2016 Rolex Explorer I vs Explorer II COMPARISON

Hey, guys, this is Kevin from JazTime.com, and today I have for you a comparison video of the Rolex Explorer One, reference number 214270, and also the Rolex Explorer II, reference number 216570. I’ll be letting you know, we’ll be comparing the case, the bezel, the dial, the bracelet, the class, movement, and also we’ll talk about the special features about these watches.

Comparison Transcript: Rolex Explorer I vs Rolex Explorer II

Hey, guys, this is Kevin from JazTime.com, and today I have for you a comparison video of the Rolex Explorer One, reference number 214270, and also the Rolex Explorer II, reference number 216570. I’ll be letting you know, we’ll be comparing the case, the bezel, the dial, the bracelet, the class, movement, and also we’ll talk about the special features about these watches.

Comparison of difference in case size:

With the Explorer One, the case size is 39 millimeters. And that’s the location from my thumb to my index finger here, it’s 39 millimeters. And the Explorer II is 42 millimeters in diameter. Now you’re thinking, why does this three-millimeter difference look so much larger? Well, that’s because the Explorer II has what we call a super case. And what that means for the super case is the lugs of the case, located down here, as you can see, these are much larger than the Explorer One, which is the basic case.

And you can see the lugs are much thicker, much bigger, even the crown protector, crown protector lugs here are much thicker and larger. The Explorer One doesn’t even have any crown protector lugs, as you can see. But overall, just because this is bigger doesn’t necessarily mean it’s good. Because, as you can see, the Explorer One has a nice, sleek design, while this one looks a little bit more clunkier, much larger, but nowadays people are starting to enjoy much larger watches.

Reviewing the Black Explorer I dial vs White Explorer II dial:

Okay, so let’s move on to dial. The Explorer One has, has luminous index markers with Arabic 369 markers. On the Explorer II, we have what we call, Rolex calls the maxi dial. And what that means is we have the usual circle index markers along with the regular index markers. But the size of these are much larger. As you can see, the index marker at the nine and six o’clock position, compared to the Explorer One is just regular index markers, they’re much larger, much thicker, much easier to read. The minute hand, right here.

Compare it to the Explorer One’s minute hand. Look at that. The readability on the Explorer II is much better. Yeah, it’s much better and it’s much larger. As you can see the difference is almost double that, it’s probably double the size of that. But besides that, they’re all luminous. So all of them will glow in the dark for up to eight hours when charged. And, actually, let me go ahead and show you how that looks when they’re charged. So you can see, they both sort of glow blue. Which is pretty cool. It’s very cool. Imagine seeing that at night when you’re walking around. All right, so let me go ahead and get this back on.

Where is the difference of the bracelets?

All right, so let’s go ahead and move on to bracelets. So the bracelets, they both have very similar bracelets. They’re about, I wanna say, almost 100 percent the same. There’s only a slight difference in between those. As you can see, this is the Explorer One’s bracelet. Nice satin finish, no high polish. High polish is this kinda polish, around the bezel you see there. Has a nice shine, nice reflective ability right there. Some Rolex bracelets do have that, in the center of the links going up along right here. But this one just has a nice satin finish, very simple. There’s a clasp on the other side, nice satin finish as well. Same thing with the Explorer II, nice satin finish, clasp, and another nice satin finish. Very elegant, very simple.

Clash of the Clasps

So the only main difference about the clasps, as you can see here, these clasps are the same in size. I mean, it’s literally the same thing. The only tiny difference is that, let’s say when you open the clasp, okay. Okay, so the difference right here is that the Explorer One has this high polish on the inner side of the clasp. And the Explorer II has a, sort of like a satin finish instead of there. They both have the Rolex engraving.They just have a different type of clasp polish inside.

Besides that, they both have the same easy link feature, which is the ability to adjust the bracelet five millimeters forward or five millimeters back, and both have, they both have that. That was the Explorer II. And here’s the Explorer One with the same thing as you can see there. That allows you to adjust for like hot days and such. If your wrist swells and expands a little bit, you can adjust and give your wrist some breathing space.

Okay, and one thing I wanna go over before we move on is that these bracelets are both safety oyster clasps. That means, is that they both have this safety lock on top right here. As you can see, it’s just pull once. So that’s the safety lock. The oyster is this. See, oyster. So that clasps down once, locks. Same with Explorer II. Pops open, closes, locks. Very simple, very easy, and definitely will not fall off your wrist if you’re to do that.

