Why the Rolex GMT-Master II Costs What It Does

A two-color bezel, an arrow-tipped hand and a watch made for pilots crossing oceans in the jet age. How the GMT-Master became the most famous travel watch in the world, why its bezels all have soft-drink and superhero names, and what you’re really paying for.

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The appraisal

It’s nearly midnight at the departure gate and she’s the only one not looking at her phone. She’s looking at her wrist, then at the board, then back at her wrist.

It’s steel, on a bracelet of small, polished five-piece links that catch the overhead lights. The bezel is split in two colors, blue for one half of the day and black for the other, and numbered to 24, not 12. A trained eye goes to the fourth hand, a thin one with an arrow on the end. It isn’t pointing anywhere near the hour hand. It’s pointing at the 7 on the blue side of the bezel. Seven in the morning, somewhere.

Then the smaller things. The bezel turns both ways, and she’s left it lined up straight, so the arrow is reading true home time. The bracelet is a little loose, the way people wear a watch on long flights when their wrists swell. And the date, under its small lens, has already moved on to tomorrow, because her hour hand is set to the city she’s flying out of, not the one she’s going home to.

What does it say about her? That she lives in two places at once, and has made her peace with it. The watch does the arithmetic so she doesn’t call home at three in the morning.

Where it came from

1955: a watch for the jet age

In the 1950s, airliners began crossing several time zones in a single flight, and for the first time it mattered to know the time in more than one place at once. Rolex’s answer, launched in 1955, was the GMT-Master. Rolex says it was designed as a navigation aid for professionals criss-crossing the globe, and became the official watch of several airlines, among them Pan Am.

The idea was simple. A fourth hand goes round the dial once every 24 hours, and a rotating bezel is marked from 1 to 24 in two colors that separate daytime from night-time hours. Set the 24-hour hand to Greenwich Mean Time, or to home, and you can read it at a glance wherever you are. Turn the bezel and you can read a third time zone, too.

Hodinkee’s history of the model describes the first one, the ref. 6542, as large for its time at 38mm. Its red-and-blue bezel insert was made of Bakelite, which cracked easily, and Rolex soon replaced it with metal.

1982: the hour hand that jumps

On the original GMT-Master, the 24-hour hand moved in step with the hour hand. In 1982, Rolex introduced the GMT-Master II, whose hour hand can be “jumped” an hour at a time, forwards or backwards, without stopping the watch. A traveler resets local time on landing and leaves the 24-hour hand on home. The first one, the ref. 16760, was thicker to fit the new movement, so collectors call it the “Fat Lady,” or the “Sophia Loren.” The older GMT-Master stayed in the catalogue alongside it until 1999.

Pepsi, Coke, Root Beer, Batman and Sprite

Every GMT bezel has a nickname, and none of them are Rolex’s.

• “Pepsi”: red and blue, the original colors.
• “Coke”: red and black, introduced on that first GMT-Master II in 1982.
• “Root Beer”: brown and gold tones, from the 1970s steel-and-gold GMT-Master, brought back in 2018. Hodinkee says Clint Eastwood wore one as his personal watch.
• “Batman”: blue and black. In 2013 this became the first two-color ceramic bezel Rolex made. On the Jubilee bracelet, from 2019, some call it the “Batgirl.”
• “Sprite”: green and black, launched in 2022 with the crown on the left side, a first for the model.

A black-and-gray version followed in 2024. More on the stories behind Rolex nicknames.

Two colors in one piece of ceramic

The modern bezels are harder to make than they look. Rolex’s ceramic insert, called Cerachrom, is a single piece in two colors, with no paint. Hodinkee reports that blue-and-black is the easier combination, because the black covers the blue beneath it, and Wikipedia notes that red was the color Rolex struggled to make well in ceramic. Under ultraviolet light, a ceramic Pepsi insert shows up as entirely red.

That difficulty shaped the model. When ceramic reached the steel GMT-Master II in 2007, it came only in black. The ceramic Pepsi didn’t return until 2014, in white gold, and didn’t reach steel until 2018. Then, in April 2026, Hodinkee reported that Rolex had officially discontinued the Pepsi in both steel and white gold. As of October 2026, Rolex’s site still lists the Batman, and the steel Pepsi’s product page no longer loads.

