Aston Martin's latest gift idea could have enduring appeal

To mark the storied British sportscar company's 2016 World Endurance Championship (WEC) success, Aston Martin is offering racing fans the chance to own a set of special handmade jewel-like badges modeled on the exact ones that have adorned its racing cars over this season.

Every numbered set -- just 250 examples worldwide are planned -- contains nine Aston Martin emblems, each of which was specially designed to reflect the country in which a 2016 race was held.

For example, red, white and blue detailing for the season's inaugural race at Silverstone in the UK in April, and red and green feathers for the round held in Mexico.

Each badge is also an exact replica of the ones that have adorned Aston's V8 Vantage GTE competition cars at the corresponding race.

And of course, these being Aston Martin badges, they weren't simply mass produced on automated machines. Every badge is handcrafted from a copper base using enameling techniques more commonly associated with jewelry. Every badge takes 20 hours to create, and the whole process has been overseen by famed British jeweler Vaughtons.

To understand how much effort goes into the process, in April Aston published a video to show the badges being made ahead of the opening race of the 2016 WEC season.

A numbered set in a bespoke presentation frame will retail for £3,750 (that's €4316 or $4650) and while that might seem like a rather large financial outlay, these sets could prove to be a very good racing memorabilia investment.

After races in the UK, Belgium, France, Germany, Mexico, USA, Japan and China, the 2016 WEC is set to conclude on November 19 when the competition heads to Bahrain for the final race of the season.

If Aston's Danish drivers -- Marco Sørensen and Nicki Thiim -- win the race, Aston Martin could complete a clean sweep of the GT Drivers championship, the GTE Pro title and take the overall GT Manufacturer's title, too.

And, if that does happen, don't be too surprised if the company decides to build a celebratory collector's edition car to go with those badges.