Luxury retailer creates $44K woolly mammoth watch

This luxury timepiece by German watchmakers Lang & Heyne is made from 10,000-year-old mammoth tusk. (lang-und-heyne.de)Behold the latest in headline-making luxury accessories: a $44,000 watch made from the tusks of a real woolly mammoth found frozen in the Russian permafrost.

Produced by top German watchmakers Lang & Heyne, the "Caliber I" is available in pink, yellow or white gold and comes in two different styles.

Ivory sourced from the tusk of a mammoth that is said to have lived more than 10,000 years ago is used both for the exterior and inner workings of the watch.

But if you want to snap one up, you'll have to act fast -- only 25 of these watches will ever be produced for the limited series run.

Mammoth tusk, as one could expect, is in relatively short supply. Which begs the question: is it ethical to use the remains of an extinct animal for luxury fashion pieces?

"Of course we mean no harm to any elephants," write the watchmakers on their website. "The tusk for the limited series of 25 watches comes from a mammoth that died more than 10,000 years ago with its tusk surviving in the Russian permafrost soil."

What's your take? Would you purchase a mammoth tusk timepiece if you could afford it? Should anybody be able to?