Monday, April 12, 2010

GMT Master II, Triplock Crown and Water Resistance

With the addition of the Triplock crown to the ceramic bezeled Rolex GMT Master II's, some assert that the current GMT Master II has a water resistance rating of 300 meters, just like the Rolex Submariner, but is labeled 100 meters for marketing purposes. Rolex on its own website states that "Professional models equipped with this ingenious triple seal system, like the Submariner, are waterproof to 300 meters (1,000 feet)." This has led some to believe the all Triplock equipped models are waterproof to 300 meters.


The Triplock system itself is waterproof all the way down to 3,900 meters. The Rolex Sea Dweller DEEPSEA uses the same system and is rated that high. It would seem that the Twinlock was good all the way to a 200 meter rating. The old Rolex 5513 Submariners used Twinlock crowns are were rated at 200 meters. Still, the Twinlock GMT Master II was rated only at 100 meters.

When Rolex built the original Sea Dweller, it improve the water resistance rating to 600 meters (and later to 1,220 meters) with a thicker crystal (hence no cyclops as it would not focus correctly on the thicker crystal) and the case back was thickened.

They sapphire crystal found on the ceramic bezeled Rolex GMT Master II's are good for 300 meters. As near as we can tell, it is identical to that found on the Submariner. Unfortunately, the caseback is a bit thinner than that found in the Submariner, hence the lower water resistance rating.

About Rolex. Rolex SA is a Swiss manufacturer of wristwatches and accessories founded in 1905 by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis. Rolex is the largest single luxury watch brand by far, producing over 2000 watches per day. Rolex is the best known and most sought after watch brand in the world.

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