We fawn over a lot of watches here at analog/shift. If you have been by our offices, you know that we aren't parsimonious with the love for any vintage piece - everything we have in our collection is something that we would wear ourselves.
But aside from the Swiss and our mothers, people take sides, people have favorites. While there is a vast array of watches that would be worthy of our love, there is one that stands apart from the rest. The 1675 is easily our go-to piece, a watch that fits our daily life perfectly, no matter where we are in the world.
Not least important is the GMT Master's wrist feel. With the classic oyster case that weighs in a few millimeters thinner than the Submariner, the GMT wears excellently, sliding under the cuff of a shirt and jacket easily. Off duty, the GMT is the perfect side kick. Its iconic look oozes class and sophistication. When the cards are down, there's no better option for a daily wear watch.
This particular 1675 GMT Master has a 2.9 million serial, dating it to circa 1970. The original bezel has an incredible fade, the tradition 'Pepsi' coloring showing as a light sky blue and pinkish red. With a very honest case and a Ref. 7836 bracelet, this piece is the perfect wrist-ready piece for any savvy collector.
History
As the legend goes, Pan-Am approached Rolex in 1953 looking for a watch specially designed for their pilots, and a partnership was quickly formed. A Submariner became the base for this new watch, and several important modifications were made to turn a Sub into the GMT-Master that we know today. Rolex added a date function with a cyclops lens magnifier, GMT complication, and two-colored bezel to provide long-haul pilots with the info they needed as they circumnavigated the globe.
The GMT-Master’s 24-hour hand works in conjunction with the rotating bezel to make tracking a second time zone incredibly simple. When the bezel’s triangle is aligned to 12 o’clock, the red arrow hand points to the time on a 24-hour military scale, which in itself is valuable as a day/night indicator (at least if you’re a cave explorer). The usefulness of the complication really shines when the wearer rotates the bezel so that the numbers around the bezel correspond the a 2nd time zone (such as Greenwich Mean Time), allowing the watch to track any two time zones in the world at once.
Five decades later, the GMT-Master and its “Pepsi” bezel has become a true icon of the watch world. Instantly recognizable and eternally stylish, the watch represents vintage Rolex at its best.
