No workshop makes a faithful replica of the A. Lange & Söhne Tourbograph Perpetual Calendar "Pour le Mérite." Copies sold under that name reproduce the look, not the mechanism. A replica can place subdials at the right spots and spin a tourbillon cage, but it will not deliver a fusée-and-chain drive, a split-seconds chronograph, or a perpetual calendar that handles February and leap years. Before you pay, decide which of those you actually want, because the price gap between a dial copy and a working tourbillon copy is wide.
What the genuine watch is
The real reference is a 43 mm platinum piece built in a run of 50. Caliber L133.1 stacks four complications: a one-minute tourbillon, a fusée-and-chain constant force transmission, a rattrapante chronograph, and a perpetual calendar with moon phase. Lange assembles the movement twice, once in a dummy run to check tolerances and once for the finished watch. Retail sat in the mid six figures in US dollars and secondary prices run higher. That context matters, because no copy at any price carries that movement, and the gap shows the moment the watch is handled.
The three tiers you will find
Listings using this model name cluster into three groups.
- Dial copies. Quartz or basic automatic movement, printed subdials, pushers that do nothing, often a glued-on bridge under an open caseback. Price range: low hundreds.
- Working tourbillon copies. A real rotating cage, often a Chinese-made one-minute tourbillon, paired with a date and month module that is not a perpetual calendar. Pushers run a simple chronograph. Price range: high hundreds to low thousands.
- Custom builds. A genuine tourbillon movement fitted with added calendar modules and a hand-finished dial, assembled by small workshops. This is the closest match to the look. It still lacks the fusée-and-chain and the split-seconds mechanism.
How to vet a listing, step by step
- Ask for a video of the running watch, not still photos, with the seconds hand and the tourbillon cage both visible.
- Ask for a clear shot of the movement through the caseback.
- Count the subdials and confirm what each one does. The genuine layout carries a moon phase, a weekday, a month, a leap-year window, and a big date.
- Press the lower pusher while the chronograph runs. On a split-seconds watch the gold hand stops while the chronograph keeps running, then catches up when you press again. On a copy, nothing separates.
- Set the date to February 28 in a non-leap year and advance the watch past midnight. A perpetual calendar moves to March 1 on its own. A copy will not.
- Check the leap-year indicator, then ask the seller what movement sits inside and who assembled it.
- Confirm the return policy and the payment method in writing before money changes hands.
Why the calendar is the hardest part to fake
A perpetual calendar uses a program wheel cut to a 48-month cycle. It tracks 28, 29, 30, and 31 day months and corrects for leap years until 2100. Copies use either a plain date wheel or an annual calendar module that needs a manual correction each February. That is why sellers describe the function as "calendar" or "full calendar" and avoid the word perpetual. If a listing claims perpetual and cannot show the February transition on video, treat the claim as false.
Legal and ownership issues in the US
Trafficking in counterfeit goods is a federal offense under 18 U.S.C. 2320, and US Customs and Border Protection seizes counterfeit watches at ports of entry. A seized package is destroyed and the buyer has no recourse. Beyond that, no authorized service center will repair a counterfeit, and independent watchmakers often refuse them because parts do not exist. Resale value is close to zero. If you want the tourbillon look at a fraction of the price, a homage watch with an honest spec sheet and a real warranty is the safer purchase, and it will hold some value.