Reference:116718LN

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GMT-Master → 116718LN

The 116718LN is the reference that brought ceramic to the GMT-Master II. Rolex launched it at Baselworld 2005 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the GMT-Master line, and the choice of platform was deliberate: solid 18k yellow gold, not steel. The Cerachrom insert was new, the “LN” suffix for Lunette Noire was new, and caliber 3186 made its first production appearance on the gold reference. Two years would pass before Rolex put the same ceramic bezel on a steel case. For that window the 116718LN was, in production terms, the entire ceramic-bezel GMT-Master II catalogue.

Rolex debuted its most important bezel-material change of the 2000s on a gold watch.

Core facts

detail value
reference 116718LN
family GMT-Master II
production 2005-2019
movement caliber 3186
case 40mm solid 18k yellow gold Oyster case, Super Case generation
crystal sapphire with Cyclops
water resistance 100m
bezel black Cerachrom with 18k gold-filled numerals
key identity first GMT-Master II with a Cerachrom ceramic bezel

Where it sits in the line

Position in the Cerachrom lineage

The 116718LN sits at the top of the modern-ceramic GMT-Master II family and at the start of it. Rolex issued no steel ceramic GMT-Master II in 2005. The two-tone 116713LN arrived in 2006, the steel 116710LN in 2007. For the first two years of the Cerachrom era the only way to buy a ceramic-bezel GMT-Master II from Rolex was in solid yellow gold.

Upstream, the 116718LN replaces the aluminium-bezel 16718, the five-digit yellow-gold GMT-Master II that had run since 1988. Downstream, there is no immediate successor. When Rolex retired the 116718LN in 2019 alongside the steel 116710LN and 116710BLNR, it withdrew yellow gold from the ceramic GMT-Master II line entirely. Yellow gold did not return until the 126718GRNR at Watches and Wonders 2023, four years later. The 116718LN closes one chapter and opens a gap, not a transition.

Production outline

Production runs from 2005 through 2019. The 2005 debut coincided with the GMT-Master line’s fiftieth anniversary, and Christie’s catalogue copy for later-year lots ties the launch to that anniversary moment. The 2019 discontinuation comes with the same Baselworld event that retired the 116710LN and 116710BLNR: Rolex’s rationalisation of the 116710 generation in favour of the slimmer 126710 case.

Inside that fourteen-year window, two dial variants ran in parallel: the black dial and the green anniversary dial. The green dial is the collector variant; the black dial is the steadier seller. No production-split data is published by Rolex.

Movement notes

The 116718LN runs caliber 3186 for its documented production life. The 3186 debuted on this reference at Baselworld 2005, which makes the 116718LN the first Rolex watch to carry the movement. The 3186 brought the blue Parachrom hairspring, a revised GMT wheel, and Paraflex shock protection to the independent-hour-hand architecture. Sotheby’s 2019 lot for the Anniversary Green gives 28,800 bph and a 50-hour power reserve for a 2005-production example.

No source in the current corpus documents a caliber 3185-equipped 116718LN. The Sotheby’s lot records and Christie’s catalogue copy both give caliber 3186 as the movement of record across the reference. A 3185 transitional branch, if it exists, needs direct sourcing from The Vintage Rolex Field Manual or equivalent before it can enter the article.

Dial map

Black dial on solid yellow gold
Green 50th-anniversary dial
Green anniversary dial close-up

The 116718LN dial story is a two-branch map: a standard black dial and a green anniversary dial, both running in parallel through most of the reference’s life.

Black dial

The black-dial 116718LN is the baseline configuration. Glossy black lacquer, 18k yellow-gold applied markers, 18k yellow-gold hands, and Chromalight lume after the compound’s late-2000s rollout across the Rolex sports catalogue. The black-dial variant is the steadier seller across the production window and the more commonly traded of the two dials in the post-discontinuation market. Christie’s yellow-gold lot copy describes a black-dial 116718 from circa 2006 carrying the same layout.

