Rolex Explorer II ref. 226570

The Origins

Unveiled in 1971, the Rolex Explorer II, like its name suggests, was to become the original Rolex Explorer's big brother. However, instead of being created for mountaineers and exploring great heights, like its older sibling, the Explorer II was designed for a rather niche interest, exploring the depths of the world’s caves, or ‘spelunking,’ as it is known. 

With its rather niche market it in mind, it is no surprise that the Explorer II boasts several design aspects that reflect its highly specialized function. To begin with, a large case ensures it can host a large dial, with adequate luminous material spread across its hands and indices, a fixed stainless steel 24-hour bezel, a date function and a 24-hour hour hand that was locked to the traditional hour hand of the watch. This locked hour hand was fitted so that the Explorer II’s wearer would know if it was AM or PM, as the total darkness within a cave would ensure there are no visual sign of day or nighttime. Similarly, the watch was popularised amongst polar explorers for the fact that the sun never sets on the Earth’s poles. 

This fixed hour hand feature was eventually changed so that the Explorer II boasted a normal second hour hand that would function as a GMT hand, which is how we know it today, but in essence, the Explorer II has always been designed with the explicit purpose of being the best watch available for those looking to demand more from their watch than the Explorer I. 

The Case and Dial

As mentioned, the Explorer II is amongst one of Rolex’s most niche-specific models ever. However, the collection has evolved to encompass the majority of the functionality that Rolex offers, with the exception of the Sky-Dweller’s annual calendar function, or the Daytona’s chronograph; neither of which would be all that useful for an explorer. With its fixed steel bezel far more shatter-resistant than the ceramic bezels we see today, the ref. 226570 can’t suffer a cracked or broken bezel. This would prove rather useful should your watch be in cramped conditions pressed against sharp objects like a rock face.

Additionally, the Explorer II boasts a large orange GMT hand ensures that its legibility of its white or black display is maximised. Offered as a 42mm stainless steel timepiece on an Oyster bracelet, the Explorer II is wonderfully robust, as the demands potentially placed on it require. 

The Movement

As with any ref. x2xxxx model from Rolex, the Explorer II features the latest generation of movement that Rolex has to offer, the automatic cal. 3285. Boasting an impressive power reserve of 70 hours, this movement also include Rolex’s Parachrom Hairspring, Paraflex Shock Absorbers and a Chronergy Escapement with Optimized Energy Efficiency, the Explorer is a truly robust and capable watch that is well-equipped for just about everything you can throw at it.

Celeb Love

In keeping with the majority of Rolex’s sports models, the Explorer II has been a celebrity favorite over the years, with both dial variants seeing plenty of love from those who want a casual yet functional Rolex. However, given its brighter dial and unique blackened indices, the white dial “Polar” Explorer II has certainly proven to be the more popular of the two variants amongst celebrities, as is the case for its dominance of Rolex’s advertisements showcasing the Explorer II. Spotted on the wrists of Tom Hardy, Prince Harry, Dominic Tuohy, Gordon Ramsey, John Cena and plenty of others over the years, the Polar Explorer II has proven to be a hit over the years. Proving that the same rule applies to the Explorer II collection as the Daytona collection, the black dial Explorer II has always been relatively unpopular when compared to its sibling. Nonetheless, it has certainly earned its fair share of fans too given its ties to the Explorer II’s original reference, the ref. 1655, which only came with a black dial. 

Market Performance

As with most larger Rolex sports models, the Explorer II is certainly a popular watch across the primary and secondary market. Waiting lists, while they have alleviated in the last 18 months, are still certainly a thing, and collectors have been willing to pay a premium to skip that queue. The exact premium depends on the dial option, as you would expect, however that premium is quite close, especially when you consider the relative gulf in popularity between the white and black options. 

Commanding the same MSRP of $9650 as its sibling, the white dial ref. 226570 comes just ahead of the black dial variant with a price premium of nearly 20% versus the black dial’s premium of 16%. This translates to a market value of $11500 and $11200, respectively, which points to the two watches being almost exactly as desirable as one another – a surprising twist, perhaps. However, there is more data that we can dive into such as the price changes over the last 90 days, with he black dial variant down 2.1% in market value, and the white dial only down 1.4% over the same time frame. This would suggest that the white dial’s slight advantage in popularity is aiding its performance throughout the decline.

Additionally, we can also look at the difference between the two ref. 226570’s peak market value to determine which of the two models is a safer bet. The black dial variant topped out at around $14300 in April of 2022 if we disregard its opening market price in May 2021 of $16300 which only lasted a month before it reached a more realistic value. On the contrary, the white dial variant topped out at $15200 – almost $1000 more. From this we can determine that the white dial ref. 226570 is a relative bargain at the moment and that its performance is likely going to beat that of its rival. 

Check out the live performance of Rolex Explorer II ref. 226570 on The Wristcheck Index