The Rolex GMT-Master: The Most Iconic Traveller's Watch | Reference Points

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In this installment of Reference Points, HODINKEE's Jon Bues sits down with Eric Wind of Wind Vintage.

The GMT-Master didn't come from a blank slate. We can trace its roots back to other classic Rolex sport watches, perhaps starting with the Rolex Zerographe reference 3346 circa 1937 with a rotating bezel, but continuing to the Submariner and Turn-O-Graph models that Rolex introduced in 1953. These watches featured rotating aluminum bezels for timing elapsed minutes and they served as the platform upon which Rolex was to develop the first GMT-Master. To this day, if you think of a watch made for tracking time in more places than one, there is very good chance that the blue-and-red bezeled Rolex GMT-Master, graduated for 24 hours, is the image that appears in your mind's eye. What started as a purpose-built tool for pilots has transcended that role to become a totem of a cosmopolitan, urbane, and well-traveled life. As such, it's been worn not just by pilots and navigators, but by famous actors, entertainers, artists, thinkers and musicians – the people whose personalities and style influence us on a daily basis. The watch collecting community continues to show great interest in the GMT-Master's vintage references. And the current collection of GMT-Master IIs accounts for several of the most sought-after watches at retail. The Rolex GMT-Master is, in all its many forms, quite simply the most famous travel watch the world has ever seen.