As for some of our Rolex fans, the GMT Master replica Rolex is the watch to own. Even though there have been various renditions of the GMT that have been made throughout its continuous production run of more than six decades, the fake model was the very first, and therefore holds a unique place within Rolex’s history.
Now, the GMT-Master watch was developed after Pan-Am Airlines made a request for a dependable watch that could simultaneously display two time zones for use on transatlantic flights. The Rolex could accomplish Pan-Am’s requirement for a second time zone display by adding a 24-hour hand and a rotating bezel to the GMT-Master’s self-winding movement.
Thanks to its multi-time zone capabilities, Rolex named the watch the GMT-Master, a reference to Greenwich Mean Time, the prime basis of standard time used all over the world. By simply rotating the bezel to correspond with the difference in time, the GMT-Master could display a secondary time zone with its 24-hour hand and the accompanying hour markings on the bezel.
The most obvious and particular features of the watch are its lack of crown guards and smaller case diameter. Crown guards were introduced to the GMT-Master line with the watch, and have remained a constant presence ever since. However, since it was heavily based on that model Turn-O-Graph, its case was slightly smaller in diameter, and lacked crown guards completely.
What’s more, all these Rolex GMT-Master replica watches were originally fitted with glossy gilt dials. Because of their short duration of production and incredibly early position within the history of the GMT-Master, the last watch had left the Rolex factory roughly a half-decade before the very first matte dials were being fitted to Rolex’s sport watches.
When Rolex first launched the GMT-Master, it had a bezel insert that was made from Bakelite, with luminous, radium numerals set into its plastic-like material. However, since these inserts were prone to cracking, Rolex replica changed the material of its bezel which is inserted from Bakelite to aluminum in 1956.
Even though they were meaningfully more durable, these new aluminum inserts did not have the glowing, radium numerals of their Bakelite predecessors, and significantly altered the entire appearance of the rolex GMT-Master. Thanks to their unbelievable brief production period and fragile nature, original Bakelite bezel inserts are considered quite rare, and are highly sought-after by the replica watch fans nowadays.