Category: Watch for Sale

It’s possible I have a GMT problem. For years, the idea of somehow finding a way to get a new Rolex Pepsi GMT-Master II loomed large over my head. The Rolex ref. 1675 GMT-Master was a seminal experience in my appreciation of any watch more modern than a pocket watch from 1920. I remember where I was when I handled my first ref. 1675. It was at the RRL in SoHo and when they took the watch out of the case of other antiques, vintage jewelry, and other assorted watches, they handed it to me casually. Meanwhile I felt like I was handling the most valuable watch in the world. Since then, I’ve been hooked. Earlier this year, a friend introduced me to Federico Verga, who works his family’s long-running watch retailer in Milan. As we sat and chatted about the state of modern catalogs of the major brands, he asked me what, if anything, I’d buy right now. Despite getting my Pepsi last year, my gut response was the left-handed GMT-Master II from two years ago. To have two of my nicest watches be variations of the same thing seems silly. But it’s not the first I’ve thought about a superfluous GMT-Master. I’ve imagined having a whole suite of modern Rolex GMTs, with one of the coolest being the white gold GMT-Master II with a meteorite dial. I’m the last person inclined to tell you that another variation of a GMT-Master II is bad or boring. And I’ll tell you why I still feel like it’s anything but bad. You might be surprised to hear – if you haven’t realized already – that the new ref. 126710GRNR (Gris Noir for the grey and black bezel) is the only stainless steel Rolex release from Watches & Wonders 2024. While it’s not a full-on “Patek move” the way Thierry Stern ditched the stainless steel Nautilus, it’s certainly an unusual year for Rolex. It’s also unusual in a significantly different way than the surprises from Rolex last year. The brand told us that the shocking “Celebration” and “Puzzle” dials weren’t precedent-setting for future years, but rather a moment in time to have some fun. So while the grey/black isn’t earth shattering, it’s peak-Rolex in a comforting way. Everything about the new GRNR (for lack of a consensus nickname yet) is basically like every other 126710. The stainless steel case is 40mm by 12mm, and the watch comes with choice of Jubilee or Oyster bracelet. The watch is powered by a caliber 3285 with 70 hours of power reserve, and has the independent jumping hour hand to skip time zones when you travel from place to place. That means the main difference is that the Cerachrom bezel has a very subtle black and grey gradient, and the name of the watch on the dial – as well as the length of the 24-hour hand – is in a bold green hue. Sure, it’s just a few tweaks, and while I’m not saying it’s worth jumping up and down about, more options aren’t usually bad. I love the Pepsi as an iconic color combination, going all the way back to the amazing original Rolex ref. 6542. But as someone with a more reserved sense of style, I can find the red accents quite loud. Sure, I could have asked for a “Batman,” but then the blue is pretty bold, too. Not everyone wants a watch that calls attention to itself. But until now, the only modern watch that satisfied that kind of audience was the old, long-discontinued ref. 116710LN. I didn’t much care for the monotone bezel, but a lot of the places I worked as a photojournalist were not exactly places where I would have wanted to draw much attention to my watch. But it shouldn’t necessarily stop you from having a watch that can travel with you.

The nice carryover is the green “GMT-MASTER II” text and green hand, which gives a needed bit of color to an otherwise stark release, but the gradient bezel is the biggest improvement. I don’t know how often people actually lean on the day/night part of the bezel for quick reference – if you do, let me know – but at least it creates some contrast on the bezel that alludes the original GMTs. I mentioned in my intro that this isn’t the “Coke” (black and red) bezel that many people were expecting or hoping for. I wasn’t hoping for the Coke, personally. Despite being a full-octane “Coke heavy” beverage fan, I don’t love the color combo on the GMT. The launch of this new color also didn’t result in the discontinuation of the iconic Pepsi. That discontinuation was rumored for the last six to nine months when members of the watch community reported their ADs had seen less and less Pepsis delivered as the year went on. The rumors went from discontinuation to suggestions Rolex was struggling even to make bezels (which certainly was an issue that prevented the Cerachrom bezels from being Pepsi from day one). Maybe now the more obvious answer is that Rolex was slowing down for their new launch. Another surprise was the fact that not only does the new GRNR come on both Jubilee and Oyster bracelet, but if you have the watch on one bracelet, you can also buy the other. That was kind of a not-so-secret trick that I learned from a few friends the last few years: if you went to the right AD, they might be able to help you buy the other bracelet but in some instances you probably would have to have a creative story and jump through few hoops. While it’s not clear that the new policy extends to every Rolex GMT-Master II in steel (trust me, I asked and it’s still not clear), I’m hopeful. Whether you’re a bit nutty (like me) and look at a GMT-Master and think “gotta catch ’em all” or just have been waiting for a more reserved steel GMT, you can pick up the new 126710GRNR for $10,700 on Oyster bracelet, or $10,900 on Jubilee. Hopefully, the flow of steel GMTs starts picking up steam – Pepsi, Sprite, Batman, and whatever this ends up being called.

