This model features a black dial and a two-colour Cerachrom bezel insert in grey and black ceramic. In addition to conventional hour, minute and seconds hands, the GMT-Master II features an arrow-tipped hand, which circles the dial once every 24 hours, as well as a bidirectional rotatable 24-hour graduated bezel. The distinctively coloured 24-hour hand displays the "home" reference time in a first time zone which can be read on the graduations on the bezel. The traveller's local time is easily set by "jumping" from hour to hour, thanks to an ingenious mechanism operated via the winding crown: the hour hand can be adjusted forwards or backwards independently of the minute and seconds hands. This allows travellers to adapt to their new time zone without affecting the precision of their timekeeping.

Like all Rolex Professional watches, the GMT-Master II offers exceptional legibility in all circumstances, and especially in the dark, thanks to its Chromalight display. The broad hands and hour markers in simple shapes – triangles, circles, rectangles – are filled with a luminescent material emitting a long-lasting glow.

By operating its own exclusive foundry, Rolex has the unrivalled ability to cast the highest quality 18 ct gold alloys. According to the proportion of silver, copper, platinum or palladium added, different types of 18 ct gold are obtained: yellow, pink or white. They are made with only the purest metals and meticulously inspected in an in-house laboratory with state-of-the-art equipment, before the gold is formed and shaped with the same painstaking attention to quality. Rolex's commitment to excellence begins at the source.