Famous wrists and moments

A pilot named Pussy Galore

In Goldfinger in 1964, Honor Blackman’s character, Pussy Galore, flies her own squadron of pilots, and Hodinkee notes that she wears the first GMT-Master, the ref. 6542. It’s the right watch for the part.

Colonel Kurtz’s watch

Marlon Brando wore his own GMT-Master, a 1972 ref. 1675, as Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now, with the bezel taken off. According to Phillips, Brando’s daughter Petra said he was told to remove the watch because it would stand out, and he argued, “If they’re looking at my watch, then I’m not doing my job as an actor.” He kept it on and took the bezel off instead. He had hand-engraved “M. Brando” on the case back. In 1995 he gave it to Petra after her graduation, with a letter, telling her the watch was “like a tank.” Phillips sold it in New York on December 10, 2019, for $1,952,000.

A private eye in Hawaii

If you watched television in the 1980s, Hodinkee points out, you probably saw a GMT-Master on Tom Selleck’s wrist in Magnum, P.I., a ref. 16750. Today Rolex names the tennis players Jannik Sinner and Taylor Fritz and the show jumper Kevin Staut among the people who wear the GMT-Master II.

What owners say

These are owners’ own accounts, paraphrased in our words. Each is one person’s experience, not a fact about every watch.

The dial his father chose. On the Rolex Forums, a collector wrote in January 2013 that he’d inherited a Pepsi GMT-Master ref. 1675 on a Jubilee bracelet from his father, who bought it in 1965 while in the service. He’d had it overhauled and it ran well, but he didn’t love the gold-printed dial, whose hour markers had turned greenish. He wanted to fit a white-printed dial so he’d enjoy wearing it, while keeping the original so his own son could have it put back one day. The replies were the useful part. One member explained that a Rolex service center would want the original dial and hands in exchange for new ones, and another warned him that the original gilt dial was quite valuable in its own right.

Which time do you keep? In a May 2015 thread, owners explained what they track on the 24-hour hand. A pilot said he keeps it on GMT, because pilots live on GMT. A locomotive engineer said his job requires a watch set to the time zone he’s working in, and his route crosses two, so one GMT solves it. Another owner said he first went to Las Vegas in 2008 and got married there, bought his GMT the next year, and has kept it reading Vegas time ever since, with the bezel turned to match. And one owner, who travels abroad a lot, keeps it on home time so he doesn’t call and wake anyone.

The buying guide

More appraisals: The Watches Worth Knowing: Stories Behind the Dials, including Why the Rolex Explorer II Costs What It Does, which shares the GMT-Master II’s calibre 3285, as well as the Submariner and the Cosmograph Daytona. For an everyday Rolex without the second time zone, see the Rolex Datejust or the Oyster Perpetual.

GMT-Master versus GMT-Master II

• GMT-Master (1955 to 1999). The 24-hour hand is tied to the hour hand. You track a second zone by turning the bezel. The ref. 1675 ran from 1959 to 1980, and Hodinkee calls it one of the longest-running Rolex references.
• GMT-Master II, aluminium bezel (1982 to 2007). The independent hour hand arrives. The long-running ref. 16710 came in Pepsi, Coke and black.
• GMT-Master II, ceramic (2007 on). Cerachrom bezels, a heavier case and, since 2018, calibre 3285 with about 70 hours of power reserve.

What holds value

• The bezel. Color drives this model more than anything. The red bezels are the most chased, and the Pepsi’s 2026 discontinuation means every steel Pepsi from here on is pre-owned.
• Originality. On vintage pieces, the original dial, hands and insert matter most (see “The dial his father chose” above).
• The honest caveat. “Holds its value” describes the model’s standing, not a promise about any one watch.

Box and papers

Box, warranty card and service records all help, and they help most when they match the watch. Ask for photos of the reference and serial numbers and check them against the papers. An independent resale doesn’t carry Rolex’s own guarantee, so read the listing’s warranty field. See what box and papers really tell you.

Service

Current models are Superlative Chronometers, tested to within −2/+2 seconds a day after casing. If you send a vintage GMT-Master in, decide in advance whether you want the original dial and hands kept, and say so in writing. More in servicing a Rolex.

