The short answer: no facsimile Rolex Explorer II 1655 sold today reproduces the reference at full accuracy, so the top pick for most buyers is a legitimate vintage-styled GMT homage, followed by an original 1655 for collectors, and last a high-end replica for people who accept the legal exposure. That order comes from four criteria: how closely the case and bezel match the 1971 original, whether the movement behaves like a real GMT, whether the watch can be serviced or resold, and whether owning it is lawful where you live. Everything below is organized around those points rather than around seller claims.
The reference you are actually comparing against
Rolex introduced the Explorer II ref. 1655 in 1971 as a tool watch for cave explorers who spend days underground and lose track of day and night. The design answer was a fixed 24-hour bezel plus an orange arrow hand that tracks a second time zone around the dial. The date sits at 3 o'clock with no magnifying cyclops, the case measures roughly 39 mm, and the movement is the calibre 1575, a GMT variant of the period 1570 family. Production ran until 1985, when the 16550 replaced it. The reference picked up the nickname "Steve McQueen" years later, a marketing convenience rather than a documented fact about his wrist.
Every one of those details is a checkpoint. A copy that gets the orange hand right but the case wrong is still a copy that looks wrong on the wrist.
doppelganger rolex explorer 2 1655
Criterion 1: case profile and thickness
The 1655 midcase is thick and slab-sided with a wide, flat bezel surface. Most replicas shave the case down to feel slimmer, which changes how the watch sits on the wrist and how the bezel reads at an angle. If you see a profile photo that hides the case side, assume the proportions are off.
Top Best Guide to Finding Lookalike Rolex Explorer 2 1655 Watches Online
Criterion 2: bezel insert and 24-hour scale
The bezel is fixed, not rotating, and the numerals are engraved and filled. Copies often print the scale instead of engraving it, and the font of the numerals drifts from the original. Under a loupe, printed numerals sit on top of the surface while engraved ones sit inside it.
Criterion 3: dial, hands, and lume
The orange 24-hour hand is the hardest part to fake convincingly. Early 1655 dials, usually called Mark I through Mark V by collectors, used different fonts and different tritium plots. A replica almost always uses one generic dial and pretends it covers all of them. Lume color is the second tell: tritium on an original has aged to a warm cream, while replica lume is often a flat, even tan applied to look old.
Criterion 4: movement behavior
A true GMT movement lets you set the local hour independently while the 24-hour hand keeps running at a fixed offset. Many replica movements use a cheap 24-hour module stacked onto a basic automatic, and the result is a hand that jumps, sticks, or loses its offset. Ask any seller to confirm the movement architecture before anything else, and treat a vague answer as a no.
Route A: a high-end facsimile
Pros
- Closest visual match to the original among the three routes, at a fraction of the cost.
- Correct orange hand color when the dial is done well.
- Modern materials mean the crystal and gaskets hold up better than 1970s originals.
Cons
- It is a counterfeit. Importing one into the United States is illegal and shipments get seized.
- No resale market, no factory service, and few independent watchmakers will touch it.
- Seller photos are frequently stock images of a different unit than the one shipped.
- Dial fonts, bezel engraving, and lume color rarely survive close inspection.
Use case: only for a buyer who wants the look, never plans to resell, and accepts the risk of losing the watch at the border.
Route B: a legitimate vintage-styled GMT homage
Pros
- Legal to buy, import, and resell, with a real warranty behind it.
- Usually runs a genuine GMT movement with an independently set hour hand.
- Any watchmaker can service it, and parts are available.
Cons
- It carries its own brand name on the dial, so it never passes as a 1655.
- Case shapes vary widely between brands, and few match the 1655 profile.
- Collectors will read it as an homage the moment they see the dial.
Use case: the best fit for someone who wants the orange-hand, fixed-bezel look for daily wear with no legal exposure and no servicing headaches.
Route C: an original ref. 1655
Pros
- A real Rolex, serviceable by the brand and tradable on the open market.
- The only version with genuine period dials, tritium, and calibre 1575 inside.
Cons
- Five-figure pricing and rising, with condition driving most of the spread.
- The vintage market has its own fakes: rebuilt cases and mismatched dials are common enough that an expert inspection is required.
- Water resistance and parts availability are limited on a 40-year-old watch.
Use case: collectors who want the reference itself and will pay for a documented service history and a specialist opinion before money changes hands.
Red flags in listings for facsimile 1655 watches
- Photos that never show the case side or the movement.
- One dial description that claims to cover every Mark variant.
- A promised delivery method that avoids customs paperwork.
- Prices that match a genuine vintage 1655 closely, which removes the only reason to buy a copy.
- Pressure to pay outside a trackable method.
Legal and practical reality in the US
Counterfeit branded watches are subject to seizure by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and selling them is trademark infringement. Beyond the legal side, a facsimile 1655 cannot be insured as a Rolex, cannot be serviced by Rolex, and has no collector value. Those are practical limits, not moral ones, and they decide what the watch is worth to you five years from now.
Bottom line
If the goal is the 1655 look on a wrist, pick Route B and spend the savings on a watch with a real GMT movement and a service network. If the goal is the reference itself, save for Route C and buy from a dealer who will let an independent watchmaker open the case. Route A only makes sense for buyers who have already accepted that the watch is illegal to import, impossible to service, and worth nothing on resale.