Yes, I know the thread title sounds like a cryptic crossword clue but really?
GMT hands pre-date the potholers of the 1970s.
And why would cavers need to know the time in a different part of the world?
Is CW going the way of Bremont on the marketing BS?
Still, either of the have got a long way to go to beat Rolex (cue picture of Hillary on Everest).
The rationale from Rolex (if they were the first, their marketing seems to suggest they were) was that caves were so dark you couldn't tell if the watch was indicating 8am or 8pm.
The 'GMT' hand was fixed as was the bezel in the original so it wasn't a GMT hand, it was a 24 hour indicator.
As is too often the case, what Rolex's marketing suggest and reality are slightly at variance:Originally Posted by r.dawson
https://www.gearpatrol.com/watches/a596889/watches-you-should-know-glycine-airman/
Altnough personally I prefer the Zodiac.
Last edited by M4tt; 29th June 2021 at 10:45.
Surely Rolex gnomes invited time in the days before time?
M
Breitling Cosmonaute 809 - What's not to like?
Great article, thanks for sharing
Possibly CW's crack team of researchers have been reading the definitive history?
TTIt should be mentioned that the very first Rolex Explorer II offered a 24 hour hand that indicated simply day or night. Rolex were reduced to marketing the watch to the spelunking community. A niche sector of hirsute loners who reputedly spend their leisure hours getting lost in damp caves while lavishly urinating in their boiler suits.
I think that although the Glycine Airman (1953) preceded the Rolex GMT Master ref. 6542 (1954) by a year, the Longines DualTime preceded them both by a full quarter of a century.
Here's one from 1930
https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-4278201
Didn't they have a GMT out at the time? Bit unfair to say they were reduced to marketing it to a niche sector, almost like that's the best they could do, let's find a customer for it.
I thought it was a decision to only show 24 hour time for the second hand.
Last edited by Tokyo Tokei; 29th June 2021 at 12:41. Reason: better ad
Pretty sure Rolex came out with BS first.
How relevant is am from pm when caving though?
No idea, and I don't want to be in a cave long enough to find out.
It’s for multi day expeditions underground.
I never did any but I was a cave diver and there were plenty of multi day expeditions when mapping and exploring big cave systems when various base camps would be made. If it’s just a “day trip” into a system then easy to keep track but more than one day it would get hard, and planning to surface in daylight would probably help.
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Surely. a. full. stop. is. missing.
Anyone who has never urinated into their wetsuit whilst wading along a freezing cold chest deep underground water course in darkness barely disturbed by the light of their carbide lamp, will ever truly understand the word 'luxuriate'.
OK that made me laugh out loud.
And pray tell who made you do this? Tell us, and we will avenge you.
I was once urinated on by a schoolgirl in Wales.
Not a sentence I hitherto believed I would be sharing with the world, but the situation was a spelunking outing, and thus pertinent to this important thread. Having found ourselves trapped deep under Welsh rock in a passage that had narrowed to the extent that we had to turn our heads sideways to inch forwards, and hence could not see anything, our teacher and leader finally decided to try to reverse. In the darkness, young Ellie involuntarily and lavishly "luxuriated". Being immediately down stream as it were, I was suitably warmed.
When we eventually surfaced, many hours after our intended time, a small crowd of villagers and teachers were gathered around the pothole exit, crying. It was like a scene from a cheap TV drama.
My own Explorer II is the later type, with the independently movable hour hand, thus useable as a GMT. Unlike the first, hence the spelunking and arctic explorer adverts - it really could only tell you whether it was day or night.
I can't say whether it was AM or PM when this all happened, but the event was quite memorable. I haven't been caving since.
So not BS at all. They referenced previous iterations of similar watches to market a stunning new piece and provided new owners with an interesting story to tell to admirers.
Being peed on or cave diving?
Just to say, peeing, marketing and spelunking aside. The polar is one of my favourite watches of all time, great history and functional. I'm on a list for one supposedly.
The CW version is a bit tacky for them.
I would politely disagree with the final clause of the last sentence of the ad.
Has anybody had the courage yet to see if there is an entry, as it were, for spelunking in the Urban Dictionary?
In the Sotadic Zone, apparently.
Im really just fine with any watch that allows me to repeatedly say spelunking.
Some deviants would pay for that, or more likely 50 year old woman dressed as a not very convincing School girl. I guess nationality would be optional.
I once had a chickpea on my head, does that count?
Perhaps she thought your carbide lamp was in need of recharging?
R
Ignorance breeds Fear. Fear breeds Hatred. Hatred breeds Ignorance. Break the chain.
Before i bought mine i had never heard the word spelunking but i do try and get it in the converstaion when people ask about the watch just to see their reaction and if they think they have mis heard me.
Surely it would read, "Spelunking In Caves starring Ben Dover". Cue funk music!
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