After reading this entire thread and looking at lots of photos, I still feel the BP is overall better choice even excluding the substantial price difference. I say this because of it's far superior bezel screws; better dial print, date, and AP logo; better dial indices and lume; and crown. I understand the new batches do have the polished rehaut, and that is an easy mod for earlier pieces - so I won't include that as flaw.
The other version of course has the correct overall case thickness, which I think is entirely from the thinner back, and from what others have said a superior finish on the dial. Unfortunately in other ways (mentioned above) the BP dial is clearly superior. And the bezel screws are just a fail. They are not perfect on any AP rep but they just look bad in all the pics I see, with their wide slots flush to the bezel.
As far as the movement is concerned, the decoration of the Asian clone looks better than the Swiss, which is in all likelihood a refurb. Still, the Swiss will probably hold up better and can of course take all ETA parts. I'll call this a tie, although the lower price of the BP gives it the edge here.
Regarding the crystal, neither seems to have an effective (if any) AR coating. TDs don't mention AR for the BP, but do for the Angus. Some have said the BP crystal has slightly better clarity, maybe because the other version has an ineffective single AR. I'll consider this a tie too.
For bracelet/clasp, in the photos I've seen the BP bracelet looks better but I have not seen them in person. The clasps seem identical and probably come from the same source so both may ship some defective ones.
And with QC, I've had watches from every factory and some are perfect, some have assembly defects. Fortunately I'm comfortable with basic tasks like decasing so a little dust, fingerprints on the underside of the crystal, fibers, etc are more of a nuisance than a real problem. If one orders (10) 15400, half from each maker, there will be perfect and imperfect samples from each. The BP factory pieces I've had have been quite good, maybe I am lucky though.
So... with some advantages of each, I am curious if anyone has tried to make a hybrid ? Flip a coin as to the better dial - text, logo, indices, lume better on BP; sheen/finish better on other... so a desirable mix 'n match would be:
- Keep BP insides: replace case back with the Angus one
- Keep Angus insides: replace bezel and bezel screws with BP parts
One issue I foresee if different length of bezel screws. If too long (say BP screws to be used with Angus case back), they can be shortened easy enough. But obviously they could not be lengthened. So if a hybrid were made, it may be tough to create a 'ugly bastard' from the unwanted parts of each.
Another issue is clearance, if the thinner case back is used on the BP. If the rehauts are the same height it would seem the rotor will be in the same place on both pieces, but maybe I'm missing some other factor ?
Just have to be happy its not mineral on the front too like a lot of our rep watches once had.
