GMT-Master II "Root Beer" (two-tone)

Rolesor construction is expensive and difficult to fake convincingly in solid gold and steel. Most fakes show obvious tells in the endlink gold tone or case-side finishing.

• Endlink gold tone that is too uniform, too pale, or the wrong yellow hue compared to the case gold
• Case-side gold that shows plating wear at high-contact points (the sharp chamfer line being a particularly telling area)
• Gold-steel boundary line that is not perfectly straight and clean
• Bracelet center-link gold tone inconsistent with the case gold

The Rolesor construction means that a convincing fake requires either solid gold components (cost-prohibitive) or high-quality gold plating over steel. Plating eventually wears at wear points. Scrutinize the case horn area, endlinks, and crown carefully.

Original: Gold-filled endlinks matching the Rolesor color split -- the endlink outer face is yellow gold to match the case horn finish. Original endlinks seat flush against the case horn with no play.

• All-steel endlinks on a Rolesor reference -- immediately visible as wrong color at the case-bracelet junction
• Endlinks with a gold tone that does not match the case gold (too yellow, too green, or too pale)
• Endlinks that do not seat flush against the case horn -- loose fit indicates non-original or heavily worn replacement parts
• Gold plating on endlinks that is wearing through to reveal steel underneath

Original: Rolesor cases have yellow gold bezel and case middle sides (polished) with steel lug tops (brushed). The chamfer line between the gold and steel sections is a precision finish: a sharp, clean separation between the two metals. Gold is softer than steel and loses the sharp lug chamfer geometry with polishing.

• Rounded or softened chamfer line where gold meets steel on the case sides -- indicates over-polishing
• Gold sections that show polishing striations inconsistent with factory finishing
• Case sides where the gold-steel boundary is not a straight, sharp line
• Excessively polished lugs that have lost their original flatness and corner sharpness

Original: Aluminum "root beer" insert with 24-hour scale. The brown section fades over time, more aggressively than the black section. Original aged inserts show brown fading toward a lighter tan in heavily worn examples.

• Uniformly vibrant brown on an insert mounted in a heavily worn, aged case
• Brown section that has been re-inked to restore color -- look for color that sits proud of the aluminum surface
• Black section replacement insert on a stated root beer reference
• Ceramic insert incompatible with this aluminum-bezel production era

Original: Yellow gold Twinlock crown (two-dot) matching the gold portions of the Rolesor case. The crown material is solid gold for the external body, mating to the steel case tube.

• Steel crown on a Rolesor case -- wrong material and wrong color against the gold bezel
• Crown with a gold tone that does not match the case and bezel gold
• Triplock crown (three-dot) on a 16713 -- this reference used Twinlock

• Plain caseback outer face in steel with no engravings
• Rolesor material split is visible at the case-to-bracelet junction: gold case middle, steel caseback
• Reference 16713 stamped between lugs at 12 o'clock
• Serial number stamped between lugs at 6 o'clock
• Production serials fall in the L through Z and random series range across the full production period