Replica Blancpain Carrousel: Short Answer
No factory builds a working replica of the Blancpain Carrousel. The genuine watch uses a carrousel carriage that turns once per minute. Chinese replica makers copy Rolex and Patek Philippe cases well. They do not copy carrousel movements. A page that sells a "replica Blancpain Carrousel" sells one of three things: a quartz watch with a fake dial aperture, a generic Chinese tourbillon in an open-worked dial, or a stock photo of a real Blancpain.
What the Carrousel Is
Bahne Bonniksen, a Danish watchmaker working in London, patented the carrousel in the 1890s. The part rotates the balance and escapement to cancel rate errors in different positions. A tourbillon cage is driven by the fourth wheel. A carrousel carriage is driven by the third wheel through an intermediate wheel. Blancpain showed the Carrousel Volant Une Minute in 2008. Volant means flying in French. The carriage completes one turn in 60 seconds. Blancpain does not list a part count for the movement in its public product sheets.
Why Copies Miss
A carrousel is not a tourbillon. Both rotate a regulator. The drive path and the rotation period differ. Chinese movement makers build real tourbillons. Seagull and Hangzhou sell tourbillon calibers in the low hundreds of dollars at wholesale. None of those calibers are carrousels. A replica with a real tourbillon has a tourbillon. It does not have a carrousel.
Price and Identification
Genuine Carrousel watches sell at auction in the high five figures and above. Replica listings sit between $50 and $400. Check the caseback. A carrousel carriage sits off-center and takes drive from the third wheel. A tourbillon cage sits at the fourth wheel. Time the carriage. One turn takes 60 seconds. Many fake apertures hide a disc that spins with the seconds hand and does not touch the balance.
Legal Status in the United States
Counterfeit watches are illegal to import and to sell. 19 U.S.C. 1526 lets U.S. Customs and Border Protection seize goods that carry counterfeit marks. 18 U.S.C. 2320 covers trafficking in counterfeit goods and sets a maximum of 10 years for a first offense. CBP seizes and destroys shipments of counterfeit watches every year.
What Listings Contain
- Quartz movements with a decorated rotor or a printed bridge.
- Generic automatic movements with an open balance aperture.
- Real Chinese tourbillons, which are not carrousels.
- Photos of genuine Blancpain watches pulled from auction archives.