For every watch enthusiast or watch lover, there are always two points in time worth remembering. The first point is when you were a normal functioning human being who just so happened to have an intellectual or emotional curiosity in watches. Maybe you wore the same Timex or G-Shock every day, maybe there was an heirloom Rolex, Omega, Cartier, Hamilton, Tissot, or Seiko in your life that meant a lot to you. Perhaps you cherished that watch and figured you knew a thing or two about these horological objects.

Then comes the point where that curiosity turns into a slow-building obsession. You began coming to sites like Hodinkee with increasing frequency. You started reading about watches called Ressence, MB&F, Urwerk, and Greubel Forsey and soon realized, “Shit, there’s a lot more to this than I thought.” But your own taste in watches always maintained as the obsession grew.

Since many of us are so far down the rabbit hole that it’s hard to remember who we were before we became that guy at a party quick to give a tip to a friend who absentmindedly muttered the word Rolex. “You definitely want to look at [insert watch here]. This watch has [insert historical anecdote here]. The truth is there’s just a ton of value with this one, you’ll never lose money on it – it’s better than the stock market!” We can’t help ourselves.

Okay, so maybe you don’t take things that far. But for some of us, we remember the days before watch enthusiasm crossed into the mainstream before our tastes were shaped by the sheer fact that a watch was unattainable – back in the days when we could freely have independent taste unshackled from the group think on Instagram and beyond.

One specific memory that comes to mind for me is a trip I took to Paris with my family in 2014. My father, who lived there as a teenager when his father was in the Foreign Service, was celebrating his 50th high school reunion. I was in my mid-20s and had firmly crossed the line into watch obsession to the point where my own selfish preparations for the trip involved scouting watch boutiques and vintage watch dealers just to see all the models I had only read about in the pages of Hodinkee.

What I was really after at that time was a Rolex GMT-Master II with blue and black bezel – what would go on to become the Batman. It had only recently been released art Baselworld a year earlier and I had my heart set on at least seeing one. It must have been the first or second proper day of the trip and I found myself in a Rolex AD, where I asked about the GMT. Bear in mind, this was just before the Rolex frenzy properly began. But a watch like the Batman was still new enough and popular enough that my efforts were in vain.

“I am sorry but we do not have this in the store, but hold on one second, I will show you something,” the specialist said to me. She returned with what many call a “coffin,” which is basically the plastic case that Rolex watches are delivered into the ADs. They are then removed from plastic and styrofoam before being transferred to the showcase or a box if someone ends up purchasing it.

She shows me this box, with a Rolex watch tightly concealed beneath the plastic. “Do you know what this is?” she asked me almost tantalizingly. And I did know. It was a Rolex Submariner ref. 116610LV, also known as the Hulk because of its bright green bezel and matching dial.

I think about this moment a lot because the watch world has changed so very much in the 10 years since that moment took place. Within three years from then, waitlists and grey market shenanigans became commonplace as secondary market pricing would turn objects of affection into that of investments.

Had I walked into that store circa 2019, would my reaction have been different? It’s honestly hard for me to say. I mean, I do know myself and I never would have purchased a Submariner with intentions to turn around and sell it. But I cannot be sure that I would not have purchased it in place of a Batman simply because I understood the scarcity.

But in 2014, I was guided by nothing more than what I was after. And I would eventually track down and purchase a Rolex GMT-Master II Batman (you can read my story about that watch here). I write all of this preamble and personal meditation because I distinctly remember a time in Rolex fandom when it was basically Hulk vs. Batman when it came to hype models in the broader collection (sure the ceramic Daytona too, but that was effectively unobtanium from the jump).

I had a good friend who owned the Hulk, and there was a time when I had my own obsession with it. The Submariner is a model near and dear to my heart. As I have covered several times here on the ‘Dink, my father’s 1982 5513 was sort of the archetypal watch in my memory. Then at a very young age I came into possession of my grandfather’s ref. 5513 Submariner (which is on my wrist as I pen this essay). There was something different enough about the Hulk that I could make it make sense to own it and my 5513: green dial, green bezel, and date complication.

Speaking of which, I have done a good deal of emotional and philosophical explication without really digging into the nuts and bolts of the Rolex Submariner ref. 116610LV. Let’s first get into its origins. The watch was released at Baselworld 2010, when Rolex completely revamped the Submariner Date line in steel to match some major aesthetic changes it had made to the watch in both full gold and two-tone executions. This is when we saw Rolex do away with its classical proportions in favor of the “super case” with new maxi dial and use of Cerachrom for the bezel.

Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso didn’t make a Reverso from the 1940s until the early 1970s.

It’s hard to imagine now, with JLC recently celebrating the Reverso’s 90th anniversary and even hosting an entire exhibit dedicated to its unique reversing watch in New York last year. But for decades, it sat as a mostly forgotten footnote in the manufacturer’s history.

This changed in 1972 when Giorgio Corvo, then Jaeger-LeCoultre’s agent for Italy, visited the manufacturer in Le Sentier. “My grandfather [Giorgio] Corvo went to the manufacturer,” says Jacopo Corvo, the grandson of Giorgo, who now operates GMT Italia, a retailer and distributor of high-end indies in Italy. According to lore, Grandpa Giorgio opened a drawer in the manufacturer and stumbled upon a stash of 200 Staybrite steel (an early stainless steel alloy) Reverso cases, forgotten since JLC ceased production in 1948.

