the nineteenth century.
• Dial: silvered and guilloché, with the tourbillon aperture cut at 6 o'clock and the small seconds riding on the cage itself.
• Hands: blued steel Breguet hands with the hollowed moon tips and the fine eccentric line.
• Crystal: sapphire front and back, because the movement is half the point.

Straight lugs, welded to the case, are another signature. Most cheap copies get this wrong and use screw-in spring bars with visible gaps at the join.

Dial work is where copies separate

The guilloché pattern should be cut, or at minimum stamped with crisp edges and consistent depth. On low-tier replicas it looks printed, flat, and slightly grey. The applied chapter ring should sit flush. Look at the print under a loupe: genuine dial text is thin and sharp, and fakes usually run fat and soft at the edges.

Movement: real tourbillon or decoration

This is the one test that matters. Ask for a video with the watch running and the camera steady. A real tourbillon cage turns smoothly and continuously, usually a full revolution per minute. A fake cage either does not move at all or jumps in jerks driven by a gear underneath.

You should also see the balance wheel and escapement inside the rotating cage. If there is no escapement in there, it is a skeletonized plate, not a tourbillon.

Expect the hand-wound copies to carry a power reserve in the 40 to 70 hour range depending on which movement base the builder used. A 60 second sweep is normal. A ticking seconds hand means quartz and you should walk away.

Finishing checks in person

• Case fluting should be even, with no burrs and no polished flats between the ridges.
• Caseback engraving should be laser crisp, not stamped and shallow.
• Hands should be properly blued, not painted blue.
• Lug fit against the strap should be tight, with no daylight showing.
• The crown should wind with light resistance, not grit.

What each price tier buys

Under $300 you are usually getting a quartz or basic automatic with a fake cage and a plated case. Between $300 and $550, expect a real Chinese tourbillon movement, a gold-plated case, and decent dial printing, but thicker proportions than the original. From $600 up you get closer case dimensions, better finishing on the bridges, and sapphire on both sides. None of them are the genuine article, and sellers who claim 1:1 accuracy are overselling.

Before you pay

Ask for the movement name, a running video, and dimensions to the tenth of a millimeter. Confirm the return window in writing. Pay with a method that gives you a dispute route, because tourbillon replicas are the category most often misrepresented, and a good seller will answer all of this without hesitating.