Blancpain

As my 65th birthday approaches I have spent the last year and a bit slowly reducing my watch collection having realised I really don't have anyone to leave them to that would appreciate them, although I'm sure I could find a few good guys here that would be happy to help out. Anyway long story short I was moving out my Zenith Chronomaster Sport and looking at adding a Cartier Santos Dumont XL in white gold on a deployant strap with the wonderful hand wound 430MC movement. Unfortunately what arrived wasn't that  so it had to go back. Rather than just getting a refund I tried to find a different watch which i did.

I found a 40mm Blancpain Leman Flyback Grand date on a X-71 bracelet which is a watch I have long longed after although always struggled to pull the trigger on one partially due to Blanpain on the side of the case. As i was in the process of confirming the purchase with the sales associate I mentioned it was lucky the bracelet was 17cm as I have a 19cm wrist so with the watch head it should be fine. He then said that the 17cm included the watch head and that he would check with his service manager to see if they had any spare links, they didn't so he said he would contact Blancpain. A few days later he got me back with the news that Blancpain could deliver them in 4-6 weeks. Now for the bad news they wanted £295 per link and as I need 3 links to ensure a good fit in the summer I would need 3 of them at just under £900. What had looked like a good deal with this extra expense suddenly didn't anymore and I backed out of the purchase. 

Am I being stupid and making a big mistake? I would really value input from the good members here to help get some clarity as I have already found another watch I'm considering moving on but that's another story. I would really appreciate to see what you all think.

Thanks for your input in advance.

Marc  

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