I was pretty bummed though because right after these came out, they were quickly discontinued (at least in the material I wanted, the ceramised Ti). Less than 40 made it into the hands of consumers as Blancpain pulled production due to manufacturing costs.
A local collector-friend came across one back in April from a used dealer in Boston. I called “dibs” if he ever sold it and got the call this weekend that he was going to move it in favor of a new Rolex Sea-Dweller 50th anniversary.
Very happy with it thus far. The fit and finish is extremely high quality. Love the dial real estate and minimalism. Date at 4:30 is a nice feature and I love the large font.
Big fan of the display back with the powder coated 18k gold rotor as well. That just screams attention to detail to me! Blancpain had to be thinking “a gold rotor on this would diminish the tool watch aspect. Let’s powder coat it black”.
The dial has this cool almost pearlescent look to it as well.
120 hour power reserve and timekeeping is great through the first day at -0.3.
Only downsides I see thus far are the 23mm lugs and the extremely high strap cost. The watch did come with two straps though; one with ceramised Ti hardware and one with normal Ti. I think you can disassemble the hardware and just buy a new NATO if needed.
I’ll need to figure that out and see if anyone has a hookup on Blancpain strap discounts.
Really is something how it has that minimalist feel about,
Seriously is like having
