Cheap to me! My wife paid for it and I got it from her kitchen! I think she got it for under $70 USD but it did not come out of MY toy budget.
At boil and ice it is more accurate than the k thermocouple on my Agilent U 1252 and if you do not have a meter it is well worth looking in the kitchen.
For watchmakers I have long prescribed a hot plate with an oven thermometer rather than the traditional alcohol lamp and tripod for tempering steel. Far more repeatable and once you find your adjustment points you can leave it all day and the temper will be correct. This was after I played with a dental oven for a couple years (cool but overkill, even for A2). I do not like flames in the shop (no propane or acety/ox torches) or Tix solder wits highy corrosive acid flux that escapes the bottle cap and destroys all the steel within the cabinet.
If you look at my website, you will see I have tried many things over the years and describe the advantages and disadvantages so that others do not have to make the same choices blindly. I even have a collection of useless tools made by Bergeon that I used in talks and demonstrations (Like the now $700 USD heating plate for the very important escapement adjusting tool which should be replaced by the $39 USD Thermodyne hot plate used in the shop for tempering and keeping coffee warm)..