Rattrapante comes from the French rattraper, to catch up, and the complication is also called a split-seconds chronograph. It adds a second chronograph seconds hand stacked over the first, plus an extra pusher. Start the chronograph and both hands sweep together; press the extra pusher and one hand stops so you can read an intermediate time, then press again and the stopped hand instantly catches up to the still-running one. Underneath sits a delicate clamp-and-cam system that decouples and halts one hand without disturbing the going train, then snaps it back into position. The idea traces to Joseph Thaddäus Winnerl's separately stoppable hand around 1831 and to Adolphe Nicole's nineteenth-century work on the chronograph reset, while Patek Philippe built the first rattrapante wristwatch in 1923.
Real examples span an enormous range. The Patek Philippe Ref. 5370 is a pure split-seconds powered by the CHR 29-535 PS caliber; the 2025 grand feu enamel rose-gold 5370R-001 sits around $320,000. A. Lange & Söhne's Double Split, launched in 2004, was the first double-rattrapante, splitting both seconds and minutes to compare events up to 30 minutes; now out of production, platinum examples trade between roughly $80,000 and $100,000 on the secondary market. The Triple Split, built on caliber L132.1, splits seconds, minutes and hours for comparative timing up to 12 hours, with the pink-gold version near €159,400. Lower down, the Breitling Premier B15 Duograph runs about $10,250, and the Austrian Habring2 Doppel 38 sits around €9,250.
When buying, start with the movement architecture. Integrated in-house split-seconds calibers from Patek and Lange occupy the top of both the finishing and price scales, while Habring2 and IWC's historic Doppelchronograph deliver the same complication far more affordably thanks to the cost-effective 7750-based module Richard Habring developed at IWC. Pay attention to crisp pusher feel, whether the split hand returns and settles cleanly under its partner without flutter, and service costs, since a rattrapante is more delicate and more expensive to maintain than a standard chronograph. This suits an experienced collector who loves mechanism over a first-watch buyer.
There are real sub-types worth knowing. A pure split-seconds offers only the rattrapante function, whereas the far more complex double and triple split add minute and hour hands to compare longer events. Contemporary takes like the 30-piece TAG Heuer Monaco Split-Seconds Chronograph Air 1 at CHF 150,000, due December 2025, pair the old complication with modern materials, while Seagull's roughly $3,649 split-seconds, limited to 500 pieces, broke the price floor and opened the door to buyers who could never reach one before.