What to check

• Sold by. Name the reseller and read how it authenticates. In Amazon Luxury, pre-owned watches come from independent resellers in its program, such as What Goes Around Comes Around.
• Master or Master II. Pull the crown to the first position and try jumping the hour hand. On a GMT-Master II it moves an hour at a time while the watch keeps running.
• The date. It should change with the local hour hand at midnight, cleanly, and sit centered under the lens.
• The bezel insert. On older models, aluminium inserts are easy to swap, and Hodinkee notes that because bezels aren’t signed, they’re easier to fake. Ask whether the insert is original. On ceramic models, check for chips.
• Reference against title. Make sure the bezel colors, bracelet and metal match the reference. Descriptions are sometimes copied from a similar listing.
• Bracelet stretch. A well-worn Jubilee can sag between the links. Ask for a photo of it held sideways.
• The 30-day window. Amazon Luxury returns must be unused and unaltered, so don’t size the bracelet or have it serviced until you’ve decided to keep it.

The honest downsides

• Red bezels cost the most. They’re the most chased, and since the steel Pepsi’s 2026 discontinuation every one from here on is pre-owned.
• The ceramic watch is heavier. Ceramic models have a heavier case than the aluminium-bezel GMTs before them.
• Listing titles get it wrong. One piece here is titled GMT-Master II but gives reference 16700, which Rolex sold as the GMT-Master.
• Aluminium inserts fade. On older pieces a replaced insert changes the value.

Why it costs what it does

You’re paying for a watch designed when flying across an ocean was new, an hour hand that jumps so the rest of the watch doesn’t have to stop, and a red-and-blue ceramic bezel that took Rolex years to bring to steel, and has now been retired. Most owners never navigate anything. They just want to know, with one glance, what time it is where their heart is.

More stories

• Why the Rolex Submariner Costs What It Does: the one-way bezel, the first Bond watch, and Kermit, Hulk and Starbucks
• Why the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona Costs What It Does: the racing stopwatch, Paul Newman’s watch and the Rainbow
• Why the Rolex Datejust Costs What It Does: the date window, the Jubilee and the wrists that made the Datejust
• Why the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Costs What It Does: the plainest Rolex, and the turquoise dial everyone calls Tiffany
• Pepsi, Batman and a Frog: The Stories Behind Rolex Nicknames: Pepsi, Batman, Kermit and the Paul Newman, and which origins are lore
• The Quiet Overhaul: What Really Happens When You Service a Rolex: what really happens on the bench, and why owners ask for no polish
• The Cardboard That Matters: What Box and Papers Mean for a Rolex: what a full set is, and what can never be replaced
• Why the Rolex Explorer II Costs What It Does: the orange hand built for cavers and polar explorers
• Why the Rolex Sky-Dweller Costs What It Does: the annual calendar and the bezel that sets the watch
• The Maisons: The Houses Behind the Pieces Worth Knowing: the saddlers, jewelers and watchmaker behind the pieces
• Every watch story on Finely Owned, in one place

Sources

• Rolex, GMT-Master II
• Rolex, GMT-Master II ref. 126710BLNR
• Rolex, History 1953–1967
• Rolex, Oyster Story: A Collection Shaped by Innovation
• Hodinkee, Reference Points: Understanding the Rolex GMT-Master (Mar 31, 2020)
• Hodinkee, Rolex has officially discontinued the “Pepsi” GMT-Master II (Apr 13, 2026)
• SwissWatchExpo, Every Rolex discontinued at Watches & Wonders 2026 (Apr 15, 2026)
• Wikipedia, Rolex GMT Master II
• Phillips, Game Changers, Lot 30: Marlon Brando’s GMT-Master ref. 1675 (Dec 10, 2019)
• Hodinkee, Marlon Brando’s GMT-Master sells for $1,952,000 (Dec 10, 2019)
• Owner accounts: Rolex Forums, “Dial change for 1675 GMT”; Rolex Forums, “GMT Owners: What city or timezone do you track with the GMT hand and why?”

Footnotes

1. Photograph: “Rolex GMT Master II Pepsi” by OpaleHorse, via Wikimedia Commons (File:Rolex_GMT_Master_II_Pepsi.jpg), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (resized for web). ↩

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Finely Owned is independent and isn’t affiliated with Rolex.