The Rolex GMT You CAN Actually Buy! The Explorer II

hello and welcome to just one more watch if this is your first time here a special welcome to you my name is Judy and I love watches if you also love watches you should probably subscribe to the channel by hitting the big subscribe button now if you see a Rolex on the thumbnail on just one more watch that can only mean one thing my mysterious friend mr. X has been shopping again not only did he pick up our brand new Rolex Explorer 2 with the polar dial which I'm going to show you today he also picked up the unobtainable Pepsi bezel GMT master 2 on the Jubilee his collection is outrageous if you'd like to see it you can follow him on instagram at the real mr. x sydney he's becoming a little bit instafamous and i think he quite enjoys it now the two of us have been talking about getting him on the channel and I was proposing to do mr. X state of the collection video leave me a comment if you'd like to see that one and I'll make it happen at some point over the next month or so but today let's get on with the matter at hand and that is peeling the stickers off of his brand new polar dial Explorer 2 let's flip the camera and get on with it so I've got a full unboxing for you today including peeling as many of the stickers off as is possible to escape from the clutches of our Rolex dealer with them still attached to the watch but while I get into the box I thought I would go through a little bit of history of the Explorer 2 as a model now this one started as a genuine to watch as a lot of these rule X's did I guess a genuine to watch for people who had a few dollars in their pocket even back in 1971 when this one was launched and it was launched believe it or not for spelunkers yes that's right cavers those maniacs who like to spend their weekends squeezing through tiny damp cracks in rocks well underneath the earth in total darkness I honestly cannot of anything I would rather do less with my weekends than that but there you go now originally it didn't have a GMT function at the fourth hand that you can see there in orange was a 24-hour indicator so that if you were in a cave for so long that you lost track of whether it was 12 midday or 12 midnight your watch would be able to give you a clue then it gradually evolved over the years and the GMT function was added in 1985 there was a long-running version 40 millimeter diameter that ran from 89 to 2011 that's the one that seems to be a little bit hot right now Jory from the time Taylor and Eric from watch addiction they both got these in their personal collection the 40 mil Explorer is getting a bit of press at the moment this one the reference number to one at six five seven zero was introduced in 2011 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the model and be pumped up the size as rule X have done on a few different morals there they pumped up the logs on the Submariner and they pumped up the size on this one to a full fat 42 mil well you've seen the outer and inner box that's pretty much it warranty card instruction manual they're ubiquitous little green hang tag second hang tag with references and spare links now fortunately mr. X and I have quite similar wrist sizes so if he sizes a watch out for himself I can wear it lucky me and there is the rather gorgeous white dial the polar dialed Rolex Explorer 2 so what I'm gonna do I'm gonna peel off the stickers first so that we can share their mutual satisfaction of seeing that then I'll go through dimensions and specifications I'm gonna pop this one on the time graph er today I will get it on wrist inside shots outside shots luma shot the lot so let's begin the peel and reveal then obviously the dial protectors gone but there's still plenty of other stickers for me to get into now this one is for mr. X's personal collection I think like so many Rolex aficionado you know the rumors go around that they're gonna delete a model and there were rumors that this one was going to be discontinued and if you see what it's done to prices of the the Batman on the oyster mr. X jumped on one of these before that happened it didn't happen at this Baselworld but who knows what they'll do next year look at that beautiful no it's a fixed bezel doesn't rotate the GMT hand rotates once every 24 hours as I will show you later on and I must admit I did actually read the instructions on this one let's peel off this side stickers there doesn't that look fantastic 904 ail moister steel so this is relaxants own proprietary steel they do not use three one six out like the rest of the commoners 904 is a little bit softer so it will scratch and scuff more easily but it is also able to be polished easier so it'll Nick and cut but you'll be able to polish the Nicks and cuts I would have very easier than you would if it was three one six L now this one comes on the oyster bracelet and I'm allowed to call it an oyster bracelet I wouldn't be getting a letter in the mail from Rolex for using their trademark because of course we are talking about our rulings here a few more stickers there and it features the oyster clasp now this is a really interesting clasp it has got a five mil can a flip-flop adjustment there so no quite the glenn block that you get on the Submariner but you can see I've got a choice of two different positions so if your wrist expands over the course of the day you can just pop it to the the outer of the two positions it's a very very nice bracelet indeed as a result of that little added feature get a few more stickers to go here on the clasp always very satisfying peeling these off especially if it's someone else's watch and especially if it's a Rolex well there we are I hope you enjoyed that half as much as I did I left him a couple of stickers I left the case back sticker and a few of the little internal stickers on the clasp just in case he wants to enjoy that himself he did pay for it after all and how much did he pay well the