Rolex GMT Master

Why We Love It Picture yourself in the golden age of aviation - a time in which you could cross multiple timezones in a single jaunt. A time in which the world truly became a smaller place. Designed for the "MadMen" of the jet age, the GMT-Master has exuded an effortless cool for more than 50 years. It’s not hard to understand why the 16750 GMT-Master is viewed as the reference to own by savvy collectors. Following on the heels of the long-lived Reference 1675, the 16750 brought a high beat movement and quickset date mechanism and acted as a transitional bridge from the matte dial era to the current glossy dials with applied indices with white raised white gold surrounds. Early examples, such as this one, are particularly desirable, as they feature the classic matte dial layout - all of its upgrades lay hidden within. This particular example shows an honest condition throughout, richly patinated luminescent elements, and a beautifully faded all-black 24-hour timing bezel. The perfect traveling companion!  With a production run of only eights year and a cult following of its own, the Reference 16750 has come to be considered a classic in its own right - not just as a more affordable alternative to the venerable 1675.  The Story As the legend goes, Pan-Am approached Rolex in 1953 looking for a watch specially designed for their pilots, and a partnership was quickly formed. A Submariner became the base for this new watch, and several important modifications were made to turn a Sub into the GMT-Master that we know today. Rolex added a date function with a cyclops lens magnifier, GMT complication, and two-colored bezel to provide long-haul pilots with the info they needed as they circumnavigated the globe. The GMT-Master’s 24-hour hand works in conjunction with the rotating bezel to make tracking a second time zone incredibly simple. When the bezel’s triangle is aligned to 12 o’clock, the red arrow hand points to the time on a 24-hour military scale, which in itself is valuable as a day/night indicator (at least if you’re a cave explorer). The usefulness of the complication really shines when the wearer rotates the bezel so that the numbers around the bezel correspond the a 2nd time zone (such as Greenwich Mean Time), allowing the watch to track any two time zones in the world at once.