Description

This pre-owned Rolex watch is in excellent condition. During our quality control check, any necessary adjustments are made to ensure the watch is functioning as intended. The watch is Crown & Caliber Certified Authentic and comes backed by our 2-year warranty.

Why We Love It

In 1989, Rolex rolled out the Reference 16710 GMT-Master II. 

Whereas the current crop of GMT-Master IIs have gotten larger and heftier, the Reference 16710 is sized at a svelte 39mm. With the proportions of a GMT of yesteryear, thin lugs and a bracelet with brushed—not polished—center links, this Reference is amongst the last of the ‘old guard’ sports Rolexes. The only obvious concessions to modernity are a glossy dial and and a sapphire crystal.

This particular example, dating to circa 2001, features a flawless luminous gloss black dial with raised white gold indices and a matching luminous handset. It has a strong case and bracelet, magnified sapphire crystal, and a black 24 hour bezel.

This is a great example of a contemporary classic GMT-Master!

The GMT-Master Story

The years following the end of The Second World War saw the world become a much, much smaller place.

Advances in aviation technology led to the world’s first nonstop Transatlantic passenger flights between Europe and North America, and the era of the jetsetter began. Along with this new age of travel arose a need for travelers, and more importantly pilots, to have a wristwatch that could display two time zones at once.

As a pioneer of transatlantic and transcontinental flight, Pan American Airlines approached Rolex in 1953 looking for a watch specially designed for their pilots, and Rolex agreed to take on the project. The newly designed Submariner became the base for this new watch, and several important complications were 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 a rotating bezel to make tracking a second time zone incredibly simple. When the wearer rotates the bezel so that the numbers around the bezel correspond to a second time zone (such as Greenwich Mean Time, the inspiration for the model’s nomenclature), it allows the watch to track any two time zones in the world at once.

Not long after the debut of the GMT-Master at the Basel World Fair in 1954, Pan-Am adopted the GMT Master as its official wristwatch. Decades later, the GMT-Master and its “Pepsi” bezel has become a true icon of the watch world. It is instantly recognizable and eternally stylish – the very best of what Rolex has to offer.