History of Rolex GMT-Master and GMT-Master II

The Rolex GMT was designed as an aviator watch: The newly introduced fourth hand allowed the display of an additional time, with the corresponding number markings on the outer bezel. Pilots used the second time to display the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), which led to the name Rolex GMT Master.

The Rolex GMT Master was developed in cooperation with Pan Am. As the 1940s and 50s flying distances got longer and the pilots travelled through multiple time zones, Pan Am asked Rolex in the 1950s to develop a watch which could tell different times simultaneously.

In the world of Rolex collecting the different color variants of the GMT-Master and GMT-Master II have nicknames like ‘Pepsi’ ‘Coke’ and ‘Batman’.

The first GMT (Ref. 6542) was a regular Turn-O-Graph (Ref. 6202) with a different bezel and a modified movement. It was first launched in 1954 with a Bakelite bezel which was likely to crack. The advantage of the original bezel was its luminosity. Nicknamed ‘Pussy Galore’ because of its appearance in the James Bond film, Goldfinger, on the female character of the same name. In 1956 the Bakelite insert was replaced with a steel one due to the cracking.

Equipped with 3 different calibres during its life, the 6542 had the 1036, 1065 and 1066 in its 5 year production run.

Next was the Rolex GMT Master reference 1675 equipped with calibre 1565. It ran from the years 1959 up until 1964 and the newer calibre 1575 from 1965 until 1980. With the Calibre 1565 equipped models they all featured gloss dials, whereas the later editions with 1575 calibres featured matte dials with white printing. Up until the late 1960s the GMT-hand was small, afterwards Rolex made the move to the larger GMT-hand that we see today. Originally all GMT-Masters had red and blue bezels, in the early 1970s the first ever all-black version was introduced. Another aesthetic feature is that some of the earlier 1675s had gold coronets for the Rolex logo rather than a white printed version.

1981 sees a slight facelift from the 1675 to the newer 16750, the main differences being a new calibre the 3075 and the quickset date feature. There are two different variants for the dial, matte with white gold indices and a glossy dial option. The matte black is the rarer of the two. Of note there is the variant 16753 which is steel and gold with a jubilee bracelet. This particular version is commonly known as the ‘Rootbeer’, due to the gold and brown bezel.

The first ever GMT-Master II, ‘Sophia Loren’ aka the ‘Fat Lady’ or the reference 16760 was a short run of only 5 years from 1983 till 1988. There were some big improvements here, the use of the calibre 3085 allowed for a 24-hour hand which could be independently adjusted and also hacking which meant for accurate time whilst setting the watch. First GMT with white gold index outlines and also the first with a sapphire crystal. Steel was the only option, no precious metal variants were offered. Also, this was the first ever Rolex GMT-Master or GMT-Master II to be offered with a red and black bezel.

From here on there is a bit of a cross-over between two references the 16700 and the 16710. The 16700 was produced between 1988 and 1999 with a calibre 3175 inside. Offered with the blue and red ‘Pepsi’ bezel an later on in its life Luminova was used for the first time. Featuring a slightly different case and also the non-independent hour hand made it distinguishable compared to the 16710.

In 1989 the Rolex GMT-Master II reference 16710 was launched and was produced alongside the 16700. This slightly newer reference has the 3185 movement with the quickset 24 hour hand and hacking function. It also introduced Super Luminova for the first time in 2000. Late in 2007 also saw a slight update on the calibre 3185 to the 3186. It was the 16710 that was the first to be available in in both ‘Pepsi’ and ‘Coke’ configurations.

The most recent reference introduction is the GMT-Master II 116710 released in 2007 and is currently still in production. The new features on this current edition are quite extensive, new Triplock crown, anti-reflective cyclops lens, the maxi dial, new movement 3186 which has the new Parachrom spring, polished centre links on the bracelet with new clasp and a ceramic bezel inlaid with gold/ platinum. These are also known as the Cerachrom bezel.

The most popular of the new references are the 116710LN with the black bezel, the 116710BLNR was released in 2013 with the blue black bezel, aka ‘Batman’ or ‘Bruiser’. And even more recently at Baselworld 2014 the release of the Rolex GMT-Master II in white gold with the ‘Pepsi’ red and blue bezel, but the watch itself is in white gold.

This history shows how extensive and varied the GMT-Master and GMT-Master II is with all of its different references and color variations. What else do you expect from one of the most popular Rolex models.

Rolex GMT-Master Milestones