I honestly have not Valerio. And although the stick hands might seem
underwhelming I actually like them, and would think people who had the
watch would want to keep them just because of the rarity of the model.
I mean the Mercedes are great, but they are already on a ton of Rolex
watches. The stick actually add some vintage charm I think.

Really cool stuff sir, thanks a bunch for the lesson about this one !!!

 

I honestly have not Valerio. And although the stick hands might seem
underwhelming I actually like them, and would think people who had the
watch would want to keep them just because of the rarity of the model.
I mean the Mercedes are great, but they are already on a ton of Rolex
watches. The stick actually add some vintage charm I think.

Really cool stuff sir, thanks a bunch for the lesson about this one !!!

I just read this morning that Pan Am made a request to Rolex for a watch that would track different timezones, Rolex came up with the GMT and the GMT II.

 

So interesting, can you please show the whole ad?

 

 

So interesting, @vido74vido, thank you for that. Glad to see it, as I had the privilege to be a passenger on Concorde, around 2020. One of the best, if not the best, flights I have ever experienced!! Far better than first class on any other airline! The food was a several course gourmet dinner. The flight attendants were only the best, dressed in formal wear, etc. I could not believe how quiet and smooth the ride was at such great altitudes. We were able to actually see the curvature of the earth and actually witness 2 sunsets in the same evening! About a 3 hour trip where you actually arrived sooner than when we left! ZERO JET LAG! What a shame it had to end.

 

I've only come across a couple of these GMTs with stick hands, and it’s always a bit of a surprise. In both cases, the owners had swapped out the stick hands for the Mercedes ones but kept the originals. It’s such a unique piece, and it’s great to see someone holding onto those original hands.

 

Evidently the lessons of the first Explorer II did not help Rolex. Beyond the decidedly impactful "Freccione", already in 1971 Rolex realized that stick hands on their sports watch were not ideal and in fact on the next 16550 they switched to the Mercedes ones.

My goodness, this was really strange...i well remeber that people said: "it looks like a bad Citizen"