Green anniversary dial

The green anniversary dial is the variant Rolex introduced in 2005 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the GMT-Master line. It is a solid green dial with 18k yellow-gold markers, gold hands, and the same green 24-hour hand that appears on the black-dial variant. The green dial is the collector variant within the 116718LN catalogue, and Sotheby’s records show continued auction demand for the dial from 2019 through 2024.

The green dial is not a short run. Rolex produced it across most of the 116718LN’s life. The collector premium traces to dial-colour preference and relative supply against the black dial, rather than to a limited production window. Secondary-market indexing treats the green dial as 116718LN-0002, separate from the black-dial catalogue entry.

Case, bezel, crystal, and crown notes

First Cerachrom bezel on a GMT-Master II
Solid-gold caseback

The case is the Super Case generation Rolex rolled out across its sports catalogue from the mid-2000s. Compared with the aluminium-bezel 16718, the lugs are wider, the crown guards are heavier, and the watch wears more substantially on the wrist. Period listings for Anniversary Green examples give 40mm across, 48mm lug-to-lug, and 11.8mm thick.

The bezel is the historical point. Cerachrom is the Rolex trademark for its proprietary ceramic, and the black Cerachrom insert on the 116718LN is the first time the material appeared on a GMT-Master II of any metal. Monochrome’s 2023 retrospective traces the Cerachrom rollout through 116713LN two-tone (2006), 116710LN steel (2007), and the blue-red 116719BLRO white-gold Pepsi (2014). The 116718LN sits before all of them. The numerals are recessed into the ceramic and filled with 18k yellow gold through a PVD process, which keeps the markings bright against the black ceramic surface across decades of wear. The aluminium inserts on the 16718 faded in ultraviolet light and scratched in use. Cerachrom does neither.

The crystal is sapphire with the Cyclops magnifier over the date. The crown is the Triplock twin-lock system Rolex uses across its modern sports references. Water resistance is 100m, unchanged from the 16718.

Bracelets, end links, clasps, and packaging notes

The 116718LN ships on a solid 18k yellow-gold Oyster bracelet with solid end links. The Oysterclasp carries the Easylink 5mm comfort extension. Glidelock, the longer micro-adjustment system Rolex reserves for the Submariner and Deepsea families, does not appear on the GMT-Master II. The Christie’s yellow-gold lot copy confirms Oyster as the only period-correct bracelet. No Jubilee-bracelet 116718LN has entered the corpus.

Full-set packaging is the standard Rolex presentation box, the International Guarantee card, and the swing tags. Sotheby’s 2019 Anniversary Green lot gives circa-2005 production with a December 2006 warranty date.

Special branches

Green anniversary dial

The green anniversary dial is a documented factory variant tied to the fiftieth anniversary of the GMT-Master. It commands a premium over the black-dial variant on the secondary market. Sotheby’s carried a 2019 Anniversary Green lot with a USD 10,000-15,000 pre-sale estimate on a circa-2005 example, and the house offered the variant again in 2024, years after discontinuation. The dial is the reference’s most-discussed collector branch.

Black dial

The black-dial branch is the steadier seller across the production run. Christie’s catalogued a yellow-gold 116718 from circa 2006 in the black-dial configuration, which gives the branch a tier-1 auction-house anchor. The black dial is the reference’s default and the larger share of the surviving market.

Historical market and auction record

The 116718LN is well-covered by major auction houses. Sotheby’s has offered the Anniversary Green at Important Watches 2019 and again at Fine Watches in 2024, demonstrating sustained demand for the green-dial variant five years after discontinuation. Christie’s has catalogued a black-dial yellow-gold 116718 through its online Watches programme. Both houses frame the reference around the 2005 fiftieth-anniversary launch and the caliber 3186 debut.

Post-discontinuation Anniversary Green examples trade through certified pre-owned channels, and secondary-market indexing tracks the green dial separately from the black dial. Time+Tide and Monochrome both treat the 116718LN as the direct historical predecessor of the 2023 126718GRNR.

The reference’s auction market is dominated by the green dial. A Phillips-grade lot for a black-dial example would strengthen the record further. None is currently in the corpus.

Sources

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