A. Lange & Söhne Datograph

Overall Condition: Excellent condition overall. Case has received a light professional polish. Case integrity remains strong, still showing thick bezel, mid-case and lugs. Dial and handset are in great condition. Factory strap and pin buckle show minimal wear.

We'll just come right out and say it: The A. Lange & Söhne Datograph might just be the most important watch of the modern era.

With its combination of avant-garde and teutonic design languages, mind-blowing mechanical architecture, functional layout, and luxury materials, the Datograph has not only won the hearts and minds of collectors and enthusiasts the world over — it also created and set the bar for modern haute horlogerie. What's more, it came from Germany, not Switzerland.

We are yet to meet a horological virtuoso who doesn't consider the Datograph to be anything other than a triumph of design and mechanical engineering. Indeed, even the maestro himself — Philippe Dufour — can regularly be spotted wearing his rose-gold example from the first series!

From its hefty wrist presence to the depth and intricacy of its miniature city-like movement, from the snap of its flyback chronograph mechanism and the classically-inspired outsize date function, the Datograph is a triumph, pure and simple.

This particular first-generation example is finished in rose gold, giving it perhaps the cleanest appearance of any Datograph configuration as well as a little added weight (lest you forget you were wearing it). Housed in a 39mm case with a signed crown, dual chronograph pushers, and a corrector at 10 o'clock, it features a silver dial with an outer base-1,000 tachymeter scale in silver, a dual-register chronograph, luminous 'alpha' hands, applied Roman indices, and an outsize date window below 12 o'clock. Powered by the exquisite, hand-wound L951.1 hand-wound movement with flyback capability, it comes paired to a signed, brown leather strap with a signed rose-gold pin buckle.

Despite their popularity, we have yet to see prices for these special watches skyrocket out of control — something we fully expect over the coming years. After all, with timepieces as spectacular and important as this one, why wouldn't they?