Comparing the Case Backs and Movements

Okay, so let me move, let me show you the case backs now. So this is the Explorer One’s case back. It’s very simple, just a simple oyster case with fluted around the edges. This is the Explorer II’s, similar, just simple case back, fluted around the edges. Unfortunately, you can’t see the movement, movement of these watches, so I wanna go ahead and describe the movements to you guys instead. So the Explorer One has a 3125 movement. What that means is it just, what that means is it only keeps the hour, minute and seconds hand. That’s what the functions of that movement does. That’s all it needs. So this one just has basic timekeeping.

And the Explorer II has a 3187 GMT movement. So, what that means is that GMT movement is allowing of the date right here to be adjusted and to actually display the date. As you can see, no date on Explorer One. We also have an additional hour hand. This is what we call the GMT hand. It’s colored in orange. That lets you track another time zone, which is also a pretty neat feature. I wanna say it’s a special feature of this watch. Let’s just say it’s London time right now. And London’s midnight, and you wanna track the time of the Philippines. All you have to do is adjust this hand, down seven hours because Philippines is seven hours ahead of London. So you just adjust this orange hand down to here and you’re tracking the Philippines time zone while tracking your own time zone.

Unfortunately, the Explorer One does not have that option, and frankly the Explorer One doesn’t actually have any special features to it. It’s just a very basic, nice, sleek-looking watch that just keeps time. The GMT can track date, can track different time zone, track your own time. It’s pretty good if you travel around a lot. Both of these watches are COSC certified. So that means that they are keeping time with only a loss or gain of plus two, minus two seconds a day.

Comparing the two model’s bezels

So let’s talk about the bezel now. So the bezel of these watches, as you can see, I mentioned before that the Explorer One has this nice, high polish bezel. You see, very reflective, very shiny, very nice and simple. And the Explorer II, Explorer II has just that satin finish bezel. Very simple, but it also has for the GMT time checking, or time zones, has a 24-hour cycle embossed on there. So the only thing I can say about that, is that if you were to actually damage or scuff up these bezels, the Explorer One is very easy to repair, very easy to replace. Most scuffs can be polished out very easily. Can’t really say that for the Explorer II. Let’s just say you get a scratch like right here, by the 16, you don’t really wanna polish that because you might damage the engraving of that 16. So it’s a little more costly to repair the Explorer II. Okay, so let’s move on.

Look on the wrist

Let’s go ahead and show you these watches on wrists. See, once again, displaying that clasp, oyster, safety. Simple. Very nice on the wrist. Okay, let me get the next one on. Once again, safety, oyster. One thing I would like to mention about these two watches, is that because, because the Explorer II is so big, it might not fit under a suit cuff as well as the Explorer One.

As you can see, the case is much slimmer, much tinier, so that slips under the cuff of a suit very nicely. And this is Explorer II on the wrist. It’s much larger, much thicker, might get caught. Shouldn’t be too much of a worry, though. So here they are side by side. Pretty good watches. Pretty nice-looking watches. I really like the Explorer One’s like simplicity. Very classy. But the Explorer II is just more practical, has more functions to help you track time zones and such if you’re traveling around a lot.

Which Explorer is right for you?

So hopefully, I hope this comparison has helped you see the similarities and differences between these two watches. And these watches are both high-quality Swiss watches, and in most cases it’s just a matter of taste to decide which is more appealing to you. Okay, so let’s just, well, would you wear this, which one looks best on your wrist? You know, what would you be wearing it for, special occasions, everyday wear? Will you be doing sports? My personal suggestion, my personal suggestion is that if you want a more simpler, lower price point, classy everyday look watch, go with the Explorer One. It’s very simple. It’s very easy. I’m sure you’ll get compliments for this. As it’s very nice looking, if you can see that nice black dial.

But if you’re looking for more durable, you play a lot of sports, you run around a lot, you travel around a lot, go with the Explorer II. It’s definitely very durable, much larger watch, and it has a lot more time-tracking features than the Explorer One.But for whatever you decide to go with, whatever you decide to go with, check out our website at JazTime.com. We’ll have the direct links to the watches in the description below.

We’ll have the lowest price guaranteed, and we offer free shipping, a one-year warranty, and if you like the video and you wanna see more, please like, comment and subscribe. We got lots more to show you guys. And thanks for watching.