Time Zone to Time Zone: The Rolex GMT-Master II Exhibition

I very much doubt that I'll ever be able to afford a $2000 wristwatch, but when I saw the opportunity to book a ticket to a free exhibition about the Rolex GMT-Master II at Siam Paragon shopping mall, I did so out of curiosity. I was going to be in the neighborhood anyway and decided I'd go and check it out.

I checked in at the welcome counter a few minutes early and was seated in a very comfortable waiting room. Shortly, a concierge, for lack of a better word, greeted me and personally led me up the escalator to an upper floor of the mall which housed the exhibition. Even though it was a free event, it felt very exclusive and luxurious.

The exhibition was all about the Rolex GMT-Master II, a watch designed for pilots in the early days of commercial air travel and was the official watch of Pan Am's long-haul international pilots in the 1950s and 60s. What made the watch so special was that it was the first watch in the world to be able to keep track of two time zones independently. The watch featured a 24-hour bezel with a blue (nighttime) and red (daylight) half and an independent 24-hour hand calibrated to Greenwich Mean Time.

The watch has a really unique place in history and culture. Besides being a favorite amongst aviators and athletes, Marlon Brando wore one during the filming of Apocalypse Now, refusing to take it off even when Francis Ford Coppola insisted that a rogue colonel living in the jungle would not be wearing such an expensive watch. To compromise, Brando wore it upside-down with the face on his wrist to be less conspicuous when filming.

The watch has also been to space. Jack Swigert wore one on the infamous Apollo 13 mission and credited it as his good luck charm after safely arriving back on Earth.

The exhibition detailed the incredible attention to detail and decades of engineering that went into designing this watch. It was followed up by a 5-minute mini documentary about the GMT-Master's history and development.

I'll never own a Rolex. I can say that pretty safely. But I cannot deny how amazing the story of the watch and its craftsmanship is. Even though I don't have any particular interest in collecting watches, it was still really interesting to spend a half hour learning something new.