The Rolex GMT-Master II reference 126720VTNR, better known by collectors as the “Sprite,” is one of the stranger modern Rolex releases, and that is exactly what makes it fun. Introduced in 2022, Rolex took the familiar 40mm GMT-Master II and flipped the layout, placing the winding crown and crown guards on the left side of the case and moving the date window and Cyclops lens to nine o’clock. Then they gave it a green-and-black ceramic Cerachrom bezel, a color combination unique to this reference. It sounds like Rolex simply mirrored a GMT, but on the wrist it changes the entire personality of a watch we have all seen a thousand times.

Inside is Rolex’s caliber 3285, the same modern automatic GMT architecture that makes the current GMT-Master II such a useful travel watch. The local hour hand can be adjusted independently in one-hour jumps without stopping the seconds or disturbing the minutes, while the green 24-hour hand tracks home time against the bidirectional bezel. The movement offers approximately 70 hours of power reserve along with Rolex’s Chronergy escapement, blue Parachrom hairspring, Paraflex shock absorbers, and Superlative Chronometer specification of -2/+2 seconds per day after casing. The Oystersteel case is water resistant to 100 meters, so underneath the unusual layout this is still every bit the modern Rolex tool watch.

The Sprite is available on either the three-link Oyster or five-link Jubilee bracelet, and both give the watch a noticeably different personality. The Oyster leans into the original tool-watch character, while the Jubilee makes an already unusual GMT feel a little more refined. Either way, the real appeal is that Rolex did something genuinely weird. The crown is on the “wrong” side, the date is at nine, and the green-and-black bezel doesn't look quite like any GMT that came before it. Rolex doesn't often mess with a formula this established, so when they do, I appreciate it. The Sprite is still unmistakably a GMT-Master II, just one that makes you look twice.