Aviation and space travel
As intercontinental travel developed in the 1950s, airliners began to fly swiftly across time zones.
To meet the specific needs of pilots, Rolex developed the GMT‑Master, which displays the time in two different time zones simultaneously. The watch notably became the official watch of Pan Am (Pan American World Airways).
It was even used as a navigation aid by the crew of the first non-stop Pan Am flight between New York and Moscow in 1959.
Captain C.N. Warren stated that “the flight itself was navigated by Rolex.” Later, at the end of the 1960s, the GMT-Master was worn by the pilots of Concorde when the supersonic passenger jet made its final series of test flights.