News on cal 3186 in Explorer II (and GMT 16710)

[acce1999]

I just had my Explorer II adjusted, and asked the watchmaker to confirm that it had caliber 3186. According to the so called wiggle test it should. It is an M0-serial purchased in february 2008, and the code on the clasp indicates august 2007.

The watch has indeed caliber 3186!

This is therefore another example where the test truly indicates caliber 3186.

In addition I asked him to verify the height of the caliber, since it was told initially that caliber 3186 is 0.4 mm higher than caliber 3185 (to allow for the new construction for the hour hand). This information comes from (to the best of my knowledge) the early facts from Basel when the all gold GMT IIc 116718 was introduced.

I have been intrigued by the fact that a larger caliber has been found in cases of the older style, and according to my calculations the margins would have been zero - or even negative. There should not be room for the new caliber in the older cases.

The watchmaker now confirmed that the height is the same for both caliber 3185 and 3186: 6.4 mm, not 6.8 that has been "public knowledge" on sites like this.

I hope this information is of interest not only for me.

Best,

A