The Early GMT Master

[Tribal]

eThe early Rolex GMT-Master

Rene-Paul Jeanneret was one of the most important executives at Rolex Geneva in the company's most fruitful period, the 1950s and 60s. His official title was that of Public Relations Director; but he was so much more than that, he involved himself in many aspects of the company's activities including inventing watches; although his name appears on none of the Rolex patents from that period. An active sportsman in many fields including skiing and the newly introduced skin diving; in the early 1950s he came up with the concept of "tool" watches. This was the idea of a watch specifically designed for practitioners of an individual sport or activity. The results of this concept appeared on the Rolex stand at the 1954 Basle Watch Fair in three forms; the Explorer for sportsmen, the Submariner for divers and the Turn-O-Graph for businessmen. The watches all proved to be great successes and so it was no surprise when the world's largest airline Pan-Am wanted a watch that would enable their pilots to keep track of time in two locations; it was to Jeanneret that they turned.

Working in conjunction with Pan-Am.'s Captain Frederick Libby (a decorated World War II veteran and one of the airlines most respected navigators), Jeanneret came up with the idea of a watch with an additional hour hand revolving just once every 24 hours and a rotatable bezel marked with those same 24 hours. The watch itself was a typical Rolex product, it was simply a regular 6202 "Turn-O-Graph" with a different bezel and the 1030 movement normally fitted to Turn-O-Graphs had an additional 24 hour driving wheel and a calendar disk; this, and the fact that the movement was now chronometer certified, allowed Rolex to give the movement a new reference number, 1065. The external look of the watch was very similar to the contemporary Turn-O-Graph and Submariner; it was still quite a slim watch and without the crown protecting "shoulders", looked considerably smaller than the current model:

GMT Master ref.6542 with original plastic insert (photo: OreDelMondo)

The GMT Master was also important in that it was one of the first Rolex model to feature the new "Cyclops" lens from the introduction of the watch as an optional feature.

These first GMT models (ref. 6542) are immediately recognised by the bright plastic bezel insert. This plastic bezel insert was the first item to be changed in 1956, giving way to a metal insert with the numbers now screen-printed. These new bezels were less likely to crack than the earlier plastic ones but were much more likely to fade in bright sunlight. It was always assumed that the reason Rolex quit using plastic bezel inserts on the 6542 GMT Master was due to their inherent fragility. However, recently discovered documents finally tell the REAL story and also go a long way to explaining why the early ones HAD plastic inserts, then metal inserts were used for around a 1 year period but the late 6542 watches had plastic ones: the original plastic bezel inserts were luminous and it seems that the tritium used to paint them had somehow become contaminated with Strontium 90. So the metal inserts were only fitted during the period when Rolex had to fix the radioactive contamination issue. Once the problem was solved, Rolex deliverd the documents shown below with every watch:

Boxcard and sticker stating that the watch bezels were now radiation-safe

Due to Pan-Am.'s ever increasing fleet of Boeing 707s the vast majority of the early watches produced went to the company, each plane had a Pilot, a First Officer and a Navigator all of whom were issued with GMT Masters and Pan-Am had several hundred crews all issued with a company GMT Master.

These watches bore no company logo; no "Property of" markings and no special dials, apart from one strange bunch of 100+ watches made in 1958 especially to solve a problem inside the airline's Chrysler Building head office (they did not move to the new Pan-Am building until the early 1960s). The problem was simply that as the watches arrived in the head office before being sent off to the field offices for issue to the flight crew, they would be requisitioned by senior management who felt that they, rather than the flight crews, were the ones who deserved a new company Rolex. This happened on a regular basis until one day Juan Trippe, the mercurial head of Pan-Am glimpsed one of the watches on the wrist of an executive and wanted to know why it was not on the wrist of a pilot. The situation was explained to him; the pilots had everything, the gold braid, the titles, and the brand new Boeing jets and now they even got great watches. The executives felt shunned, they saw themselves as the basis of the company's success but were fed up of being treated as second class citizens. Trippe did not like the situation and ordered that all the GMT Masters in the building should be returned to the operation department for subsequent issue to flight crews. However to mollify the executives Trippe had Rolex manufacture a batch of 100+ GMT Masters solely for the "desk pilots"; these differed from the flight crew (and all other) GMT Masters in that they had white dials.

White dialed GMT Master

They are believed to be the only GMTs made with this colour dial, the order proved a godsend to Rolex as they made these watches in 1959 with the last of the old model 6542 cases; for the new model was waiting in the wings...

... found on the Net

[Stephane]

Very interrestin story that you share here Tribal.

And what a weird watch it is with a white dial

[dluddy]

Very educational Tribal.

Thank you for taking the time to post the history of this most desired GMT model

[FxrAndy]

So if any one has a weird white dial rolex gmt in the draw now you know, and if i were you i would get it in the bank.

Thanks tribal.

[Nanuq]

Magnificent writeup, and a magnificent watch ... One of my absolute favorites. Here's one from 1964.

[freddy333]

Nanuq - You may or may not want me to repeat myself, but that is a beautiful watch. I love By-Tor's II, but there is a purity & simplicity to a 50s/60s vintage Rolex 'tool' that their modern counterparts lack.

[fakemaster]

Fifty Fathoms has a bunch of cool articles about Breguet and Blancpain along with this one.

www.fiftyfathoms.net

[Tribal]

Fifty Fathoms has a bunch of cool articles about Breguet and Blancpain along with this one.

www.fiftyfathoms.net

Yes there I found the article

[jjfesq]

THANKS FOR THE INFO

[StormTooper4]

Great find and a nice share

Damn those planes , that must of been scary to fly the atlantic in on of those Propeller numbers

ST4

[Nanuq]

Boy I don't know about you guys but I'd give TwoTone's left nut for a clean 6542. It might even be THE perfect Rolex, better than the thin case Subs.

[marcl]

Is there a good rep of this GMT or similar pepsi coloured watches? As i would love one but i am so confused with all the reviews, some good some bad. Saying that the movement can't handle the extra hand and keeps breaking.

I too confused to even attempt to buy one.

Also can you get the jubilee bracelet? I have seen one (rep of course) it looks good but has a concealed clasp (just a rolex sign) . Not as the pic above shows.

Such a beautiful watch!

Great bit of info Tribal. Good find!

kind regards. Marc.

[freddy333]

Boy I don't know about you guys but I'd give TwoTone's left nut for a clean 6542. It might even be THE perfect Rolex, better than the thin case Subs.

How clean is TwoTone's left nut?

[lanikai]

Thanks so much tribal !!!.. I love the "history" of items and places as it relates to my interests ... gives a whole picture of the "why's" of tradition .. I am constantly drawn much more to history as a way of understanding the present state of these timepieces... I actually enjoy your history lesson more than I would a review of a modern timepiece

L