A stainless steel Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II ‘Pepsi’ wristwatch 1999 Case: stainless steel, bidirectional rotating blue-red bezel, 40 mm diameter Bracelet: stainless steel Oyster Dial: black with sapphire glass and date loop Functions: date Reference number: 16710 Serial number: U 890078 Movement number: 38120185 Caliber: 3185, automatic Accessories: presentation box, outer packaging, extra black ceramic bezel, sales tags and papers Gross weight approx. 125 g Movement not tested Provenance: - Juwelier Eugene van Baal, Nijmegen - Private collection, the Netherlands Note: The Rolex GMT-Master wristwatch was originally designed in collaboration with Pan American Airways and issued by the airline to their crews on long-haul flights. ‘GMT’ in the name stands for Greenwich Mean Time also known as Coordinated Universal Time. The original GMT Master watch has a 24-hour display fourth hand complication directly linked to and displaying the same time zone as the standard 12-hour hand. In the early 1980s the Rolex GMT-Master II was released - the production of the original version continued alongside it until the late 1990s. Although the watch looks almost identical, it uses a movement that has the additional capability of an independently adjustable quickset hour hand that can be adjusted to local time - without stopping the seconds or disturbing the minutes and 24 hour GMT hand. This GMT hand enabled the crews to set the watch to GMT or another time zone, by using the rotatable 24-hour scale bezel. The red/blue bezel inserts on the steel GMT’s are referred to as ‘Pepsi bezels’ as it assembles the same colours, but in fact Rolex chose this combination because of the Pan-Am colours. The heritage of the Pepsi bezel starts in 1959, when the rare Bakelite bezels were used.
A stainless steel Rolex Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II ‘Pepsi’ wristwatch 1999 Case: stainless steel, bidirectional rotating blue-red bezel, 40 mm diameter Bracelet: stainless steel Oyster Dial: black with sapphire glass and date loop Functions: date Reference number: 16710 Serial number: U 890078 Movement number: 38120185 Caliber: 3185, automatic Accessories: presentation box, outer packaging, extra black ceramic bezel, sales tags and papers Gross weight approx. 125 g Movement not tested Provenance: - Juwelier Eugene van Baal, Nijmegen - Private collection, the Netherlands Note: The Rolex GMT-Master wristwatch was originally designed in collaboration with Pan American Airways and issued by the airline to their crews on long-haul flights. ‘GMT’ in the name stands for Greenwich Mean Time also known as Coordinated Universal Time. The original GMT Master watch has a 24-hour display fourth hand complication directly linked to and displaying the same time zone as the standard 12-hour hand. In the early 1980s the Rolex GMT-Master II was released - the production of the original version continued alongside it until the late 1990s. Although the watch looks almost identical, it uses a movement that has the additional capability of an independently adjustable quickset hour hand that can be adjusted to local time - without stopping the seconds or disturbing the minutes and 24 hour GMT hand. This GMT hand enabled the crews to set the watch to GMT or another time zone, by using the rotatable 24-hour scale bezel. The red/blue bezel inserts on the steel GMT’s are referred to as ‘Pepsi bezels’ as it assembles the same colours, but in fact Rolex chose this combination because of the Pan-Am colours. The heritage of the Pepsi bezel starts in 1959, when the rare Bakelite bezels were used.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
