I owned the original 40mm LE. The hands always bothered me a bit because I prefer the hands on the full size FF. The other issue I had with it were the proportions. It was too tall, looked like a big lump.
I would describe it as semi-custom. It's manufactured in Australia and comes in different models and you can option them out as desire (to a degree). They're very well made.
You have a good eye. It does resemble Alabama Hills but it's not. This is in Nevada, near the white mountains. We actually mentioned during our trip how this section reminded us of Alabama Hills. I will post more pics.