How Rolex's GMT-Master invented the jet set

Had you been in Seattle on 15 July 1954 and looked skywards shortly after three o'clock in the afternoon, you might have glimpsed something rather unusual streaking through the sky: the canary, tan and cream-coloured Boeing 367-80, a new kind of aircraft with swept-back wings from which hung pods holding engines that did not need propellers Four years later, it was put into service by Pan American World Airways, more commonly known as Pan Am.After a false start, the jet age had begun With a Rolex GMT on the wrist, navigation had never been so chic: it was the official timepiece of Pan Am pilots and the unofficial watch of a new social elite known as "The jet set".

The Rolex GMT-Master was a new watch for the new era If the Boeing 707 had been responsible for the romance of jet travel, it was another Boeing that devalued the currency of the jet With the launch of the Boeing 747, the cargo plane for people that shaped the era of mass air travel, the lustre of "The jet set" began to tarnish; what had once been a heaven of exclusivity, glamour and excitement began its slow descent into the now familiar hell of crowded airports and cramped budget flights.

Marlon Brando's $1.9m Rolex GMT-Master sets a new auction record. . Source