An imaginary journey with the Sky-Dweller: „From Germany to Australia“

[Prof. Rolex]

Dear Rolex-Fans,
the new Sky-Dweller was already discussed under different aspects, but how does this very complex Rolex-watch? End of February I had to make a business trip to Melbourne/Australia for only 2 days and was accompanied by my GMT-Master II 116710. Following I have tried to make the same journey “imaginary” with the new Sky-Dweller to show a bit more in detail the functions of this highly interesting Rolex.

Flight data:
Flight Frankfurt-Abu Dhabi: 28.2.12 11:00 20:10
Flight Abu Dhabi-Melbourne: 28.2.12 22:30 19:20+1

Basic setting of the Sky-Dweller shortly after the departure from Frankfurt:


Local time: 11:03, 28th February (the window beside the 2-hour index is black)
Home time: 11:03 (readable on the 24h-ring)

Here you can see already why the Sky-Dweller does not have the addition „GMT“. While my GMT-Master II was already showing the time in Melbourne via the turnable 24h-bezel (set to +10h) this is not possible on the Sky-Dweller.

Setting to local time in Abu Dhabi (+3h to Frankfurt):
Unscrew crown and pull it out, turn bezel two notches to the left (notches must be counted carefully as there are obviously no markings for the bezel setting), set hour hand 3 h forward by turning the crown, return the bezel by two notches to the right, push crown and screw it in.



Local time: 20:12, 28th February
Home time: 17:12

Compared to the GMT-Master II (or Explorer II) the setting of the hour hand is due to the command-bezel a bit more comfortable with the Sky-Dweller as the „careful search“ for the first notch of the GMT-crown is not necessary.

Shortly after the departure from Abu Dhabi to Melbourne the Sky-Dweller shows the following:



Local time: 22:33, 28th February
Home time: 19:33

Setting to the local time in Melbourne (+10h to Frankfurt, +7h to Abu Dhabi):
Unscrew crown and pull it out, turn bezel two notches to the left, set hour hand 7 h forward by turning the crown, return the bezel by two notches to the right, push crown and screw it in.


Local time: 19:21, 29 th February
Home time: 9:21

The next morning the Sky-Dweller shows the following:


Local time: 5:35, 30th February ??
Home time: 19:35 (still 29th February)

As known an annual calendar must be corrected only once a year and this “once” is by chance today. Therefore: Unscrew crown and pull it out, turn bezel one (!) notch to the left, set date 2 days forward by turning the crown, return the bezel by one notch to the right, push crown and screw it in.



Now the date is correct: 1st March (the window for the month beside the 3-hour index is black)

Of course I also had to correct my GMT-Master II on the morning of the 1st March, but due to the indirect date correction the hour hand had to be turned 48 hours (=2 days) forward. With the Sky-Dweller the date correction can be made without influencing the hour hand, as the Sky-Dweller is equipped with a direct date correction despite it also has an independent adjustable hour hand. An advantage of the command-bezel.

In addition please find following a picture of my GMT-Master 116710 on the beach near to St. Kilda in Melbourne:


Local time: 11:07
Home time: 01:07

The journey back to Frankfurt on the 2nd March will be left out here for not being boring….

Best Regards from Germany
Matthias


PS. Making the same journey in June would require a different setting as the time differences has changed due to DST (Fankfurt to Melbourne today + 8 h, Frankfurt to Abu Dhabi today +2 h).

[Prof. Rolex]

Please allow me just an additional remark:

The pictures of the Sky-Dweller in my above post were made with the interactive user guide (Flashplayer based) which can be found on the official Rolex homepage in the Sky-Dweller section (http://www.rolex.com/en#/rolex-watch...ler/user-guide). If you enter the so called “free interactive mode” you can play with the Sky-Dweller as if you would have it in your own hands. You can freely set the time, date, months, second time zone, etc. and everything works like the real thing. Try it and have fun as I had….

Regards
Matthias