Then, instead of wearing and enjoying it right away, I decided that I would remove the bars and put on a regular strap since I am not a big fan of NATO straps. I knew that it had drilled lugs and I knew that it had those stupid hex screw type of bars (if they had to have drilled lugs, why couldn’t they use the kind of bars Panerai uses? You know, the kind that you can remove with a small flat head screw driver? I know it is a Fifty Fathom design but it is also a pain-in-the-neck kind of design that many Blancpain owners complain about!!!). So, I tried the smallest hex screws that I had and was able to remove the one on the north side. Well, apparently you need to have 0.9mm hex key screw… and yeah, mine was not that small. I ended up stripping the ends of the bar on the south side and as I was trying hold the bar so that it would not turn, I left ugly marks on the case (between the lugs) in process. Here are some pics of the damage on the south side…






And the north side… not that bad here…




So, the good news is that when you put the NATO strap back on, you can not see the marks. So, you can switch to different kind, color, whatever NATO straps and you are fine. Here is how it looks…




The bad news is the fact that if you are able to remove the one on the south side and put a regular strap with spring bars, I don’t know if the marks would show. I don’t know since I could not move the dang thing off. I put the one on the north side back on. That one is fine in the sense that it comes off easily. So, if that is something you can live with, you can have this “otherwise” pretty piece for its original price… which is $400 (shipped in the US). Yeah, I am asking for the original price but I am still losing a half of what I paid for it (yeah, you now know how much I paid for it… stupid me). I know that is my problem but I need to try to minimize that problem as much as I can…



Anyhow, the rest of the watch is fine. Matter of fact, it still has the plastic on the front and on the back. It appears to keep accurate time, has a killer lume, and its entire packaging even the receipt. Let me know if you would be interested in it…

So, the recap is $400 shipped in the US. Please no offers at this moment, too much headache already. And no trades please. Thank you for your time…