By Meor Amri Meor Ayob
For many years watch enthusiasts have been obsessed with the blue and red “Pepsi” bezel. I won’t be surprised that Rolex got loads of request to re-introduce the GMT with a “Pepsi” bezel. This year, for Baselworld 2014, Rolex delivered.
Enthusiasts would be happy to know that Rolex uses a proprietary technology to create the exquisite Cerachrom bezels. It begins with a red mono-block disk, one section of which is chemically modified at the granular level to change the red to blue, with a perfectly clear border between the colors. This technology and use of such material reduces the likelihood of scratches and fading which was one of the problems of the original GMT “Pepsi” Master ref. 6542 bakelite bezel. In case you are wondering, the bezel on this model differs from that on the 904L stainless steel GMT-Masters, so it is not interchangeable.
Unfortunately, the 40 mm Oyster case is crafted from 18k white gold which puts it at a price point that would be too steep for many watch collectors. But don’t despair; this is the standard marketing strategy of Rolex which usually release precious metal models first before introducing the more affordable variants such as stainless steel.
The technical specs of this new GMT is similar to last year’s Black and Blue “Batman” GMT-Master II, including the use of the cal. 3186 movement with a Parachrom hairspring with Breguet overcoil.
I can’t wait for the stainless steel variant to be made available. Chances are it should be in the market within 6 months time (hopefully!!). For more info, please visit rolex.com
Meor Amri Meor Ayob – Contributing Editor
Meor Amri is a passionate watch collector from Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur. Having bitten by the horology bug in 2010, he has written extensively about the watch scene and has assembled a large collection of watches (excessively!!) on his own free time.
His blogs on the same subject are: Watch Collection Hobby & My Horological Photos
