Answer

A watch sold as a fake Portugieser minute repeater does not chime. The slide on the side of the case is a piece of metal with no mechanism behind it. No factory in the replica market builds a working minute repeater. If a listing shows a chime function and a price under $1,000, the chime is not there.

What a Minute Repeater Does

A minute repeater strikes the time on demand. Push the slide and the watch sounds the hours on a low gong, the quarter hours on two gongs, and the minutes past the last quarter on a high gong.

The mechanism needs a rack and snail for each unit, two gongs, a hammer set, a strike train, and a governor to keep the strikes even. Part counts run into the hundreds. The case has to be thick enough to hold all of it.

The Real IWC Portugieser Minute Repeater

IWC dates the Portugieser line to 1939. The minute repeater version sits at the top of the range. It uses a hand-wound calibre, a platinum case, and a low production count.

Examples that reach auction sell for six figures in US dollars. That price comes from the movement. A chiming movement is the cost, not the dial.

What Replica Listings Hold

  • An automatic clone of an ETA or Miyota design. No gongs, no hammers.
  • A decorated rotor and bridges with perlage or Geneva stripes.
  • A slide that moves a few tenths of a millimeter and stops.
  • A product name borrowed from the IWC catalog to raise the price.

Checks Before You Buy

  1. Ask for a video of the watch chiming. Sound is hard to fake.
  2. Count the strikes. Hours, quarters, minutes: three groups.
  3. Measure the case. A working repeater movement needs depth, often 12 mm or more at the case.
  4. Weigh the watch. Steel with a thin movement feels light for its size.
  5. Compare the price to the parts. A chiming movement alone costs more than most replica watches.

Price Range

Fake Portugieser watches sell from about $80 to a few hundred dollars. A minute repeater movement would push any watch well past that. The gap tells you what is inside.

Legal Note

Counterfeit watch sales are illegal in the United States. US Customs and Border Protection seizes shipments of counterfeit watches and can destroy them. Buyers face loss of the item and the money paid.