A great device. I always use it on older bottles or bottles with corks that are less than perfect.
It probably helps that I made my wife by it for me for the holidays, but she always has issues on what to get me, so no guilt there either.
We still use the long-wormed screwpull in conjunction with an Ah-so for older bottles, which we open with regularity. No objections to the idea of a Durand, just have never felt the desire or need for one.
Well, there’s this 
http://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/pdfs/US7290463.pdf
…but seriously, the price isn’t absurd for a hand-made, low volume niche product like this. A quick lookup shows I can get one for $125 which wouldn’t even be the most expensive corkscrew I own, and certainly wouldn’t qualify as a major purchase compared to almost any expenditure I make relating to wine.
mike drop<
This was done exclusively to stop Chinese knockoffs. Mark also has the same patent in China. (I didn’t even think that was possible.) The patent he has is one that is accepted by the Chinese government which is the first step to stopping rip offs. It is one reason you won’t see knockoffs. For full disclosure, I have no financial interest but Mark the inventor is my friend.
What ignorant fools! 
Smart man. Good for him.
Ok, where is it made then? I could see if it were made with the same care that hand-made knives are made with, but this is probably a machine produced product?
Germany is where the parts come from for the device. Assembly I do not know.
Yeah, but the materials would be crap and the karma would be bad.
I don’t own one but if someone wants to give me one I wouldn’t turn it down!
Agreed. But with one like that I karma open anything.
This is why we can’t have nice things!
After everyone I know kept telling me I needed one to open all my favorite aged Cali cabs and BDX, this post finally pushed me into ordering. I look forward to using as I have been known to jimmy rig a version using an ah-so and standard waiters corkscrew.
I open a lot of very old bottles, most being Port which have the old flared bottle necks and as a result very flared corks at the inside bottom which are almost impossible to get out without breaking off the inside lower part. I’ve used all types of cork screws and Ah-So’s. The only one which consistently works to remove those super hard to remove old corks in one piece is the Durand.
That said, my only very minor complaint is I wish the worm was longer by about 1-1.5" on the Durand. That way on really long corks it completely passes through the bottom of the cork by a full twist or two and helps hold it together better when pulling the cork out.
Best corkscrew for older corks I’ve ever used, by far.
This.
If you do this, The Durand pays for itself quite quickly and we’ve all had bottles in the 10+ year range with crappy corks that break or crumble – I mean, why even risk it?
It simply amazes me people with older bottles of monetary value or otherwise would hesitate on purchasing The Durand due to pricing; imo, it’s the most indispensable wine tool for most any legit wine nerd since the screwpull/leverpull and foil cutter.
Ok, sure…but don’t you wanna be one of the cool kids? 
Having a patent doesn’t stop knockoffs. The patent office grants a lot of patents that shouldn’t have been granted. Not saying this is one of them, but merely having a patent won’t stop someone from copying.
Whoa… calm down, it’s just a joke.
Unacceptable. We are serious men here.
True story.
#srsbizness happening, noobs and dummies be forewarned.