329. The Magnificent Rolex Explorer II

By muzill.mansor

My focus with Rolex Explorer I and Explorer II was more or less zoomed in after a few friends began inquiring about Rolex Explorer I.

Looking through the inventory, a unit of Explorer I and two units of Explorer II are available for retail. Hence the posting on @LT Watch Gallery a few days back. The responses on the postings especially on the Explorer I were exhilarating.

Thank you so much.

An excerpt on the Rolex Explorer II as extracted from http://www.secondtimeround.com was reproduced below for the benefit of Rolex explorers lovers and enthusiasts.

The History of Explorer II

Introduced in the early 1970's as model 1655, it is in essence a GMT Master with a fixed bezel. It has the same calibre movement as the GMT (1575) and has a forth hand which rotates once every 24 hours. This hand was read using the 24 hour engraved steel fixed bezel.

Rolex introduced the watch as an essential tool to all 'speleologists' (more commonly known as 'cave explorers' ).

Rolex also claimed that the speleologist "soon loses all notion of time: morning, afternoon day or night." For these intrepid souls Rolex developed the watch that could tell them whether the "2" on the dial was 2:00 a.m. or 2:00 p.m. (14:00). This may well be true, but there are other things with a higher demand than speleologists. The limited popularity that it had was because of people in the aviation field, air traffic controllers, etc.

In its life the watch for the first 3 years had an orange hand, and up until 1985 it had a red one. The 1655 Explorer II and the 1019 Milgauss are the only Rolex Models which use hands that are not used by any other model.

The Explorer II 1655 was not really popular until 1991, five years after it was re-launched with a sapphire glass and the same movement as the GMT Master II. This allowed the owner of the watch to set the hour hand backwards or forwards in one hour jumps without disturbing the second or minute hands. This facility allowed the owner to change time zones without losing a preset accurate time.

The Legacy of the Explorer is a long and interesting one and will just continue.