“My grandfather said, ‘we need a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso ,’” explains Corvo. “It was very common at the time for markets to ask a maison to make something.” The Royal Oak, a request from Audemars Piguet’s Italian distributor, is perhaps the most famous example of this. “Imagine the scene,” Corvo said. “It’s 1972, full quartz crisis. Swiss brands were falling one by one, going out of business. Everyone’s buying quartz Seikos.”

Especially after World War II, rectangular watches like the Reverso fell out of favor with buyers, so JLC stopped production in the late ’40s. But after discovering those old cases, Corvo kept pushing Jaeger-LeCoultre to bring back a Reverso for him to sell in Italy. JLC was resistant, especially because it knew how difficult the flippable Reverso case was to manufacture.

“Corvo took one or two cases back to Italy,” explains Matthieu Sauret, Jaeger-LeCoultre’s Product & Heritage Director. Corvo had watchmakers and technicians for after-sales service, so he put them to work. After a year, these watchmakers created a movement holder to fit a JLC caliber 840, a small oval-shaped movement, into the old Reverso cases. Corvo then brought this prototype contraption back to the Valle de Joux. “The Swiss watchmakers were a bit mad that an Italian watchmaker figured out something and they didn’t,” Sauret said. From there, Jaeger-LeCoultre industrialized Corvo’s system so that it could produce a run of Reversos using the 200 cases that had been found in Le Sentier.

A new dial was also designed for the “Corvo Reverso”: a beautiful white or grey dial signed “Jaeger-LeCoultre,” with Roman numerals, 100 of each color. The Roman numerals, in particular, set the grey dial apart from most other Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso .

“We managed to sell all 200 Reversos in less than three months,” Jacopo Corvo said. For perspective, Jacopo told me that just a few years prior, Corvo sold only about 200 JLC watches in an entire year. There are legends that some of the most prominent VIPs in Milan bought a Corvo Reverso, including Gianni Versace and Gianni Agnelli (though I’ve never seen photos to prove this). After the success of the Corvo Reverso, Jaeger-LeCoultre soon got to the work of relaunching the Reverso worldwide. The Corvo was produced by 1975. Over the next few years, Jaeger-LeCoultre worked to manufacture a new case for the Reverso – more complex than the original, and also waterproof.

The real Reverso boom came in the 1980s with the introduction of the larger “Grande Taille” Reverso case.

The 1990s then became the golden age for the Reverso. To celebrate the Reverso’s 60th anniversary in 1991, JLC began adding complications to the Reverso for the first time. First came the 60ème, a Grande Taille Reverso with a power reserve indicator and date that featured a gold movement.

“The 60th anniversary is my favorite Reverso – it’s the one that changed everything,” Jacopo told me. Through the rest of the decade, JLC produced six limited-edition Reversos for each of six “traditional complications” – power reserve, tourbillon, minute repeater, chronograph (upon which last year’s Heritage Reverso Chronograph is based), geographique, and perpetual calendar. Each limited to 500 pieces, this run of complicated Reversos was a hit, especially in Italy.

“Italy was the first market in the world for many watch brands, and the Italian market helped many brands become what they are today,” Corvo said. “It’s a very mature market. People started to collect watches here in the 1940s and ’50s. And it wasn’t just for telling the time, it was fashion. They were predecessors of today’s watch collector.”

During this entire time, Jaeger-LeCoultre was home to many master watchmakers. First, it was Philippe Dufour; then, legends like Eric Coudray and Max Büsser, with Günter Blümlein leading the way for much of this period. This era of the rebirth of the Reverso is worth a separate article.

As something of a nerd for travel watches, I can’t help but obsess over the myriad permutations that exist within the basic concept of a watch that shows the time in two (or more) places. I am also routinely surprised by how often I cross paths with someone who doesn’t know how to get the full functionality from their travel watch. Predictably, this happens most commonly with the most common form of the travel watch, the GMT.

Largely popularized by the Rolex GMT-Master and GMT-Master II models, a standard GMT can come in a few flavors, but the core functionality is tied to the presence of both a 24-hour hand and a rotating 24-hour bezel. The movement in use can be a flyer (local-jumping hour) or a caller (independent 24-hour hand), but the ability to track the additional timezone is derived from the additional 24-hour hand, and the ability to do even more comes from being able to rotate the 24-hour bezel.

Is the following guide going to be both reductive and also somewhat pedantic? You better believe it. But you might just thank me the next time you need to change the indicated 2nd timezone on your GMT because you’ll be able to do so without so much as touching the crown or moving any of the hands.

Most of the time that I see someone using a GMT, they have it set like a traditional “dual time” watch, where the local time is displayed on the main hands, and the 24-hour hand shows the time in a second time zone by reading the bezel in its default position (shown below, with zero-hour at logical 12 o’clock position on the dial). While this is fine, and indeed is the feature set provided by any fixed-bezel “GMT” (actually a dual time) like a Rolex Explorer II, it doesn’t harness all that your 24-hour GMT is capable of – to get the most out of the watch, you need to use the bezel.