I’ll take blue.
Got this last week. I’ve had my eye on this model for a couple of years and my AD gave me a good discount.
I’ll take blue.
Nice, I’ve always wanted a SMP.
I’m glad that you explained that these are lights reflected in the crystal. When I first saw the photo, I was asking myself how anyone could tell the time.
Hi Graham, it was my attempt at a random creative moment.
This piece is highly legible with the broad sword hands and tritium indices.
James
Had some Nite watches with the tritium, much, much better than Superluminova , Ball are (I think) the only premium company that uses it.
They didn’t hold back with the colours, did they?
My Rolex Milgauss (in its ‘dark mode’) looks quite restrained by comparison.
I’ve had the watch for about 10 years from new, and the luminous stuff is not very clear in the dark any more. Does anyone happen to know if Rolex renew that on a routine service (which is well overdue now)?
With Omega servicing they replace the hands but the markings on the face are unchanged but the markings are visible. I just checked and the markings from 7 to 11 are very faint - my sleeve has been covering the left hand side of my watch!
Ball do a great job with tritium and I think they’re great value… especially the pre 2019 pieces.
Hey Graham,
I doubt we’ll see anything that colourful from Rolex however, I think that’s a good thing - I don’t think we need them standing out any more than they already do!
I’ve seen comments in forums that Rolex sometimes replace the dial when the lume becomes dull… if it were me I’d keep the watch all original.
James
Anyone else noticed that the nato strap on the Rolex Sub. In Goldfinger isn’t the correct width. Dear oh dear!
Yes, I think that you’re right. I just got used to the glowing white and orange colours in the dark, after I gifted my previous Rolex Explorer to my son as a twenty-first birthday present some years ago,
I have only had those two watches in the whole of my adult life, and you (or, at least, I) become very attached to them. (A bit like my Naim kit and my La Pavoni espresso machine, which I shall also never part with.)
Bloody awful!
I do love an older Rolex GMT, especially as the bezel fades and the dial browns slightly.
As a boy I used to have to fly regularly back and forth between the US and the UK and I always flew Pan Am. Back in the those days, flying as an unaccompanied minor meant going with the Stewardesses into the lounges and going with them through staff security, where spotting and sometimes even meeting the dashing and heroic looking pilots was always exciting. Of course, getting to spend some time in the cockpit on a visit (or sometimes two!) was obligatory in the '70s and thanks to the colourful red and blue bezels, I noticed that the pilots all seemed to wear Rolex GMTs. For a while, all I wanted in life was to be a pilot just like them with a Rolex GMT on my wrist…
That’s a great story Richard. The GMT Master was developed specifically for PanAm pilots and navigators back in the day and it’s been going ever since.
I bought mine in Hong Kong 42 years ago for a professional reason - I was a Navigating Officer in the Merchant Navy and needed a chronometer watch to give me the accurate time when taking celestial sights with a sextant to determine latitude and longitude at sea. It’s served me very well. It cost me the equivalent of £375 all those years ago!!! The patina and fading of the bezel as well as all original parts with nothing replaced makes it a very desirable watch for collectors these days.
I think yours looks fabulous - just how I would want it. It takes me back to those exciting days of flying as a boy. Buying one now though is way beyond me financially, alas.