Technical review of Rolex GMT-Master 16753

From a technical point of view, the Geneva manufacture innovates with the 3075 caliber, clocked at 28800A/h and, to the great delight of users, a quickset adjustment allowing (finally!) To change the date regardless of the hours. The watch is offered with two versions of bracelets: Oyster 78360 or Jubilee 62510.

Visually, it is quite easy to differentiate the 16750 from the GMT-Master 1675 by observing the position of the needles:

GMT-Master 1675: starting from the dial, GMT hand, followed by the hour hand, then minutes and finally seconds.

GMT-Master 1675: starting from the dial, hour hand, followed by the GMT hand, then minutes and finally seconds.

So much for the foundations of this steel reference, the one that interests us here being its variant, the reference 16753, proposed in gold and steel.

If this model is known by collectors under names such as "Rolex Root-Beer" or "Eye of the Tiger", note that we could just as well call it "Rolex Clint Eastwood", like the famous "Daytona Paul Newman". The Rolex GMT-Master is worn by the actor in Firefox, The Arid Rope and The Line of Sight. Much more than it takes to baptize this model the actor's name, especially since Root-Beer does not speak much in France because this name refers to a Quebec drink (very popular in Germany by the way) and the tiger's eye to a variant of brown and yellow quartz.

This watch is much more than just a variant of the steel model. If it is offered in gold and steel version, the difference is mainly on the dial. Several versions will be offered: the first productions will be offered with "nipple dial" indexes (nipple dial...) recognizable by their conical shape, black/gold and brown/gold dial. The versions that will follow, more modern, at the end of the 1980s, will be offered in a circled index version like the steel model with circled indexes.

The 16753 model is now very popular with collectors, the main factors being first of all the rarity of the model and, above all, the color variants that the dials offer according to their aging, ranging from original dark brown to bright orange yellows.

The most difficult thing today is to find this model in good condition. The dial varnish can oxidize in different ways. The first, by lightening evenly, giving shades of brown and orange that are sometimes really impressive. The second, more catastrophic and less aesthetic, by oxidizing mainly around the index fingers and the center of the watch. The results in this case are very random and often become a disaster, the paint often crumbling randomly.

Although the color of the dial can obviously play on the affinity that a collector will have for the watch, it is important to note that its value will depend mainly on the homogeneity of the oxidation of the dial and the condition of the latter. This is what we strive to offer on 41Watch, as true lovers of this vintage Rolex reference.

The bracelets offered with this reference are the references 78363 (Oyster) and 62523 (Jubilé), namely an assembly of gold and steel.

A collector to own in his collection... And a value that has not finished rising.