The short answer

The Rolex Explorer II 216570 is a 42mm stainless steel GMT with a fixed 24-hour bezel and an orange arrow hand. Rolex built it from 2011 to 2021.

If you are looking at a replica of it, here is the part most listings skip. No replica contains Rolex's caliber 3187. No replica uses Paraflex shock absorbers or a Parachrom hairspring. And in the United States it is illegal to sell, import, or traffic in counterfeit watches. A replica can look close on a screen. It cannot be the watch.

What the 216570 actually is

The Explorer II line exists for one reason: to tell day from night underground or inside a cave, where there is no sunlight to anchor you. Rolex designed the original in 1971 for speleologists. The fixed bezel is marked 0 to 24, and the orange hand tracks a second time zone against it.

The 216570 was the big refresh. It moved the case from 40mm to 42mm, thickened the lugs, and gave the dial larger markers. Two dials were offered.

  • Reference 216570, produced 2011 to 2021
  • 42mm Oystersteel case, water resistant to 100 meters
  • Fixed 24-hour bezel with engraved numerals
  • Orange 24-hour hand, independent-setting hour hand
  • Caliber 3187, Paraflex shock absorbers, blue Parachrom hairspring, roughly 48-hour power reserve
  • Black dial or the white "Polar" dial
  • Date at 3 o'clock under a Cyclops lens, Oyster bracelet with Easylink

Rolex replaced it in 2021 with the 226570, which uses caliber 3285 and runs about 70 hours.

Where replicas usually show their hand

I look at a few points first, because they are hard to fake cheaply.

  • The orange hand. Genuine orange is flat and even under raking light. Cheap versions look glossy or slightly brown.
  • The bezel numerals. Rolex engraves and fills them deep. Replicas often laser-etch shallow, or the paint sits proud of the surface.
  • The date window. Genuine magnification is 2.5x with a clean edge. Replicas run small, or the lens distorts the corner of the dial.
  • Crown action and GMT setting. On the real 3187, the hour hand jumps independently in one-hour steps. Many replicas use a generic movement where the hand either does not jump or jumps with a grind you can feel through the crown.
  • Bracelet feel. Solid end links and a tight clasp are expensive to copy well.

None of that is a buying checklist. It is the opposite. The closer a fake gets to the real thing, the more it costs to make, and the more it costs you the moment anything goes wrong.

The legal side nobody puts in the listing

Counterfeit watches are not a gray-market product. They are trademark infringements. Under US law, selling or importing them carries civil liability and criminal exposure, and Customs and Border Protection seizes counterfeit goods at the border. That last part matters if you buy from overseas. The package can be stopped and destroyed, and you have no recourse.

There is also the practical problem. A replica has no warranty and no service path. Rolex will not touch it. Independent watchmakers will usually decline, because the movement is not the movement it claims to be, and parts do not exist for it. A 42mm Oystersteel case with a generic movement inside is a disposable object.

Bottom line

The 216570 is a specific watch. 42mm, caliber 3187, orange 24-hour hand, fixed bezel, built for ten years and then retired. You can learn its proportions from photos, and you can understand what Rolex engineered into it. What you cannot get from a replica is the engineering, the legality, or any kind of support after the sale. If the appeal is the look, that is a real thing. Just go in knowing which part of it is real.