The Spirit of Aviation

WITH TWO NEW TIMEPIECES, ROLEX HONORS THE BOLDNESS OF THE EARLY FLIERS. AND WHY NOT? THEY CARRIED ITS WATCHES IN THE SKY NEARLY

A CENTURY AGO. By Christen Fisher

On the morning of April 3, 1933, 33,000 feet above sea level in two open-cockpit planes battling an air temperature of 50 degrees below zero and adverse winds of more than 100 miles an hour, Sir Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, David McIntyre, Latham Valentine Stewart Blacker and Sydney R. G. Bonnet made history by flying over the summit of Mount Everest. Rolex Oyster wristwatches were on board.

In 1934, after participating in the Trophy Air Race from London to Melbourne, thirdplace finishers Owen Cathcart-Jones and Ken Waller immediately turned around and set a record for the round trip. A Rolex Oyster watch was there once again, this time serving as the duo’s on-board chronometer.

Charles Douglas, a recordsetting British aviator of the same era, once said of his timepiece that “the peculiar qualities of this Rolex watch render it eminently suitable for flying purposes, and I propose to use it on all my long-distance flights in the future.”

As a tribute to these pioneers of aviation and a celebration of the brand’s longstanding support of aeronautical endeavors, Rolex presents a new edition of the Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II and a new-generation Oyster Perpetual Air-King.

GMT–Master II: Designed to show the time in two time zones simultaneously, the GMT-Master was created as a navigation tool for professionals crisscrossing the globe. It first launched in 1955, at a time when intercontinental travel was rapidly expanding. It was the official watch of Pan American World Airways, known as Pan Am. And when Concorde, the world’s first supersonic passenger airliner, performed its final test flights in the 1960s, its French and British pilots wore Rolex GMT-Masters. Heir to the original model, the GMT-Master II debuted in 1982 and has been a staple in Rolex’s collection of travel watches ever since. This year’s model features a black dial and a two-color Cerachrom bezel insert in green-and-black ceramic. On this novel version, the crown and crown guard are on the left side of the watch case with the date aperture and the Cyclops lens at 9 o’clock. The GMT-Master II offers exceptional legibility in all circumstances, and especially in the dark, thanks to its Chromalight display. The broad hands and hour markers in simple shapes—triangles, circles, rectangles—are filled with a luminescent material that emits a long-lasting glow. In addition to conventional hour, minute and second hands, the GMT-Master II features an arrow-tipped hand, which circles the dial once every 24 hours, as well as a bi-directional, rotatable, 24-hour graduated bezel. The distinctively colored 24-hour hand displays the “home” reference time in a first time zone, which can be read on the graduations on the bezel. The traveler’s local time is easily set by “jumping” from hour to hour, thanks to an ingenious mechanism operated via the winding crown: The hour hand can be adjusted forward or backward independently of the minute and second hands. This allows travelers to adapt to their new time zone without affecting the precision of their timekeeping. Powered by a new generation movement caliber 3285, the GMT-Master II has a power reserve of approximately 70 hours. The Air-King: First launched in 1958, the Air-King offers a new generation this year, featuring a completely redesigned case with a crown guard and straight sides, giving it a look similar to Rolex’s other professional models. The watch’s dial is black with a combination of large 3, 6 and 9 numerals marking the hours and a prominent minute scale for optimal navigation time readings, but with the addition

of a 0 before the 5, so that each five-minute interval is now marked by two digits.

Like the GMT-Master II, the new Air-King boasts an optimized Chromalight display. The watch’s hands, triangular hour marker at 12 o’clock, and the 3, 6 and 9 numerals are all coated or filled with a new luminescent material exclusive to Rolex that provides a longer-lasting intense glow, guaranteeing maximum legibility whether you’re setting records or just setting down in darkness.

Equipped with Caliber 3230, a self-winding movement developed and manufactured by Rolex and originally released in 2020 but fitted to this model in 2022, the Air-King offers outstanding performance in terms of precision, reliability and resistance to shocks and magnetic fields. Like the GMT-Master II, it has a power reserve of approximately 70 hours.

Both watches are housed in Oystersteel 40-millimeter Oyster cases, waterproof to 100 meters (about 300 feet), and presented on Rolex’s iconic Oyster bracelet featuring the Easylink comfort system that allows the wearer to add 5 millimeters to the bracelet length for an optimal fit.

The GMTMaster II and the Air-King begin at $10,550 and $7,400, respectively.

Opposite page, the Oyster Perpetual GMT-Master II, intended for jet-setters, displays two time zones simultaneously and is an heir to the original model that was unveiled in 1982. This year’s design features a black dial and a two-color rotatable Cerachrom bezel insert in green and black ceramic. This page, the new-generation Oyster Perpetual Air-King features a redesigned case with a crown guard and straight sides. It features 3, 6 and 9 numerals coated or filled with a luminescent material exclusive to Rolex. The Air-King lettering is the same as it was on the original model designed in the 1950s.