Surprised that these two have become my favorite Rolex references

[the dark knight]

When I first got into watches, it was all Sub and Daytona. Those 2 were my favorite models, nothing else really even on my radar. Even as recently as 2-3 years ago, I would have told you Sub, Daytona, and Explorer I was all I'd want.

Recently it's completely flipped, the Exp II and GMT Master II have become my favorites.

I think the simple explanation is as I've expanded my overall collection and tried out some different brands, I realized there are a lot of "alternatives" to some references that I like almost as much (if not more) than the Rolex. For example, though not necessarily the same "type" of watch, I like the Hamilton Khaki, IWC Pilot, even the JLC Polaris as Exp I alternatives.

Blancpain, Omega, Seiko, Doxa, even Tudor make loads of divers that I find just as cool as the Sub.

There's the Speedy Pro, Navitimer, Zenith EP, even vintage Seiko 6139s as really cool chronos to compete with the Daytona.

But strangely there are no GMTs I like even nearly as much as the Rolex. Not a huge fan of different types of dual time implementations, and watches with the similar type of mechanisms like an Omega or Grand Seiko all tend to be a bit too big/thick.

The Exp II doesn't seem to have much competition either. Grand Seiko released a couple that are similar but I don't like those nearly as much as the Exp II.

So I think that explains my 180 on how I feel about these references. Now I'm kind of tempted to add a Pepsi on jubilee and call it a day. 2 Exp IIs, 2 GMTs. But we'll see...

[Rollieo]

Nice post, definitely agreed. I’d say that a decent alternative for the ExpII is these two pieces, though definitely agreed on the thicker side where Rolex does it much better.

https://www.grand-seiko.com/us-en/collections/sbgm245g

[GrantD]

Good job you got the pair, these were a meh watch not so long ago but like the gmt in early 2000’s are on the way up imo.

[the dark knight]

Originally Posted by Rollieo

Nice post, definitely agreed. I’d say that a decent alternative for the ExpII is these two pieces, though definitely agreed on the thicker side where Rolex does it much better.

https://www.grand-seiko.com/us-en/collections/sbgm245g

I actually owned the automatic movement versions of this watch with the steel bezels, which probably approximate the Exp II even closer. Owned both the blue and green dials.

I think they are really good alternatives, esp at less than 1/2 the price.

[Harry-57]

I think the Explorer II is an underrated watch, although it's not underrated by me.

My collection is biased towards multi time zone watches and although there are many good and clever examples, the GMT Master has a special place.

[DAGMoney]

Agreed - I think both of those take a bit of time to grow on you.

I purchased an Explorer II in the secondary market in the early 2000's, but sold it after maybe two years. I've been missing it since, and have now been watching for the right polar 16570. That's my only watch mission in 2023. So far. Yeah, right....