Rolex say only gives me access to Australian prices ten thousand eight hundred odd dollars for this one that comes in about seven and a half thousand US just under six thousand British pounds I think I'm not quite sure what your local prices will be but that's my local price and that's kind of close to what mr. EXPEED you don't get too many discounts on steel sports Rolexes do you so 42 millimeters in diameter as noted they did pump up the size in 2011 twelve and a half mil thick now luck tip to luck tip of about forty nine millimeters but it's got that protruding middling so it does wear quite big that gives it an effective log to log of about fifty three and a half so it's a fairly chunky watch 20 mil log width in spite of that diameter which i think is a good choice now it does taper down quite drastically to about fifteen and a half back up to just under 18 mil for the oyster clasp as discussed sized up for mr. X slash me one link missing weighing in at a hundred and fifty five grams so perfectly in the middle of that all stainless steel sports watch sweet spot so let's get a good look at this polar dial the white dial version it really is stunningly crisp clean well-executed and super super legible love the way that they have coated the the black ring around the indices bold black hands there as well really make them stand out in the dial so we've got three lines of Tanks before the Rolex crown then Rolex Oyster Perpetual date and explorer 2 in orange matching the orange GMT hand now that hand has always been orange or Randa second inaudbile original ones in the 1970s I believe they painted a number of them red at some point but they faded with time to orange so it's kind of referencing that two lines underneath the spindle in the center superlative chronometer officially certified and of course Swiss made either side of the baton there at the six layout kind similar to the Submariner in some ways you've got the big battens at 6 & 9 you've got the triangle at 12 and you've got circular indices everywhere else now just under 11 grand I suppose you could see that this is a kind of value offering from Rolex in terms of the complications you don't get a lot for your money with rollers do you so having a four hand our GMT function plus a date for under 11 grand or Z is not a bad do you really when you look at some of their prices now perhaps someone can confirm whether the hands and indices are made of quite gold as usual they tend to use white gold rather than steel so that they don't tarnish with time perhaps the white gold but then they're coated with this black to make them stand out let's have a look at the GMT movement then this is the caliber three one eight seven closely related to the caliber three one eight six oddly enough that currently sits in the GMT master twos I believe it's just a little bit larger because it can be it's got two extra mil off case to play with roughly a forty eight-hour power reserve we've obviously got our instant date when it flicks over at the twelve the date changes bi-directional winding rotor and the usual rule ex goodies it's got the para chrome hair spring and the para flex shock absorption system 31 jul 28 sweep of the second hand now Rolex certify all of their watches to cost parameters however they also state that every Rolex is cased at plus or minus two so the movement is running after they install it into the case at plus or minus two our pot this one of the time graphic in just a minute I'm slightly too excited I'm more excited than I should be about getting this one on the ten Grapher but let's have a look at what the crown does so one position we've got crown guards can add into that can a truly luke and versatility crown gas put it in the crown there it is a screw down crown double lock system only one hundred meters of water resistance there we are rather pronounced if slightly delayed pop there you can hand wined it a bit of a clicky winder on here you can if I shut up long enough you can perhaps here at winding sort one pot to Han waned now the second pop adjusts the local time if you will so that the local time and your second time zone is adjusted by the GMT so what I'm gonna do I'm going to adjust it to GMT and local Australia time right now so to do that I'm gonna pull out the crown to position number three another rather pronounced pop their position number three adjusts the minute of the home time and it also adjusts the GMT hand simultaneously so it is currently 11 at 44 in Australia and we are nine hours ahead of GMT so it is 2 a.m. in the UK I'll set it to London time so I will spin the hand around will set the GMT hand first getting that to 244 a.m. on the outer bezel so there is the 2 and we'll adjust the minute hand to the 44 there we go and I will pop the crown in one more position and adjust it to 11 a.m. here we go so 11 44 with the correct GMT time and I will no screw down the crown and with an accuracy of plus or minus two seconds at a you're not gonna be unscrewing the crown you're they're gonna be adjusting this one all that often let's get it on the time graph for then shall we okay so there we go that is the watch in the time graph as you can see there I've covered up the little metal bit with some packaging tape and I don't mind scratch my own watches but I'm not gonna scratch mr. X's brand-new Rolex a my left angle 52 degrees which I believe is correct for the 3187 movement and if I shut up long enough to press the start button let's see what this one does plus one second per day not bad at all now this is in the the fairly basic position dial-up let me just change that around a little bit I suspect it's not going to make a damn bit of difference to the accuracy of this watch change a position zero seconds per day variance change a position zero seconds per day variance you get the idea I'm sure that's where some of your nearly 11,000 Australian dollar goes on a movement that is as accurate as this