Rolex GMT-Master Ref. 6542 (bakelite bezel)

Two time zones for the jet age

In the 1950s, long-distance commercial flying was growing quickly, and crews crossing oceans needed to keep track of more than one time: where they were, where they were going, and the Greenwich Mean Time used for navigation. Pan American World Airways, one of the largest airlines of the period, wanted a reliable watch that could show two zones at once.

One account says Pan Am's senior navigator, Captain Frederick Libby, a decorated World War II veteran who had worn a Rolex during the war, was asked to nominate a watch company for the job and chose Rolex. The result was the reference 6542, the first GMT-Master, named for Greenwich Mean Time.

The launch date is told two ways. Some histories, and the main encyclopedia text, say 1954; others, including a detailed reference survey and the same encyclopedia's summary box, give 1955, with one specialist writing '1955/56.' What is not in dispute is that the 6542 was replaced by the reference 1675 in 1959, after a run of about five years.

How the watch works

The 6542 adds a fourth hand to an ordinary automatic watch: a slim 24-hour hand that goes around the dial once a day, tipped with a small triangle. The rotating bezel carries a 24-hour scale, split red for daytime hours and blue for night. Set the bezel to the time difference, and the 24-hour hand reads a second zone against it.

The design came from the same family as the Submariner and the Turn-O-Graph, both introduced in 1953 with rotating bezels. The 6542 case was based on the Turn-O-Graph reference 6202, which explains its smaller size and its lack of crown guards. The case is 38 mm, large for the time; crown guards arrived on the steel GMT-Master only with the 1675.

Every steel 6542 left the factory with a glossy black gilt dial and a chapter ring. The earliest examples print 'GMT-MASTER' in pink, at least one adds a red depth rating of '50m = 165ft,' and very early watches may have a long-neck hour hand like the Submariner of the period. Over its run the watch used three automatic movements: the caliber 1036, then the 1065, and finally the 1066. One collector account names a caliber 1030 instead.

Gold versions were made from early on, which makes the GMT-Master the first Rolex sport watch offered in gold. Gold 6542s had burgundy-brown Bakelite bezels, champagne or darker tawny dials, and alpha hands instead of the steel watch's Mercedes hands. Rare white 'Albino' dials are believed to have been made for some Pan Am-supplied watches.

The Bakelite problem

The 6542's defining feature is also what nearly erased it. The bezel insert was Bakelite, an early plastic, with luminous radium numerals set into it so the second time zone could be read in a dark cockpit. The numerals seem to float in the colored plastic, and collectors consider a good Bakelite insert a small work of art.

Bakelite cracked and chipped, especially in heat. Rolex fitted non-luminous metal inserts toward the end of the 6542's run and often replaced Bakelite bezels when watches came in for service. One history dates the change to aluminum to 1956; the reference survey describes it as late in the run.

Radium was the bigger problem. Rolex recalled the Bakelite bezels and replaced them with anodized metal ones. In early 1960, a statement Rolex issued through its U.S. dealers to address confusion over the recall said that only 605 GMT-Masters with Bakelite bezels had been imported into the United States. One history adds that in 1961 an American naval officer and his family sued Rolex, claiming that the luminous bezel of his 6542 had caused cancer.

Between breakage, service swaps and the recall, few original inserts survive intact. One specialist estimates that a cracked Bakelite bezel is worth about one fifth of an undamaged one, and warns that some inserts have been 'treated' to hide cracks, which can discolor the numerals. Service centers sometimes scraped out the radium and refilled the numerals with tritium or left them empty.

Pilots, a Bond girl and the auction record

The 6542 quickly became a pilot's watch, but it was also worn far from the cockpit. Fidel Castro was photographed wearing one. In the 1964 James Bond film 'Goldfinger,' Honor Blackman, as the pilot Pussy Galore, wears a 6542, and collectors have nicknamed the reference after the character.

At auction, condition of the Bakelite decides the price. In May 2016, an 18k gold 6542 with its Bakelite bezel, a bronze-hued dial, its original box and papers showing a sale on October 25, 1958, sold at auction in Geneva for 341,000 Swiss francs, about $350,000, then reported as a record for any GMT-Master at auction. In the same month a steel 6542 with a tropical dial set a record for that configuration at 197,000 Swiss francs.

