Hands-On With The Rolex GMT-Master II Everose Reference 126715CHNR

I won’t lie to you, I love gold. Therefore, the new Rolex GMT-Master II Everose was a pleasant surprise for us. I will get back to the bi-color version later of course, but first let’s have a look at the Rolex GMT-Master II Everose reference 126715CHNR.

You know the watch for sure, the Rolex GMT-Master II with ceramic bezel. There was a yellow gold version already of this model, but now Rolex decided to bring the color of brown back to the watch. I released a very brief and silent sigh when I saw that they did not care to give it a brown dial (like it used to be with some of the vintage models), but upon further inspection the black dial isn’t bad. At all.

Rolex GMT-Master II Everose

We’ve talked about Everose before, Rolex’s answer to ensure that rose maintains its beautiful hue and won’t turn yellow-ish over time. This new GMT-Master II is made entriely of Everose gold and weighs a ton. But it’s a comfortable ton, we might add.

The dimensions and specifications of the Rolex GMT-Master II Everose are largely comparable with the Rolex GMT-Master II that we talked about here (new Pepsi). It’s a 40mm diameter watch with bi-directional bezel and the Rolex in-house developed caliber 3235 movement. The bracelet, in this case, is an Oyster bracelet with polished center link (like the one on all other GMT-Master II models except the new Pepsi) with Easylink system and fliplock Oysterclasp. There is little to tell that we haven’t already explained to be honest.

However, the use of Everose gold is new to this model (and the bi-color version) and this, in combination with the black and brown ceramic bezel, makes it a very special watch. Shouldn’t this be yellow gold with a brown dial (perhaps even with some nipple hour markers), I asked myself when looking at the displays of the Rolex booth. Once on the wrist though, I felt that the Rolex GMT-Master II Everose is really easy on the skin: less ‘hard’ than a yellow GMT-Master II would be. Because one of our guys has an earler model and for the sake of comparing, we put it next to the new Rolex GMT-Master II Everose.

New and Old

As you can see above, these watches are definitely related. Where the GMT-Master on the right (ref.16758) shows the old style case, in gold, and the brown dial with nipple hour markers, you almost think the new Rolex GMT-Master II Everose gold is much bigger. The lugs are beefier, but the diameter is exactly the same at 40mm. The brown color is different from the vintage GMT-Master, and has more a cappuccino color on the new reference 126715CHNR. The bezel with its two-colour brown and black Cerachrom insert in ceramic, engraved numerals and graduations, works like a charm. The current mechanism feels much nicer and better engineered than the bezels from the old days. The color scheme of the new Rolex GMT-Master II Everose is very nice, but miles away from the former brown dialed (and bezel) GMT-Master model.

The image below shows the difference in thickness as well as a good demonstration of how different the gold tones are. The new Rolex GMT-Master II Everose has, of course, a Triplock crown to ensure water resistance (up to 10ATM).

My initial enthusiasm was not so big for this model, since it did not have the brown dial and was not made of yellow gold. That said, this disappeared rapidly when I had the chance to try it myself. It’s a well balanced watch, and the use of the brown and black on the bezel matches perfectly with the Everose gold case and bracelet. The gold details also come back in the dial, in the writing of ‘GMT-Master II’ as well as in the indices and hands. Did you also notice the little crown between Swiss and Made? The new Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi with Jubilee also has this feature.

The price of the Rolex GMT-Master II Everose reference 126715CHNR is €33900,-, including taxes. That makes this watch not for everyone, which it already probably isn’t because of the gold material and the use of brown in the bezel. I personally like it very much as it is subtly done in my opinion, relatively speaking of course for a full gold Rolex model.

With this Rolex GMT-Master II Pepsi, the GMT-Master II Bi-color (steel and Everose) and this GMT-Master II Everose, there’s quite an interesting line-up of new variants. Let’s also not forget about the new white gold GMT-Master II Pepsi, with blue dial. Unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to shoot this particular reference. Also good to know is that the Rolex GMT-Master II ‘Batman’ (blue & black bezel) will stay in the collection, despite other rumors in the market. We checked this with Rolex and they confirmed that this model will stay in production.

More information via Rolex on-line.