one regardless of what you do with it keeps finishing finishing on the bracelet is immaculate as you'd expect just love their kind of really or brushing on the bezel it just looks perfect doesn't it really really beautiful high polished sides little crown guards has noted though I am a little surprised that the rule eight crown points downwards so the crown on the crown points down instead of up I fretted this a bunch of time so it's not a kind of 50/50 thing I'll leave it mr. X to take that up with his Rolex dealer if he's bothered about it bracelet is gorgeous very very consistent brushing on their nice little Rolex crown again on the clasp high polish size just a beautiful watch overall now stare our case back as is the way of Rolexes they don't tend to over brand the back of these things solid end links as if it needed to be said on the bracelet quite a flat case profile from the side very similar to the Submariner similar case shape overall just a little bit of downward curvature to those lugs not much protrusion the watch sits nicely can a mid case the middle line there there's as much above the midline as there is below you see when I get it on wrist later on it wears quite well in spite of the lack of curvature and then there's the loom if you're a regular on the channel you know I've got a bit of a loom fetish Rolexes chroma light is the best in the business same blue shoe as super-luminova be gw9 but it allegedly lasts twice as long Who am I to argue fantastic loom application on the indices and the hands of this one very very impressive indeed but how does it wear well they always sitting on top of my seven inch wrist and of course it looks magnificent 150 grams is a great weight I think for no stainless steel sports wash there's a reason that so many of them fit into that 145 to 160 can a bracket in terms of the weight looks great on wrists as well but it's a big point has discussed 50ml lock tip to lock tip 54 if you include that protruding mid link not a huge amount of curvature to the lugs on the case so it does where I think like a bigger watch than that 42 mil diameter would suggest I mean obviously it was a conscious decision by Rolex in 2011 to increase the size of them perhaps that's when the big watch face was in full effect maybe we're seeing the end of the big watch face and Rolex will shrink this one back to 40 mil as it stands though it is super legible love those black ring indices and the very very pronounced and prominent black hands against that pull of white dial just gorgeous and outside in natural light it doesn't get any less legible sapphire crystal Rolex don't tend to use AR coatings on their sapphires it's not a problem in this case again because it's quite a big dial and because of the prominent black hands and indices against that stark white There is obviously a black dial variant perhaps mr. X will buy that one later on this year who knows he can complete the full set of GMT Rolex offerings but for now he stuck with a white one so the Rolex Explorer 2 then the GMT Rolex that you've actually got a snowball's chance in hell of buying from your dealer you've pretty much got no chance of the new Batman or the Jubilee unless you're prepared for a long wait but should you be interested in buying one of these am i interested in buying one of these explorers well do you know what if it was 40 mil I would be seriously tempted I can hardly call this a value proposition but you certainly get enough bells and whistles for your 11 grand Ozzie that you don't normally get on other Rolex models but 42 male I think is just a bit too big for my personal taste and that rather long lock tip to log tip means it wears like an even bigger watch than 42 42 tapering down all the way to 15 and a half that is a hell of a taper actually it looks a little bit disproportionate when you look at it in those terms I did suggest that mr. X is 2017 model sea-dweller suffered from the same problem it felt a little bit over balanced because of the discrepancy between the diameter and the weight of the head of the watch and this very narrow taper bracelet this one doesn't feel unbalanced but it just looks a little unbalanced in my eyes good done with maybe 20 down to 18 and 20 again at the clasp I think you would have it would have suited the overall proportions of the watch so whew looks like I've dodged another bullet then my bank account is safe for another month I won't be rushing out to my ad and placing an order for the Explorer to anytime soon but I might ask mr. X for the occasional bottle of this one so there you have it another outrageous Rolex from mr. X's outrageous collection of relaxers and it's another watch that you could happily live with for 10 20 30 years they would be bidding you with the Rolex Explorer 2 on your wrist it really is a super versatile legible all-round do everything go anywhere watch and so it should be given the price tag that they're charging for it I must admit to feeling a little bit of relief I'm always relieved when I borrow a Rolex from mr. eggs and don't fall instantly in love with it same quandary as I had with the Submariner to be honest this 142 mil wears big for a 42 as well just too big for me and for my personal tastes and if I wanted to go for the older 40ml one you're looking at at least an eight year old watch that doesn't have the chroma light doesn't have the latest movement doesn't have the oyster clasp doesn't have a lot of the technology that makes this one of what it is so what a relief then I do half this thump up $11,000 on one of these until next time thanks for watching see you in the next one you

Channel: Just One More Watch

Views: 90,222

Rating: 4.8963833 out of 5

Keywords: rolex 216570, rolex explorer, rolex explorer ii, rolex review, rolex polar explorer, just one more watch, just one more watch rolex

Id: dvTbeiOineM

Length: 20min 15sec (1215 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2019