Reference:16760: Difference between revisions

The 16760 is the first GMT-Master II, built around caliber 3085 and the independently adjustable 24-hour hand. Separating the local hour hand from the 24-hour hand turned the bezel into a third-time-zone tool instead of a second-time-zone aid, and it cost height: the 3085 is 6.3mm thick, and the case grew around it. That thickness gave the reference both of its collector names, "Fat Lady" and the politer "Sophia Loren," after the actress's curves. Most editorial coverage runs the production window from 1983 to 1988. The red-and-black Coke insert is the only factory bezel configuration.

One point stays unsettled. A minority reading in specialist commentary holds that late-run 16760 cases left the factory with the 3185. The auction record does not support it: Phillips Geneva X, Sotheby's Hong Kong, Bonhams Knightsbridge and both Christie's online lots all catalog a 3085 in the 16760, examples dated 1988 included. Service history is the simpler explanation, since a 3185 turns up wherever an entire movement was swapped at service. No documented original-delivery example has settled the question either way.

Gloss dulls with age. A matte-looking dial on a 16760 is most often original lacquer with decades on it, a surface condition rather than a factory variant, and gloss loss on its own is not evidence of a refinish. The tells that matter are the spider crack pattern and the integrity of the white-gold surrounds.

Factory delivery is the red-and-black insert, and only the red-and-black insert. The Field Manual lists "black or Coke," and Stephen Pulvirent's Sotheby's GMT-Master collector guide reads "Pepsi or Coke," but no non-Coke factory example has come through a major house. The two readings disagree with each other on paper, not on surviving watches. Aftermarket insert swaps onto factory-Coke cases do circulate. Faded inserts on original examples are common enough to be unremarkable.

Service replacements are common on survivors. Christie's Watches Online lot 67556 catalogs a 1984 head on a 93150 bracelet with SEL 501 end-links; the 93150 only became standard on the 16710, so that bracelet went on later. Bonhams 28031 lot 167, an example from 1988, carries a 78790 Oyster, the heavier flip-lock GMT and Submariner bracelet that spread through late 16710 production. On a 1988 16760 that is almost certainly a service fit rather than a very-late factory configuration. For original delivery the 78360 on 501B end-links remains the anchor.

The Phillips Geneva X result in 2019, CHF 20,000 against a CHF 6,000–12,000 estimate, is the highest documented public hammer. Antiquorum's GMT-Master II catalogue tilts heavily toward the 16710, 16713 and 16718, and 16760 lots have rarely come through the house. Much of the reference's price history therefore sits in trade listings rather than in catalogued lots, which is worth remembering when reading any market summary of it.

Collectors sum the reference up as a watch of firsts: first GMT-Master II, first independently adjustable 24-hour hand, first red-and-black configuration on the line, first sapphire crystal, first white-gold-surround indices on a GMT. Clean, original-condition examples carry a premium to match.

* [[Reference:16750|GMT-Master 16750]] — 1979–1988

* [[Reference:16753|GMT-Master 16753]] — 1979–1988

* [[Reference:16700|GMT-Master 16700]] — 1988–1998

* [[Reference:16713|GMT-Master 16713]] — 1989–2007