A. Lange and Söhne 404.035 (Pre-owned - Good) — USD 73,999 on eBay

The A. Lange & Söhne Lange Double Split reference 404.035 in platinum with silver dial is one of the most mechanically ambitious wristwatches ever produced. The Double Split is the world's first mechanical chronograph capable of timing comparative events over periods of up to thirty minutes using a split-seconds (rattrapante) mechanism on both the seconds and the minutes hands. Where a conventional rattrapante splits only the seconds hand to capture intermediate times, the Double Split extends this capability to the minute counter -- a complication of staggering complexity that required A. Lange & Söhne's engineers to solve problems that had never been addressed in the history of watchmaking. The caliber L001.1 is the hand-wound movement that achieves this mechanical feat. At 43mm, the platinum case is the largest in the standard A. Lange & Söhne collection, sized to accommodate the substantial movement architecture required by the double split-seconds mechanism. The silver dial displays the chronograph subdials, the outsize date, and the power reserve indicator with a clarity that makes the extraordinary complexity feel manageable. The two chronograph pushers in the case band operate the start/stop and flyback functions, while a pusher at ten o'clock controls the split function. Reference 404.035 in platinum is a timepiece that occupies rarefied territory in the world of haute horlogerie. It is not a watch for casual timekeeping; it is a mechanical tour de force, a demonstration of what is possible when one of the world's great manufactures applies its full intellectual and technical resources to pushing the boundaries of the chronograph complication. A. Lange & Söhne created the Double Split to achieve something unprecedented, and in platinum -- the most precious case material -- it stands as perhaps the ultimate expression of Glashuette's contribution to the art and science of time measurement.