What You Really Need To Know: the Rolex GMT-Master II
May 31, 2024 – With more nicknames than a Guy Ritchie gangster movie and a history that covers everything from record breaking Supersonic flights and the dark side of the moon, to Pussy Galore, James Bond and Marlon Brando’s broody Apocalypse Now, the Rolex GMT-Master II has stories to tell.
Where the Rolex Daytona is the iconic luxury watch poster boy for the golden age of racing, with Paul Newman as its hero, the GMT Master is the sub-zero cool poster boy for international travel and stylish globetrotting. In the 1950s, Pan Am Airlines asked Rolex for a watch their pilots could use on long haul flights to tell the time in multiple time zones, and so the GMT-Master was born. Rolex designed the watch with the duo coloured bezel so pilots were able to read a second time zone against a 24hr hand, meaning they knew whether it was time for sleep, or time for cocktails.
A full two years before the OMEGA Speedmaster went to the moon in 1969, The GMT-Master was asking someone to hold its beer while it ripped to a record 4,520mph over the Mojave Desert on the wrist of pilot William J. Knight as part of the NASA X-15 Hypersonic programme for space flight research, and yes, that record stands to this day. Did someone say ‘dark side of the moon’? Check! The GMT was there on the wrist of Apollo 13 Mission command module pilot Jack Swigert.
That red on the Pepsi bezel sure is nice paint right…not quite. Rolex worked with a team of mad scientists to develop and patent an in-house process adding chromium oxide, magnesium oxide and rare earth oxide to the bezel’s base, which delivered the instantly recognizable red colour which was impossible to make with natural reds. So tricky was the process that the Pepsi was only available on precious metals for the first few years.
If we haven’t convinced you that the GMT is THE coolest Rolex, let us remind you that Val Kilmer wore one in Top Gun, that’s Iceman to you. Oh, and Marlon Brando’s brooding Apocalypse Now performance? Yup, wearing a GMT. The Pepsi remains one of the hardest Rolex watches to source from a dealer, with multi-year waiting lists. The complicated manufacture process means it has one of the smallest production runs of the model range. Catch one if you can! The Bruce Wayne on the other hand is the latest GMT offering from Rolex, there are just a handful in the world!