The short answer
Buy the version with a working month wheel and a tourbillon cage that turns once per minute. Skip versions with painted subdials. The Lange Tourbograph Perpetual "Pour le Mérite" has three complications: a tourbillon, a rattrapante chronograph, and a perpetual calendar. No replica under $1,000 copies all three in metal.
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What the original does
Lange released the Tourbograph Perpetual "Pour le Mérite" in 2019. The movement is hand-wound and runs a fusée-and-chain transmission, the part Lange labels "Pour le Mérite." The chain feeds constant torque to the escapement as the mainspring unwinds. The calendar tracks day, date, month, and leap year. The chronograph carries two seconds hands for split timing.
Replica factories do not build a fusée and chain. A listing that shows a chain in the caseback photo shows a decorative plate or the original watch.
Four checks before you pay
- Caseback. Ask for a video. The tourbillon cage must complete one turn in 60 seconds.
- Month wheel. Set the date to the 28th and advance it. A working calendar jumps to the 1st.
- Correctors. The original has recessed pushers in the case flank. Pins that do not press are cosmetic.
- Thickness. Calendar and chronograph modules add height. A case under 12 mm with a claimed perpetual calendar is a three-hand watch with extra printing.
Options, in order
1. 43 mm, hand-wound tourbillon, working month and date: $600 to $900
This is the pick. The movement runs at 21,600 vph. The tourbillon sits at 6 o'clock. Month and date advance with the crown. Expect the chronograph pushers to be decorative on most examples.
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2. 43 mm, tourbillon plus start-stop chronograph: $900 to $1,300
The chronograph works. The perpetual calendar does not. Subdials for month and leap year are printed. Buy it if you want pusher feel and can accept a static calendar.
3. Under $300: skip
These carry a quartz or a basic automatic movement behind a printed dial. Case weight runs under 90 g. A platinum case of the same size weighs far more.
What to ask the seller
Ask for the movement name, the case diameter in millimeters, the lug width, and a video of the tourbillon with the crown pulled. Ask if the calendar correctors move. A seller who answers with the same four stock angles is reselling catalog images.