MKII Key West GMT, 2010s

Dealer description — Analog/Shift

Just about everyone and their mother knows what a Rolex GMT Master is. But did you know that the brand made a white-dialed version? That’s right. In the early days of the GMT Master, Pan-Am commissioned a series of roughly 200 pieces in white for their executives — the story being that Juan Trippe, the company’s chief, was none too happy that desk-bound, C-suite types were hoarding the black-dialed versions meant for aircrews for themselves. For decades, the Rolex collector community wasn’t sure that these watches were real. Turns out, they are ! (We think.) Of course, these watches are all but ‘unobtanium.’ If one were to come up at auction, brains would melt. Continents would split apart. Aurel Bacs would have a heart attack and be forced to man the rostrum from his hospital bed. Thankfully, the watch world has a compromise… Mk II, the OG American microbrand founded by Bill Yao, cooked up one of the coolest modern watches of all time when it put together an homage to the white-dialed GMT unicorn, which it dubbed the ‘Key West.’ An unabashed tribute through and through, it is, to put it lightly, dope as hell . Especially so given that your chances of scoring an original white-dialed 6542 are, roughly, 765,432,891 to 1. (We made that number up, but you get it.) This particular Key West is housed in a 39mm stainless steel case with a double-domed sapphire crystal, a signed crown, a bidirectional, and a 24-hour ‘Coke’ GMT bezel. It features a luminous satin white 'gilt' dial with maxi indices, a matching Mercedes handset, and a roulette date wheel at 3:00. Powered by the industry-standard workhorse ETA 2893-2 automatic movement, it comes paired to a steel faux-rivet Oyster-style bracelet with a signed locking clasp. Dating to the 2010s and accompanied by its factory goodies, this Key West is a star in its own right — nevermind the Rolex connection!