'Sea King' Pilot 116710LN Rolex GMT-Master II

You might fairly be asking yourself what Hairspring doing highlighting a 116710LN. Well, it’s nothing like most Rolexes. This is the ‘Sea King’ 116710LN, one of the last ‘unit watches’ (the term watch journalist Watches of Espionage has fairly coined for this interesting niche of Rolex & Tudor history) Rolex made for the UK’s military. Specifically, this GMT-Master II was made in partnership with the Royal Air Force and specifically Sea King aviators. It’s often said that Milsubs don’t exist any more, and that’s true. But this is as close as the modern incarnation comes. And it has one of the great factory caseback engravings, ‘Fear God, Honour the King’.

Most unit watches these days are handled by Tudor, as Rolex view themselves as more of a luxury manufacture and are increasingly unwilling to bend the knee. But up until the mid-2010s, Rolex still handled one of two requests, only from the most storied military and police units. In the modern era, the mechanical watch has become the method of choice for more elite units or squadrons to order special production runs more as a sort of celebratory thank you to their operators, aviators, intelligence, or otherwise. Tudor have handled most of these recently: from the French COS to the MN, Hawkeye, JTF2, RASP, GIGN, and many others. However, this was much less common prior to 2018 or so. Prior, the few requests that did come in came to Rolex. We’ve featured the very rare Explorer II made for the SAS here before, but it’s also worth noting Italy’s Polizia Di Stato Sommozzatori 16600 Sea-Dweller and UK SSR 116610LN. These are all the last of a very special breed.

As these Rolexes are all quite modern, the story is well known. The Sea King served in every major UK conflict from the Falkland Islands to Iraq from 1969 until 2017. A few watch-passionate pilots of the RAF and Royal Navy wrote a long letter to Rolex about the long history of the Sea King and its service as a global workhorse upon its retirement in 2017. A meeting was adjourned and Rolex agreed. The first example was made in gold, the rest in steel. The team agreed to do 123 watches, for 123 Sea King aircraft that had been purchased for use at the time. And the cherry on top, as if it couldn’t get any cooler, this one is the sole example numbered ‘007’.

This example appears to have hardly been worn. It couldn't be better off in terms of condition. It comes with the full kit and is well documented from a well-regarded London retailer.