Rolex Explorer Take II

Ross Povey examines The Rolex Explorer II.

There are members of the Rolex sports watch family that are less rock star-esque than others. The Sub and GMT-Masters could be the GnR and Stones of the catalogue, while other models are more Grateful Dead; say the Explorer II.

The Dead are no less epic than Axl and Slash and yet they maybe don’t have the mainstream appeal. But like Grateful Dead fans, the Explorer II devotees really love this watch. Like, REALLY love this watch!

Like other esoteric members of the Rolex sports line, the Milgauss (Zappa) and the Turn-O-Graph (Bon Jovi – been around for decades and everybody has seen them at least once), the Explorer 2 received a muted reception when launched in 1971.

One of the reasons it was slow to sell was the fact that it had a 24-hour hand and a 24-hour bezel…but the bezel was fixed and so it wasn’t technically a GMT function, as one couldn’t monitor two time zones.

But it was a tool watch and to understand the watch we need to go deep; deep underground and into the earth’s hidden cervices, like true speleologists…

    Published

    June 2020

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