Archive
Archive
Rolex
9 references catalogued, spanning production starts from 1954–1989.
Commissioned by Pan American World Airways in the mid-1950s so flight crews crossing time zones could read home time at a glance. It invented the dual-time watch. On the original line the hour hand and the 24-hour hand are locked together, so a traveller changes zones by turning the bezel rather than by moving the hands — the limitation the GMT-Master II was built to remove.
6542. The earliest bezels were bakelite with radium numerals, and were recalled.
Crown guards arrive; aluminium bezel inserts replace bakelite.
16750 gains a quickset date, 16700 a sapphire crystal. Neither sets the hour hand independently.
References without production years are catalogued but do not yet carry a verified production record. Those fields are added as they are confirmed rather than estimated.