Weekly Watch Photo – Rolex Explorer II 216570

This year Rolex launched a new version of the Explorer II series. The Weekly Watch Photo is from S.L., a member of TimezoneUK, who photographed his new Explorer II ref. 216570. 

Compared to the previous Explorer II, reference 16570, the new reference 216570 has a grown. While the whole watch industry has increased the size of their model range, Rolex does things at its own pase. And why not, they did quite a nice job. The inspiration was found in the first Explorer II that Rolex launched in 1971.

Since the Weekly Watch Photo is mainly about a beautiful photo of a beautiful watch, I won’t go into every detail Rolex changed on the new Explorer II. But the most important, at least in my eyes, are the larger case (now 42 mm, previous was 40 mm) and the changed hands.

The most eye catching at first is the orange 24-hour hand, that was also present on the vintage Explorer II (ref. 1655). It looks great really suits this watch, gives it more character, than the previous with the thin red 24-hour hand. Something that I only noticed after looking twice, is that the hour and minute hand have “grown”. They are much thicker than on any of the previous models. Because of the bigger case, the bolder looks, it makes sense to increase the size of the hands, however I think Rolex slightly overdid it.

Although I haven’t seen it ‘in the metal’ yet, I think this is the best ‘update’ that Rolex released in a long time.

Thanx to S.L. for letting us use his photo and thanx to TimezoneUK for giving the chance to watch enthusiast to share their passion.