Short answer
A fake Tourbograph is a replica of the A. Lange & Sohne Tourbograph Pour le Merite, a hand-wound Saxon watch that combines a tourbillon, a split-seconds chronograph, and a fusee-and-chain transmission. The genuine watch was built in runs of a few dozen pieces and trades well into six figures on the secondary market. First copy versions sold online copy the case, dial, hands, and engraving, but not the movement architecture. In most of them the tourbillon is decoration: an aperture with a spinning balance wheel that drives nothing. Buyers who want a working tourbillon and a working rattrapante are looking at the genuine market, not the replica market.
What the real Tourbograph does
Lange released the Tourbograph Pour le Merite in 2005 in a run of 51 pieces, according to contemporary watch press coverage. A second series, the Tourbograph Perpetual Pour le Merite, followed in 2017 in a run of 50. Both carry the Pour le Merite name, which the brand reserves for watches with a fusee-and-chain drive. That chain delivers near-constant torque to the escapement as the mainspring unwinds, and it sits next to a one-minute tourbillon and a chronograph with a rattrapante function. Three complications, one gear train, roughly 1,000 parts. Nothing in that list survives translation into a mass-produced copy.
How first copy versions are built
Most replicas in this category start with a stock column-wheel chronograph or a generic automatic base, then get a decorated rotor or bridge plate bolted on top. The tourbillon aperture is usually a cutout with a balance wheel and a blued screw that rotate for show. The case is steel with rhodium or platinum-color plating rather than solid platinum, so the watch feels lighter than the real thing and wears through the plating at the lugs over time. Dial printing runs thick, the subdial spacing drifts from the original, and the strap is embossed leather with a stamped buckle. Caseback engraving is often laser-etched, which leaves a shallow, uniform line instead of the deep hand-cut lettering of the original.
How to check one before you pay
- Ask the seller for a close photo of the caseback with the movement visible through the sapphire.
- Watch the tourbillon aperture for a full minute and note whether the cage completes one rotation.
- Start the chronograph and time it against a known clock for ten minutes.
- Press the rattrapante pusher and check whether the second hand stops independently of the running chronograph hand.
- Weigh the watch on a kitchen scale and compare the figure with the published weight.
- Read the caseback engraving with a loupe and look for the limited edition number.
- Request the caliber name and serial number in writing before any payment.
Legal and practical risks
Counterfeit branded watches are illegal to sell in the United States, and shipments of them can be seized at the border with civil penalties for the importer. Beyond the legal exposure, a first copy Tourbograph has no service network. When the chronograph stops or the plating pits, no authorized watchmaker will touch it, and parts for a stock movement are the only realistic repair path. Resale value is close to zero, because the second buyer faces the same questions you did. Treat the category as costume jewelry with a famous name on the dial, and price it that way.