The Luxurious Rolex GMT Watch Alternative That's Cheaper And Nearly Identical

Swiss watchmaker Rolex debuted its now-iconic GMT-Master watch in 1955, coinciding with the explosive growth of commercial aviation built on technology honed during World War II. The GMT-Master allowed pilots to monitor a second time zone simultaneously with the local time. For example, tracking Greenwich Mean Time or perhaps the pilot's home time zone while traveling to the far flung corners of the world. To that end, the groundbreaking watch's colorful rotating 24-hour bezel is sometimes referred to by collectors as "Pepsi" after the soft drink that adopts a similar color scheme. The blue half of the bezel represents nighttime, while the red portion signified daylight hours.

Fast-forward 70 years and Rolex still makes an updated version of its GMT watch, and you don't even need to be a pilot to own one. You do, however, need to fork over $11,100, which represents the latest retail price for this famous watch. However, the modern GMT-Master II could wind up costing even more than full retail price. Because of a shortage of sporty stainless steel Rolex watches, this model may be extremely difficult to locate for sale at an authorized dealer. Instead, buyers who want one right away without a long waiting period may be forced to pay thousands extra to a "grey market" dealer for instant gratification.

Fortunately, like with its Submariner watch for diving, Rolex no longer has a monopoly on the GMT watch category. Among others, Texas-based Jack Mason offers an alluring selection of capable GMT watches starting at a much more budget-friendly price tag of under $1,000.

Jack Mason's entry into the GMT arena is called the Strat-o-timer and like its Rolex counterpart, it features a rotating 24-hour bezel. To its credit, Rolex expanded the available colors of its GMT watch over the decades. However, Jack Mason offers a wider-still selection of colorways for both the Strat-o-timer's dial (sometimes referred to, incorrectly, as the "face") as well as the bezel. Buyers can choose solid color bezels in hues like green or red, however, the timeless blue and red "Pepsi" theme is certainly an option, too. 

Perhaps most important, the Strat-o-timer has an independently-adjustable hour hand, also known as "jump hour" functionality. For example, the GMT hand, represented as an arrow, can be set to the wearer's home time zone. Once the wearer finds the perfect cheap flight deal abroad and arrives at their travel destination in a different time zone, the watch can quickly be adjusted to reflect the local time using the conventional hour hand without pausing the watch's automatic movement. Meanwhile, the arrow-GMT hand continues to display the wearer's home time zone, undisturbed.

That's an important distinction because typically, GMT watches in this price range feature an adjustable GMT hand, not the jump hour function. With the former, adjusting to local time at your destination involved stopping the watch momentarily and setting the hours and minutes like a conventional watch, then an extra step of moving the GMT hand back to your home time zone.

Non-watch nerds might wonder what's the reason for the fuss over tracking your home time zone. Often, it's handy to know that information when calling or texting friends, family, or business contacts at home while you're abroad. It might be easy to remember that New York and Los Angeles are three hours apart, but quickly doing the math on-the-fly for somewhere like Sydney, Australia is more challenging.

Like the much pricier Rolex GMT-Master II, the Jack Mason Strat-o-timer also offers a 40 millimeter case diameter, which is modest by modern standards, not huge like an Invicta. Also like the GMT-Master II, the Strat-o-timer has a sapphire crystal (the glass covering the dial) and the bezel is made from ceramic — both features that help protect against getting pesky scratches during your adventures.

The Jack Mason product isn't an exact copy of the Rolex, though. For example, there are no crown guards protecting the winding/setting crown and the date display is at 6 o'clock, not 3 o'clock, and without a Rolex trademark; the "cyclops" date magnifier. Considering that countries with high levels of pickpocketing also experience watch theft, that lack of a eye-catching cyclops could be a virtue. Patriotic types will also note that the Strat-o-timer is assembled in the United States, albeit with some imported parts, like the Miyota automatic movement from Japan. For those not familiar with automatic mechanical movements, there's no battery involved. Instead, the energy from your wrist's movement charges a spring inside the watch to provide power for all of the intricate gears and levers. Just like a Rolex.