A single Bakelite bezel insert, without a watch, once sold at auction for $32,500. In October 2023, a steel 6542 with an intact Bakelite bezel and an original glossy gilt dial sold at an online auction in Dubai for $81,900, within its estimate of $60,000 to $90,000.

The template for every GMT since

The 1675 that replaced the 6542 in 1959 ran until 1980, with crown guards and a metal bezel, and the red-and-blue 'Pepsi' look has been part of the GMT-Master ever since. More than 60 years after the 6542, the modern GMT-Master II still bisects the bezel into day and night and still uses a 24-hour hand.

The 6542 is the only GMT-Master with a Bakelite bezel, and the combination of a short run, a recall and a fragile material is why collectors treat an intact original as the reference's holy grail.

The numbers

Reference

6542 (GMT-Master)

Caliber

Rolex 1036, then 1065, then 1066, automatic with 24-hour hand (one collector account says 1030)

Case

38 mm stainless steel or 18k gold Oyster case, no crown guards, about 48 mm lug to lug

Bezel

Rotating 24-hour, Bakelite insert with radium numerals; later metal inserts

Production years

About 1954-55 to 1959

Production numbers

Not published by Rolex; 605 Bakelite-bezel examples imported to the U.S. by early 1960

Timeline

1. 1953

   Rolex introduces the Submariner and the Turn-O-Graph, the rotating-bezel watches the GMT-Master grew from.

2. 1954

   The GMT-Master 6542 is launched, by the earliest accounts; other sources give 1955.

3. 1955

   Production of the 6542 is under way; the earliest dials print 'GMT-MASTER' in pink.

4. 1956

   One history dates Rolex's switch from Bakelite to aluminum bezel inserts to this year.

5. 1958

   Gold 6542s with burgundy-brown Bakelite bezels are in production; a 'big lume' dial appears on steel watches cased in the third quarter.

6. Oct 25, 1958

   A gold 6542 is sold new; its papers will help it set an auction record in 2016.

7. 1959

   The reference 1675, with crown guards and a metal bezel, replaces the 6542.

8. 1960

   A Rolex statement to U.S. dealers, addressing the recall of Bakelite bezels, says only 605 Bakelite-bezel GMT-Masters were imported into the United States.

9. 1961

   A U.S. naval officer and his family sue Rolex, claiming the radium bezel of his 6542 caused cancer.

10. 1964

    Honor Blackman wears a 6542 as Pussy Galore in 'Goldfinger.'

11. 1980

    The 1675 ends its run after more than 20 years.

12. May 2016

    A gold 6542 sells at auction in Geneva for 341,000 Swiss francs, about $350,000, a record for any GMT-Master at the time.

13. Oct 19, 2023

    A steel 6542 with an intact Bakelite bezel sells at an online auction in Dubai for $81,900.

The world in 1954

• Jan 10, 1954

  A de Havilland Comet jetliner breaks up over the Mediterranean from metal fatigue, killing all 35 aboard.

• Jan 21, 1954

  The USS Nautilus, the first nuclear-powered submarine, is launched in Groton, Connecticut.

• May 6, 1954

  Roger Bannister runs the first sub-four-minute mile, in Oxford.

• Apr 12, 1955

  The Salk polio vaccine receives full approval from the FDA.

• Apr 15, 1955

  Ray Kroc opens the first franchised McDonald's, in Des Plaines, Illinois.

• May 14, 1955

  Eight Communist Bloc countries sign the Warsaw Pact.

• Dec 1, 1955

  Rosa Parks is arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, starting the Montgomery bus boycott.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Rolex GMT-Master Ref. 6542 (bakelite bezel) is number 34 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (14 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Only 605 Bakelite-bezel GMT-Masters had been imported into the United States by early 1960, according to a Rolex statement to its dealers.
• Rolex recalled the radium-lit Bakelite bezel inserts and replaced them with metal ones, so intact originals are scarce.
• A cracked Bakelite bezel is worth about one fifth of an intact one, by one specialist's estimate.
• The 6542 was the first Rolex sport watch made in gold.
• The red half of the bezel marks daytime hours and the blue half marks night.
• Collectors call the 6542 the 'Pussy Galore' after Honor Blackman's character in 'Goldfinger.'