.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Accompanied by a Rolex Warranty, presentation box and tie tag.
Due to the extraordinary success of the Rolex Sports models in the 1950s, it came as no surprise when the world's largest airline Pan Am commissioned a specially designed watch allowing their pilots to keep track of time in two locations.
With the beginning of jet transatlantic flights in 1956, travellers appreciated the fact that the journey times were reduced from 13 hours to 7 but suffered from new phenomena, jet lag. Worried about the possible effects on their pilots, and after research, Pan Am management advised them to keep on "home" time while away from base. As at the same time they needed to know the local time, a joint Pan Am and Rolex task force was assigned. The team devised a watch with an additional hour hand, which revolved once every 24 hours, and a rotating bezel marked with those same 24 hours. The model was named "G.M.T.-Master" after the world's standard time, the Greenwich Mean Time.
The first GMT model, Reference 6542, was launched in 1954 and was immediately recognizable by the bright acrylic or bakelite bezel insert with the twenty-four hour markings printed on its underside.
The Reference 16750 followed the 1675, introducing the quickset feature.
Reference 16750 is illustrated in 100 Years of Rolex by F. & G. Mondani, 2008, pgs. 174-175.
Due to the extraordinary success of the Rolex Sports models in the 1950s, it came as no surprise when the world's largest airline Pan Am commissioned a specially designed watch allowing their pilots to keep track of time in two locations.
With the beginning of jet transatlantic flights in 1956, travellers appreciated the fact that the journey times were reduced from 13 hours to 7 but suffered from new phenomena, jet lag. Worried about the possible effects on their pilots, and after research, Pan Am management advised them to keep on "home" time while away from base. As at the same time they needed to know the local time, a joint Pan Am and Rolex task force was assigned. The team devised a watch with an additional hour hand, which revolved once every 24 hours, and a rotating bezel marked with those same 24 hours. The model was named "G.M.T.-Master" after the world's standard time, the Greenwich Mean Time.
The first GMT model, Reference 6542, was launched in 1954 and was immediately recognizable by the bright acrylic or bakelite bezel insert with the twenty-four hour markings printed on its underside.
The Reference 16750 followed the 1675, introducing the quickset feature.
Reference 16750 is illustrated in 100 Years of Rolex by F. & G. Mondani, 2008, pgs. 174-175.