ON THE WRIST: Rolex GMT-Master II
MONDAY NOVEMBER 24, 2025
Is new better? Every Rolex collector eventually asks that question. I have always adored the 5-digit references for their lightness and their perfect proportions. They defined Rolex’s golden period because they felt like precision instruments built for actual daily life. Then people grew taller and broader so watches followed. Modern Rolex cases have bulk now. The kind of bulk that looks like it could survive anything except the sharp corner of an office desk.
The GMT-Master began its life in commercial cockpits when flying felt glamorous and pilots were half-celebrities. That world disappeared a long time ago. Today the GMT belongs to travellers who drift between check-in counters and hotel lobbies. Think business class overhead bins. Think lounge lighting and silent refrigerators filled with Fiji water. It is no longer a pilot’s tool. It is for people who earn airline status the hard way.
If you step back from Daytona hype and Submariner mythology the GMT-Master II becomes the most interesting trilogy in the Rolex catalogue. No other line offers such a wide range of bezel colours and personalities. Blue, red, grey, green, brown. Steel or two tone or full gold. Oyster or Jubilee. Even the pickiest buyer eventually finds one that feels like it was made for them.
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PRO
Design perfection
Robust, solidity
70 years of existence
CON
Large and heavy
SPECIFICATION
40 mm Diameter
12.2 mm Thickness
100m Water Resistance
70 hours Power Reserve
48 mm Lug to Lug
A$ 18,800
The 40 millimetre case finds a sweet spot that feels alive on the wrist. It has presence yet holds onto balance. That size gives Rolex enough room to arrange four hands and a date window without creating chaos. Four hands can easily look crowded yet this dial remains clean because Rolex knows exactly when to stop.
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The bezel clicks twelve times around the circle. Mine feels grittier than expected as if a bit of sand lives inside. It could be the breaking-in period or it could be that I romanticised how a ceramic bi-directional bezel should feel. The insert remains the highlight. The blue half represents daytime and the black half represents night. Together they create a look that feels cohesive without shouting for attention.
Aside from the extra hand and the polished centre links the GMT shares much of its design with the Submariner. Slab sides. Crown guards. A posture that looks ready for hard use. Swap the bezel for a pure black one and someone could easily mistake it for a Submariner with a double life.
One aspect that often goes unnoticed is how the GMT evolved from a pilot’s tool into a cultural symbol. Travellers once used it to track home while living on the other side of the world. Today people wear it because it represents mobility. It reminds them of places they have visited or hope to visit. The GMT is not just a watch. It is a small passport you wear on your wrist.
Collectors love arguing about modern case shapes. The lugs are thicker. The finishing is brighter. Some say it has less charm than the older models. Maybe that is true, but the modern GMT needs to keep moving forward otherwise Rolex risks being labelled predictable.
Rolex refreshed the Batman in 2019 with a new movement that extended its power reserve by twenty two hours. It now runs for three full days off the wrist. The calibre tracks three time zones inside a case the size of a biscuit. Accuracy sits within plus minus two seconds per day. Hundreds of parts move beneath the caseback yet it keeps time with a personality that feels reliably dull in the best possible way.
Setting the date tests your patience. You advance the hour hand until your life starts flashing past. You turn it more. You breathe. You keep going. This is a universal GMT inconvenience and not exclusive to Rolex. My therapist would call it character building. She might actually be right this time, don't tell her.
I wear mine on the Oyster bracelet so scratches stay manageable. The brushed links hide wear better than polished ones. The bracelet feels sturdy and dense in a reassuring way. On my 15.5 centimetre wrist the watch sits on the larger side. Not uncomfortably large, just noticeable. The case is flat and the clasp has weight. You always feel it on the wrist which can be acceptable on some days and slightly demanding on others.
Rolex has refined the GMT-Master to a level that borders on unreasonable. The coloured ceramic, the typography, the clasp feel, the consistency across every component. These are not ordinary Swiss touches. These are deliberate Rolex decisions shaped by decades of discipline and refrain.
The drawbacks stay small yet memorable. My bezel has a hint of play that should not appear at this price bracket and built by the most recognised watchmaker in the world. The date setting remains slow and some tolerances feel slightly tighter on other models.
I avoid saying older watches are better because if you truly love them you should simply buy them. Yet pre-owned pieces never feel fully mine. Even if it were a Nautilus I would still feel a tiny invisible distance. A reminder that someone else wrote the beginning of that story.
I waited years for the Batman. When it finally landed on my wrist the joy felt softer than expected. It did not make me smile the way a Daytona does. The proportions were not as natural as I had imagined. Yet this taught me something important. Watches are emotional creatures. They are stories disguised as machines. Sometimes the chase is electric and the catch is humbling.
So the search for the perfect watch continues. A little older, a little wiser and slightly more aware that the real joy often sits in smaller watches.