Fuchsia, Gilt Dial 1675 Rolex GMT-Master

Fuchsia-Rolex GMT-Master-1675

To any sane outsider, perhaps someone who just bought their first 40mm 5226G Calatrava, vintage Rolex lovers seem a bit deranged. Like Tolkein’s Ringwraiths, we scour Middle-Earth in search of the one, obsessing over its most insignificant minutia. We have our own tongue, whispering things to each other like rail SCOC, RCO, frog foot, Concorde,…

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Blueberry 1675 Rolex GMT-Master

Blueberry-Rolex-GMT-Master-1675

Here begins the controversy. Meet the ‘Blueberry’, an enigmatic 1675 GMT-Master that comes with a fully blue bezel and more unsolicited opinions from armchair experts than OJ Simpson (he definitely did it). The Rolex community across Instagram, VRF, Watch Pro, and anywhere else you’d care to look are divided right down the middle on whether…

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Gilt Dial 1675 Rolex GMT-Master

Gilt-Dial-1675-Rolex-GMT-Master

Volkswagen’s GTI has many unique talents, but one is criminally overlooked. It looks right dropping off McDonalds at your kids football match or friends of the royal family at Balmoral castle. It makes sense in the parking lot of a Moxy or being valeted at Four Seasons. Somehow, it exists outside of the class structure,…

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Concorde 1675 Rolex GMT-Master

Rolex-Concorde-GMT-Master-1675

There may be no better pairing in advertising historically than Concorde and the GMT-Master. Generally speaking, technology improves over time. The world marches on, iPhones get thinner, energy gets cleaner and more efficient, and AI will write your children’s homework and text your wife for you better than you can. But there are exceptions. Commercial…

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1675/8 Rolex GMT-Master

Rolex-1675/8-GMT-Master

In the words of the esteemed Wiz Khalifa, ‘Yeah, uh, you know what it is, black and yellow’. He had it right. The 1675/8 is famed for its nipple dial with applied conical indices, but mostly for being the archetypal gold Rolex. While the GMT-Master was made for the jet set first in steel, Rolex…

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Tropical Service Dial 6542 Rolex GMT-Master

Tropical-Service-Dial-Rolex-GMT-Master-6542

I must admit to slightly enjoying antagonizing purists here; a closed mind is boring. This is a service dial, and that’s always less desirable, right? Well, not quite. The 6542 GMT-Master was created with radium dials and was famously recalled for its radioactivity. If one came in for service over the next decade, Rolex would…

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UAE Ministry of Defence 1675 Rolex GMT-Master

UAE dial Rolexes are about a desirable as it gets, in any context. But the vast majority of signatures are on Datejusts and Day-Dates, the dressier watches. A steel sport Rolex with UAE enamel at 6 is remarkable in every regard. This is particularly the case for the 1675 GMT-Master, where the watches were emblazoned…

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Tropical, Gilt Dial 1675 Rolex GMT-Master

At a collector meetup last year, I encountered a very tan, thin, well-dressed Italian man. He had the kind of skin that let you know he’d spent every day of summer strolling around outside Capri. His glasses were Tom Ford. The calfskin boots he wore had been on foot at least ten years. He spoke…

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Spider Dial 16750 Rolex GMT-Master

Of all the varied types of ageing a watch may exhibit, what collectors call a spider dial must be the most contentious amongst people who really know Rolex. You think Israel v Palestine has some ardent extremists? Walk this GMT into the Hodinkee office and watch a civil war ensue. Every watch journalist has used…

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1675/8 Rolex GMT-Master

1675/8-Rolex-GMT-Master

Opulence is often said to be distasteful by definition, but a gold nipple dial? C’mon, that’s an exemption many amongst us and I will gladly make. While the GMT-Master was made for the jet set, Rolex recognized early on that its well-heeled, travel-hungry clientelle could afford a little extra aureate. Almost as soon as the…

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