The Rolex Explorer II is not an attractive timepiece, well not to my tastes anyway. That being said, a stainless steel sports watch is an attractive tool for the outdoors types so this unappreciated piece may be to their tastes.

Released in 1971,the Explorer II is a larger style watch at 42 mm, there is a choice of a white or black dial although I would prefer the white dial. The steel bezel is unusual considering ceramic bezels are now commonplace. Even entry-level watches from lesser manufacturers, in terms of prestige, feature a sapphire crystal and ceramic bezel. The stainless steel bezel is really a defining feature of the Explorer II so it is unlikely to change. The 24 hour bezel is aligned to an orange 24 hour third hand, the arrowhead of the GMT hand doesn’t really gell with the Mercedes hour hand.

It could be argued a tool watch doesn’t require a display caseback – that is fair. What Rolex does well is not follow trends so this is fair enough. At 42 mm, the case whilst not large compared to contemporary manufacturers is not large, but needs to be large enough to be legible in extreme conditions. The Calibe 3187 is a certified superlative chronometer, this has an accuracy of + 2 seconds per day so is a robust engine. A 48 hour power reserve really falls a little short these days when a 70 hour power reserve is now common among in-house movements.

A parachrom hairspring, paraflex shock absorbers and a Breguet overcoil sometimes known as a spiral Breguet. The balance spring design faults were solved by Abraham Louis Breguet who raised the springs final coil to reduce the curvature and maintain the concentric shape of the balance spring.

With a list price of $11,700 AUD, this is actually one of the less expensive options in the Rolex line-up. I was going to use the term cheaper, but the fear of being laughed out of town causes me to use the term less expensive. Naturally, it is all relative, a Rolex Explorer II is a GMT with a bezel I am not really sold on.

The Rolex Explorer II is a sports watch, this is standard Rolex territory and although this isn’t an aesthetically pleasing timepiece. It is water resistant to 100 metres without being a dive watch, the Explorer is promoted as more of a mountaineering timepiece with the Explorer II targeting speleologists, volcanologists and polar explorers.