Answer first
The watch sold as a "tourbograph perpetual calendar" replica copies the A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph Perpetual "Pour le Mérite", released in 2017. The real watch is a limited edition in platinum. It holds a one-minute tourbillon, a rattrapante chronograph, a perpetual calendar and a fuse-and-chain transmission in one movement. Prices sit in six figures. Replicas sell for a few hundred dollars. They share the dial layout and case shape, not the mechanics.
fake tourbograph perpetual calendar watch
2005: the first Tourbograph
Lange showed the Tourbograph "Pour le Mérite" in 2005. It was the third watch to carry the Pour le Mérite name, after the Tourbillon Pour le Mérite of 1994. That first Tourbograph paired a tourbillon with a fuse-and-chain drive and a rattrapante chronograph. Production was limited. The chain and the cone-shaped fusee sit inside the movement and feed torque to the mainspring barrel. Lange made the chain in house. Very few brands do this.
fake tourbograph perpetual calendar features
2017: the perpetual calendar version
In 2017 Lange added a perpetual calendar to the same base. The tourbillon, the rattrapante and the chain stayed. The calendar shows date, weekday, month, leap year and moon phase. It needs no correction until 2100, because 2100 is not a leap year. Lange built the calendar so all displays jump at once at midnight. The dial keeps a tourbillon opening and two chronograph counters.
What the complications do
- Tourbillon: the balance sits in a cage that turns once a minute.
- Rattrapante: two seconds hands start together and stop apart to time two events.
- Perpetual calendar: mechanical memory of month lengths and leap years.
- Fuse-and-chain: constant force delivery as the mainspring unwinds.
Where replicas stop
A fake of this watch cannot copy the movement at that price. Most examples use a stock Chinese chronograph, a printed moon phase and calendar discs stacked on the date wheel. The open aperture shows a spinning cage driven by the seconds pinion, not a real tourbillon carriage with a free-sprung balance. The chain drive is absent. The calendar needs resetting at every short month. Caseback engraving, screw heads, anglage and the hand-engraved balance cock look flat next to the original.
Fake Tourbograph Perpetual Calendar Design: A Replica Inspection Guide
How to tell them apart
Turn the watch over. A real Tourbograph Perpetual shows a wide movement with a chain, a fusee and engraved bridges. Weight is another test: platinum reads heavy for the size. Check the calendar at month end. A fake that jumps from 30 to 1 in February is not perpetual. Read the dial text under a loupe. Print quality and font spacing on replicas drift from the original.
Timeline
- 1994: Tourbillon Pour le Mérite, the first Lange with a chain drive.
- 2005: Tourbograph Pour le Mérite, tourbillon plus rattrapante plus chain.
- 2017: Tourbograph Perpetual Pour le Mérite, calendar added.
- After 2017: replicas appear, mostly with quartz or stock chronograph movements.