Short answer
A fake Lange Lumen is a counterfeit of an A. Lange & Söhne watch from the Lumen series. Real Lumen watches use a semi-transparent sapphire dial with a black luminous compound applied under the sapphire. Genuine references come in platinum, in small numbers, and trade above $150,000 on the secondary market. Any Lumen offered for a few hundred dollars is a replica. Telling them apart comes down to four things: dial construction, the outsize date, the movement, and the paperwork.
What the Lumen series is
A. Lange & Söhne showed the first Lumen in 2010. The Lange 1 Lumen was a boutique edition of 200 pieces. Later versions include the Grand Lange 1 Lumen, the Grand Lange 1 Moon Phase Lumen, and the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Lumen. All of them use one idea. Instead of printing luminous paint on top of the dial, the maker coats the back of a sapphire dial with a black luminous compound. In daylight the numerals read black. In the dark they glow through the sapphire.
Dial checks
- Hold the watch in daylight. A real Lumen dial looks smoky and a little transparent. A fake dial is opaque with paint on the surface.
- Watch the glow. Genuine compound glows green-blue and fades in a smooth curve. Fake lume glows hard for a few minutes and then dies, or glows in patches.
- Check the outsize date. Lange uses two separate discs inside one aperture. The digits sit on the same plane and jump at midnight. Fakes use one printed disc or show digits at two depths.
- Check the rings. The Grand Lange 1 Lumen and the Datograph Lumen use printed or applied rings on a sapphire base. A painted ring on a solid dial is wrong.
Case and size
Known Lumen references come in platinum. Published catalogs do not list steel or two-tone versions. A Lumen in gold tone, steel, or black coating matches no reference. Case sizes run from 38.5 mm on the Lange 1 Lumen to 41.5 mm on the Datograph Perpetual Tourbillon Lumen. A 44 mm or 45 mm Lumen is not a Lange case.
Movement
Genuine Lumen watches use in-house Lange calibers. Points to check with a loupe or a clear photo:
- Three-quarter plate in untreated German silver with Glashütte ribbing.
- Hand-engraved balance cock. Each engraving differs from the next. Fakes use a laser-etched pattern that repeats.
- Screwed gold chatons and blued screws.
- Swan-neck fine adjustment on the regulator.
Most fakes run a modified Chinese or Swiss base caliber with a decorated rotor or a printed plate. The gear train and the winding click look different from Lange parts. The crown wheel and ratchet on a real Lange are visible through the caseback on several references.
Price and paperwork
Auction results for Lumen references sit in the high five to six figure range in US dollars. A seller asking $400 for a Lange Lumen is selling a copy. Real watches ship with a Lange box, a leather folder, a certificate showing the reference and serial, and a case number that matches the movement. Copies ship with generic paperwork and a mismatched serial.
What a replica can copy
Case shape, logo print, and dial layout are easy to copy. The sapphire dial with a black luminous coating is hard to copy at low cost, so most fakes use a painted dial. The outsize date mechanism and the engraved balance cock are the two parts fakes fail most.