The enduring legacy of Rolex’s 70-year-old GMT-Master: it revolutionised time zone tracking, and brands like Tudor and Panerai are adding extra complications with GMTs to appeal to collectors

Visitors to West Kowloon Cultural District’s Freespace in Hong Kong between May 26 and June 8 can catch an exhibition on one of Rolex’s most important models: the GMT-Master. The watch celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, an occasion that marks one of watchmaking’s most elegant answers to the problem of tracking multiple time zones. The watch and its namesake GMT complication gain their name from the addition of an extra watch hand that tracks time on a 24-hour index. The GMT hand can be set to one’s home time zone, or to Greenwich Mean Time – also referred to as UTC or Zulu Time. The Longines Zulu Time from the 1920s also allowed for multiple time zones, but the 24-hour index of these watches was located within the minute track rather than on a rotating outer bezel. The GMT complication was mainly seen on pilot’s wrists in the mid-20th century – indeed, Rolex developed the GMT-Master together with the historic airline Pan American Airways. Today however, anyone who travels frequently might consider getting one. “Nowadays, we are travelling on planes more than ever,” says Helbert Tsang, co-founder of watch community The Horology Club, “and the GMT-Master still looks pretty much as it did when it was first launched in the 50s. What has changed since then is the reason people buy and wear watches. What used to be an essential tool (for fliers) is now a luxury item or a status symbol. People working in front of a screen all day may still imagine themselves as a globetrotter or a commercial pilot landing at different destinations every day, and a GMT watch is the perfect prop for them to live out that fantasy.” The GMT complication’s history, combined with its surprisingly modern utility, has led to its consistent popularity. Unlike dive watches or chronographs – the functions of which have since been supplanted by computers – wearing a GMT watch means one can still use the complication to track time for loved ones in a different part of the world, or to recall important international meetings at a glance. Luxury brands now put design at the forefront of GMT watches to appeal to collectors. At Watches and Wonders in Geneva this year, manufacturers made their own efforts to show multiple time zones elegantly. Rolex interpreted their modern GMT-Master II with green Cerachrom and tiger iron dials. Panerai, Armin Strom and Parmigiani Fleurier chose to add additional complications with GMTs (respectively, perpetual calendar, simultaneous dual time display and rattrapante). Tag Heuer, known for its racing chronographs and divers, added a Twin-Time model, which tracks the second time zone along a two-coloured internal 24-hour index, to its Carrera pieces. Nomos Glashütte developed a new automatic movement and introduced a world time complication to their Club collection.• At last year’s fair, Tudor’s Black Bay 58 GMT made waves with its vintage flair and for adding the complication to a fan-favourite size of the brand’s iconic watch. GMTs are also one of the most successful complications at the entry-level end of watchmaking too. The complication is easy for brands to produce since only the extra 24-hour hand and index ring – usually as a rotating bezel on the outside – are required on top of the time-only components of a standard movement. Now – thanks to the release of the Miyota 9075 and Seiko NH34 third-party movements – watchmakers can afford to add the lustre of a GMT complication to watches under US$1,000, such as the Bulova Wilton or any number of recent Seiko 5 Sports field- or dive-style models. Independent microbrands such as Traska and Nodus are even able to pair the movement with a steel hardening treatment or with other materials like titanium, offering the complication for an incredible price. Tsang acquired a vintage Rolex GMT-Master 1675, which became a daily wear in the early years of his collecting journey. He was drawn to the red-blue 24-hour bezel, which he finds similar to Rolex’s dive watch design language for models like the Submariner. “For the frequent flier arriving at a new location, they simply need to give the bezel a quick turn and they’ll instantly be able to see the local time and home time,” he says. “All in all, I believe one should not overlook how much simplicity is contributing to the popularity of this type of GMT watch. “While there are other variations of the GMT complication out there – the ‘world timer’ [displaying numerous time zones] can be viewed as another type of GMT – not many other brands have managed to create something that is as likeable and iconic as the Rolex GMT-Master,” Tsang concludes.