Blancpain

As promised here are some live shots of reference 5008D-1130-B64A, also in comparison to some previous 40mm LEs. Hope you enjoy the photos! Cheers Henrik ...  

Maybe even more than the Milspec

But this one is eye-candy, nevertheless.

I like it -- a lot going on with the dial (between the date, No Rad, color variations, etc.) and close to jumbled, but it hangs together well and is interesting. Though I'm unsure of the faux lume overall, I prefer the hands of the No Rad over the Hodinke... 

First, do you have a favorite among them? And, second, I so want to own a FF, but they are a bit out of my price range. What factors justify the relatively high prices -- e.g., materials, workmanship, testing, small volume production, or all of the above?... 

... my answer to the first one is: probably the 2003 Anniversary and the 2017 MilSpec. The second question warrants some longer discussion, I think. A short economic answer would be: demand. But that doesn’t necessarily cut it... Cheers Henrik

huge congrats! and thanks for sharing your superb photos again!!

They managed to have Blancpain produce the best piece in the past few years in a very limited number for their website. Really, their version looks much better than any of the public "LE" releases. That is what astounds me the most. Maybe they own part or... 

... to me the Hodinkee MIL-SPEC, although clearly being a beautiful timepiece, is actually the least attractive between all modern 40mm FF editions. There are some reasons for my personal sentiment: the hands of the Hodinkee MIL-SPEC are too wide and way ... 

I would simply say looking at this group of watches together, agreeing that some are tributes and some are closer to originals (while still being fully modern production), the Hodinkee design "looks" the best. I remain surprised the brand would make that ...