A. Lange and Söhne 221.021 (Pre-owned - Good) — USD 23,495 on eBay

The A. Lange & Söhne 1815 Up and Down reference 221.021 in 18kt yellow gold with a silver dial is the most historically evocative variant of this power-reserve-equipped classic. Yellow gold and silver is the combination most closely associated with the golden age of precision pocket watches -- the instruments Ferdinand Adolph Lange was building in Glashuette when he established the standards that still guide the manufacture today. The power reserve display at twelve o'clock draws a direct line to those marine chronometers and observatory timepieces where such indicators were essential tools, not mere embellishments. The 35.9mm case houses the caliber L941.1, a manually wound movement delivering 45 hours of power reserve. The movement is modest in its function -- hours, minutes, seconds, and power reserve indication -- but immodest in its finishing. Through the sapphire caseback, the hand-engraved balance cock, the Glashuette-striped three-quarter plate, and the precisely assembled gear train are displayed with the confidence of a manufacture that knows its work can withstand the closest scrutiny. The swan-neck fine regulator allows the watchmaker to achieve rate precision with micrometric accuracy. Reference 221.021 is a timekeeper in the most honorable sense of the word. It does not attempt to impress with complications or dazzle with precious stones. Instead, it offers the time, a measure of its own remaining energy, and the satisfaction of knowing that every component has been finished to standards that would satisfy the most demanding horological critics in history. The 1815 Up and Down in yellow gold is A. Lange & Söhne's tribute to the foundations of precision timekeeping, executed with twenty-first-century expertise and nineteenth-century values.