Welcome to our series highlighting the exceptional watches available through PERPETUAL, Phillips’ boutique service offering immediate access to the world’s rarest and most desirable timepieces. You can view all currently available watches by stopping in at our London headquarters at 30 Berkeley Square, or by visiting Phillips PERPETUAL online. Our new "Buy Now" button makes acquiring the watch of your dreams easier than ever.
– By Logan Baker
Rolex very rarely makes any drastic changes. They prefer to approach things slowly but surely, testing out new materials and components gradually rather than making a hard commitment in any direction. Only after a few succesful years with any new product concept will we start to see it rolled out more monolithically across the brand's collections.
The present watch, newly available from Phillips PERPETUAL, is a remarkable example of a transitional GMT-Master II ref. 16710. It dates to the late 2000s – 2008, to be exact – and features an unusual combination of bezel material, dial printing, and movement.
This watch has what Rolex lovers have termed a "stick" dial. All that means is that the marker for two in "GMT Master II" that's present on the dial looks less like a proper, connected Roman numeral, like on all previous GMT-Masters, and more like a pair of parallel sticks. The bezel, meanwhile, is made of aluminum rather than ceramic. This generation of the "Pepsi" bezel ref. 16710 is the last to utilize aluminum before Rolex switched entirely over to ceramic for the GMT-Master by the end of the 2000s. The GMT-Master II was the first collection to receive a ceramic bezel, before the Submariner and the Daytona.
The specific movement inside is what makes this ref. 16710 even rarer than typical transitional "Stick"-dial ref. 16710s. It's the self-winding caliber 3186 outfitted with a Parachrom hairspring. The caliber 3186 was the last Rolex GMT movement based off the brand's long-running caliber 31xx movement platform. The movement first appeared inside the yellow gold GMT-Master II ref. 116718, released at Baselworld 2005. The movement was largely similar in function and form to its direct predecessor, the caliber 3185, but it came fully decked out with the addition of the new, blue Parachrom hairspring, allowing for greater resistance to shocks and temperature variations.
Parachrom actually dates a bit further back at Rolex than you might realize. It debuted in 2000, but it wasn't until 2005 that Rolex perfected the design. Post-2005 Parachrom has a bright blue color that's the result of a patented surface treatment process to reinforce long-term stability and precision. Rolex goes as far as to state that watches with the blue Parachrom hairspring remain up to 10 times more accurate when dealing with external shocks than watches with a traditional hairspring.
What makes the caliber 3186's presence unexpected in this ref. 16710 is that you typically only ever see the movement in Rolex's six digit GMT-Master II generation (ref. 11671x) – not inside a transitional five-digit model with the stick dial and aluminum bezel.
Rolex "officially" replaced the stainless steel ref. 16710 with the steel ref. 116710 in 2007 – but the papers for our watch clearly state a production year of 2008. It's not unbelievable that Rolex would choose to use up its remaining five-digit dial and bezel components while utilizing a six-digit movement inside. It's not out of the ordinary to find an all-original vintage Rolex with parts or components from different generations, but it is a little rarer to find a watch from the modern era with such a split.
Whoever the next owner of this watch is will not only receive a rather rare and largely unpretentious Rolex sport watch, they also get the joy of wearing a Rolex with a vintage/neo-vintage aesthetic but powered by one of Rolex's most modern movements. The watch is in excellent condition and is accompanied by its full suite of accessories, including International Guarantee, product literature, and box. It's priced at £19,500 and is available for immediate purchase from Phillips PERPETUAL.
Phillips PERPETUAL offers a boutique experience to clients for both the sale and purchase of fine and rare watches, in London’s Berkeley Square and the Gstaad Palace, in Switzerland.
About Logan Baker
Logan has spent the past decade reporting on every aspect of the watch business. He joined Phillips in Association with Bacs & Russo at the start of 2023 as the department's Senior Editorial Manager. He splits his time between New York and Geneva.
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