A fake 1815 Rattrapante is a counterfeit copy of A. Lange & Söhne's hand-wound split-seconds chronograph, built around a decorated Chinese or Swiss chronograph movement with a decorative second chronograph hand. Genuine examples cost six figures and are finished by hand in Glashütte, while fakes sell for a few hundred dollars and fail on the rattrapante function, the case metal, and the movement decoration.
What is the 1815 Rattrapante?
The 1815 Rattrapante is A. Lange & Söhne's hand-wound split-seconds chronograph family, including the 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar introduced in 2013. A rattrapante, or split-seconds, mechanism carries two superimposed center chronograph hands, so the wearer can stop one hand to read a lap time while the other keeps running. Lange builds this in-house with a column wheel and hundreds of hand-finished parts.
How can you tell a fake 1815 Rattrapante from a genuine one?
Counterfeits fail in four places: the split-seconds function, the movement, the case metal, and the dial print.
- Split-seconds pusher: on a genuine watch the pusher at 10 o'clock stops and restarts the rattrapante hand with a crisp, spring-loaded action. On most fakes that hand is decorative, sticks, or snaps back with the main chronograph hand.
- Movement: real Lange calibers use a Glashütte three-quarter plate in untreated German silver, gold chatons, blued screws, and a hand-engraved balance cock. Fakes use plated brass with stamped or laser-etched engraving and no gold chatons.
- Case metal: genuine cases are white gold, rose gold, yellow gold, or platinum, hallmarked 750 or Pt950, and a gold head alone weighs well over 100 grams. Fakes are steel or plated brass and feel light in the hand.
- Dial print: railway-track scales, numerals, and hands are sharp under a loupe on a real watch. Fake printing frays at the edges, and blued hands show paint rather than heat coloring.
Why is the rattrapante function so hard to fake?
A true split-seconds mechanism needs a second chronograph wheel, an isolating lever, and a clamp, all synchronized to a fraction of a second. Copying that at a low price is not economical, so counterfeiters fit a fixed extra hand or a plain chronograph and rely on the dial side to sell the watch. Press the rattrapante pusher while the chronograph runs: if nothing separates, the watch is not a real split-seconds.
What does a fake 1815 Rattrapante sell for?
Counterfeit versions move for roughly $200 to $900 depending on the movement inside, a fraction of the six-figure prices genuine examples reach at auction. Real 1815 Rattrapante Perpetual Calendar watches trade in the $130,000 to $250,000 range on the secondary market. That price gap is the simplest screening test, because no legitimate seller offers a working Lange split-seconds chronograph for four figures.
How do you verify a genuine 1815 Rattrapante?
- Match the case and movement numbers, which Lange engraves on the movement and records in its own archive.
- Ask for a service invoice from an authorized Lange service center rather than a general watchmaker.
- Check the hallmarks inside the caseback and weigh the head in your hand.
- Operate the chronograph and rattrapante pushers yourself, or have a watchmaker with Lange experience do it.
Do counterfeit listings ever show real photos?
Yes. Sellers often post photographs of genuine watches lifted from auction archives and then ship a different item. Request a timestamped video of the watch running, with the serial visible and both the chronograph and rattrapante pushers in action.