Mk5, Pumpkin 1675 Rolex GMT-Master

The difference a bezel can make is extreme. In March 2015, I had the opportunity to attend the Geneva Motor Show. What I expected to find there were many Cosmographs, and I did. But what surprised me, more than any concept, was the sheer quantity of Batman GMTs on wrist. No exaggeration—not Coke, not Pepsi, a sea of Batman. Here’s my hypothesis: in watches amongst non-WIS, everyone wants a recognizable symbol . . .but no one wants to shout about it too loudly. BLNR is just that sliver more subtle than a red bezel, but known nonetheless. If you extend that philosophy to the n-th degree within the family, you wind up here; you wind up with blackberries and blueberries.

The 1675 was in continuous production for a monumental twenty years, one of the longest single running references in all of Rolex lore. That’s for good reason: the basic, early crown-guard GMT did not need changing. Allowing its wearer to track two or two time zones simultaneously, the iconic GMT Master design had found a home in the minds of pilots and the jet set. It featured a 40mm case and 3075 movement with a quick-set date and 28800 vph.

The effect of eliminating the Pepsi bezel is one of seeing an old friend in new clothes. While there’s no precise way of knowing what GMT bezel was born with what watch in terms of color for this era, there are general guidelines by dial series and bezel type. This all-black monotone is ever so slightly less common than the iconic Pepsi but nowhere near as rare as the very contentious blueberry. If the BLNR is Christian Bale’s anabolic, machismo Batman (which he didn’t wear in film, for the record the name is unrelated), this is Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne at a dinner party.

This example has a worn but lovely state. Its dial sports pumpkin-tone tritium that is matched a tiny bit darker in the handset (that tone difference is not uncommon here, if the discrepancy is not too large). Its bezel is faultless. The case sports bevels, strong but just a sliver narrowing than factory to my eye. Overall very strong condition. It comes on a year-matched 78360 bracelet from a well-regarded small retailer.

Find this Mk5 1675 here from Voys Timeless for 18000 EUR.