Heya Bill,
The 249 was my very 1st foray into a VERY crazy and infectious world!
What drew me to it was , like you said, it's purity, the blued steel hands over the black dial ( a combo that many watch manufacturers are reluctant to take due to it's apparent lessen visibility, but not a problem here on the PAM cause of the superluminova on the hands instead of pure blued hands) and that oh-so-sexy Plexy!
Ciao
Stephen