Rolex GMT-Master II "Pepsi" Jubilee 126710BLRO 2021

Reference 126710BLRO is the GMT-Master II with the red and blue bezel that everybody calls the “Pepsi”, here on the Jubilee bracelet.

Red is the difficult colour in ceramic. The two-colour Cerachrom insert on this watch is red and blue in a single fired piece, with the numerals and graduations moulded into the material rather than laid on its surface. Persuading one ceramic ring to hold two colours at all is the hard part; persuading one of them to come out a clean red is harder again, and it is the reason this bezel took so long to exist in this form.

In the metal it reads dense and glossy, the red closer to burgundy than to pillar box in anything but direct light, and the blue half noticeably darker than it looks in photographs. Against a polished Jubilee it is a louder watch than the specification sheet suggests.

The movement is calibre 3285, self-winding, good for roughly 70 hours away from the wrist and certified to within two seconds a day either side once cased. The case measures forty millimetres in Oystersteel, water resistant to 100 metres, beneath a bidirectional 24-hour graduated bezel; the Jubilee closes on an Oysterlock safety clasp and carries the 5 mm Easylink extension.

Mint, 2021, offered as a full set. The second hand market is where this reference has always really lived.

Every watch is authenticated by an independent watchmaker before it changes hands, never by us. Viewing by appointment at our Collins Street boutique in Melbourne, insured delivery Australia-wide. We buy Rolex outright and source specific references on request.