It is said that a modern Rolex design does not leave the factory unless, amongst other things, the new design is unmistakably a Rolex and can be spotted as being a Rolex from a distance.
Fact or fiction, hard to argue that this is indeed not a characteristic of all modern Rolex watches. Heck, I will spot a Daytona Panda from across the football field for some inexplicable reason.
Not so long ago, there was a false Rumour floating around that the Batman would be discontinued. I mean the Rolex kind, not the Ben Affleck kind. And as per usual, the collective watch community was suffering a massive amount of FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out), much to the ‘watch flippers’ delight who instantly raised prices to ridiculous levels. I covered the fact at the time (read it here), and was absolutely not convinced the design would go away so quickly. Instead I mentioned there would be some production rationalisation happening with the introduction of the latest calibre in the Bat, the same as for the other steel GMT, the Pepsi.
My calculated guess concerning the calibre was correct, they upgraded the model with the Calibre 3285 – and of course there was a twist to the story: The introduction of the Jubilee bracelet.
As of this Baselworld, Rolex made it very simple for us all to buy and spot the GMT line-up from a distance by introducing the updated Rolex GMT Batman BLNR (see our release coverage here). Going forward, should you spot a GMT in the wild – not a a retailer of course since the beyond ridiculous inventory issues are still there – you will know in a heartbeat what you are dealing with. You can not only spot that it is a Rolex from a good distance, you can also instantly tell which metal it is made from, how clever.
If you want a steel GMT, fine, it only comes on a Jubilee bracelet. You want to bling out a bit more and go for Gold instead? Fine, it only comes on an Oyster bracelet.
So there you have it, no mistaking your flex going forward, be it steel or gold. Do the test, can you spot the difference between the two below? Not that hard eh?
Jubilee equals steel, Oyster equals gold. Plain and simple, very much the Rolex way.