VPI's new "Vanquish" Ultra High-End turntable is a STUNNER!

+1 slaw

Okay...the Vanquish looks much better here:

https://images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=Awr9Hr7h375d8WwAUxOKnIlQ;_ylu=X3oDMTIzbGo4Z2s5BHNlY...

Looks like it doesn't have the latest arm.

No contrasting,trendy color anodizing or the ridiculous stand. Still have to resolve the silly blue light issue though... I would be one of those guys figuring out how to disconnect them. As mentioned earlier, put a linear tracker with integrated pump and retail the thing for under $10K. Now, let's talk.  

Yeah, I'm dreaming.

And it doesn't even have a self leveling pendulum :(

Like Rolex, maker of the world's finest $800 dive watch, which they somehow manage to sell for $8k,

I hope you know more about audio than about fine timepieces. Granted, 10K (the actual starting price of Rolex's after sales tax) is high, but the quality of materials, finish, and the built-in-house movement set them apart from all but their very finest competitors. No $800 divers watch with a mechanical movement is master chronometer certified. 
Your analogy breaks down in another key area-Rolexes, alone with PP and the AP Royal Oak, hold their value and even sell for more than original MSRP often. Try that with just about any piece of current production audio equipment known to mankind (note my emphasis on the words "current production" to exclude the likes of the Vendetta Research phono stage or the Thorens TD124, Garrard 301, etc). 

OK, I went to the CAF but I didn’t have time to go hunting for the Vanquish. I saw enough silly bling as it is. Spent most of my time buying LPs. The show is still running today, but I am going to stay home and hang out with our son who is visiting.
Good points from Phoenix. Do you know whether the tonearm with no headshell offset is underhung or overhung, with respect to the spindle? If underhung, there would be at best one point of tangency to the groove, and yes the direction of the skating force changes from inward to outward as the stylus passes through that one point of tangency. Maybe HW was taken in by the story written for the RS Labs RS-A1 tonearm, which is underhung with no headshell offset and claims no skating force, too. All that said, I own an RS-A1, and it sounds remarkably good, despite all the geometric "problems". So good that I have been tempted to buy a Viv Float tonearm, which has similar geometry and gets rave reviews, despite massive tracking angle error at the outermost and innermost grooves. If the VPI tonearm is OVERhung and has no headshell offset, all is lost. Such a design would never achieve tangency across the LP surface. I can’t imagine they would do that.