What's New with the Rolex GMT Master II?

The New GMT Master II

The Rolex GMT Master was initially designed to help airline pilots as they traveled across timezones.  It was adopted as the official watch of Pan American World Airways.  It was also worn by the Concorde test piolots Brian Trubshaw and Andre Turcat during the 1960's.  The ability to track two timezones at once is not only a feature that help pilots, but world travelers such as businessmen, sports icons, and celebrities that need to keep a handle on both their home turf and their temporary stay at whatever city they are visiting today.

The nearly scratchproof bidirectional ceramic rotatable bezel is marked with a 24 hour clock with moulded gold or platinum for the numerals.  A red hour 2nd hour hand with a big triangular end marks the 2nd time zone hourly time.  This is a beautiful timepiece and it has been at the forefront of the finest Rolex watchmaking utilizing 10 patents filed over the course of the development.

There are several other color options available today.  Besides the Pepsi, there is a Blue and Black bezel option ("Batman"), and a black and brown bezel that looks spectacular on the Rolesor and all gold models. The 40 mm Oyster case is used throughout the models.  However, there is a new White Gold GMT-Master II that sports an Oyster bracelet. The all black bezel has been discontinued, as has the Oyster bracelet on the steel GMT.

This version of the GMT Master II has the Pepsi bezel with Blue and Red coloring helping to indicate day and night hours.  It also is displayed with a Jubilee bracelet which was introduced in 2018 built out of Oystersteel.  It is water resistant to 330 feet and utilizes a Triplock triple waterproofness system, along with a scratch-resistant sapphire crystal.

The new Calibre 3285 that powers the new GMT Master II gives gains in precision, power reserve, resistance to shocks and magnetism, while increasing reliability.  The Calibre 3285 incorporates the Chronergy escapement patented by Rolex, which combines high energy efficiency with great dependability. Made of nickel-phosphorus, it is also insensitive to magnetic interference.

The movement is fitted with an optimized blue Parachrom hairspring, manufactured by Rolex in an exclusive paramagnetic alloy that makes it up to 10 times more precise than a traditional hairspring in case of shocks.

The blue Parachrom hairspring is equipped with a Rolex overcoil, ensuring its regularity in any position. The oscillator is fitted on the Rolex-designed and -patented high-performance Paraflex shock absorbers, increasing the movement’s shock resistance.

The Calibre 3285 is equipped with a self-winding module via a Perpetual rotor. Thanks to its barrel architecture and the escapement’s superior efficiency, the power reserve of calibre 3285 extends to approximately 70 hours.

The biggest features of the GMT Master is utility and reliability.  With the new 70 hours of power reserve, this makes the GMT even more useful to travelers who will have nearly 3 days of power reserve. Although there aren't too many new features on the new GMT Master II, the enhanced Calibre 3285 is well worth it and is significant enough of a change to warrant grand applause for the Rolex artists that continually tweak their nearly perfect artform to make it even better.