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A t the end of World War II, advances in aviation saw the advent of the Jet Age, an era defined by optimism and excitement. Rolex played a crucial part with the introduction of its GMT-Master – a watch designed for pilots and jet-setters alike. Rolex made waves in 1953 with its Submariner, but not everyone aspired to deep-sea diving. A weekend in Tokyo, however, or a vacation on the Cote d’Azur? Now that was a dream everyone could embrace.
Travel watches existed before the Rolex GMT-Master, but they were mostly complicated and fussy world-time configurations. Rolex’s key innovation with the GMT-Master was its simplicity. An additional hour hand traverses the dial once every 24 hours, while a rotating bezel allows the user to track a second, or even third, time zone without disrupting the watch’s main functions. It’s a practical, elegant solution to a complex problem, which is why the GMT-Master has endured for over 70 years, continuing to evolve as a mainstay of Rolex’s collection today.
When it really comes down to it, there might be no watch more aspirational and exciting than the Rolex GMT-Master.
The GMT-Master wasn’t something dreamed up by Rolex’s marketing department or imagined by collectors – its ties to aviation have been practical since day one. Rolex designed the watch in collaboration with Pan American World Airways. Pilots were flying a bevy of new international routes as global commercial air travel exploded in the early 1950s. Pan-Am wanted their pilots to be able to track both their home time and their destination time, all in one watch. The result of their collaboration was the reference 6542.
Rolex’s solution was to devise was a special hour hand that rotates at half speed, its broad arrow circumnavigating the dial once every 24 hours. While the primary hour hand points to the 12-hour markers on the dial, this additional hour hand points to a 24-hour bezel that can be rotated to indicate a second time zone. The window at 3-o’clock shows the home location’s date. Flying from New York to London? Simply position the dot between 4 and 6 at 12-o’clock to indicate the five-hour difference between Eastern Standard Time and Greenwich Mean Time – the watch’s namesake. Los Angeles to Hong Kong? Twist the other direction, until the 16 is up top. From there, it’s easy to read the time in both locations at a glance. It’s a textbook example of doing a lot with a little.
“The GMT-Master has an incredible, mid-century mystique along with an undeniable sense of adventure.”
The original, reference 6542 GMT-Master also introduced Rolex’s famous Pepsi bezel, so-named because of its dark-blue section representing night and red section representing day. While not used on every GMT-Master model, this two-tone bezel configuration – offered in various color combinations – has become one of the watch’s calling cards, instantly setting it apart from the Submariner’s similar features and styling.
“The GMT-Master has a jet-setter flair uniquely its own,” says Vincent Brasesco, Sotheby’s Vice President and Director of Digital Strategy in the Watches Department. “It has an incredible, mid-century mystique along with an undeniable sense of adventure that evokes far-flung locales.”
The combination of purposeful design and charming character has made the GMT-Master a popular model for Rolex for over seven decades and counting. Some form of GMT has been in production ever since that original introduction, and the brand has continued to innovate on the original design as watchmaking technology and engineering have advanced. Newer movements have allowed for an independently set 24-hour hand, along with bezels that rotate in precisely calibrated clicks. Yet throughout all of these changes, the GMT-Master has endured as one of Rolex’s most iconic models – and for good reason.
“There are so many iterations and details, which has generated some of the best scholarship in all of watch collecting.”
Between its various bezels and movements, understanding the various GMT-Masters can feel a little intimidating – and that’s before we mention the GMT-Master II.
“With the GMT-Master, you can really lean into the scholarship – maybe more so than with any other Rolex sport model,” says Geoff Hess, Global Head of Watches at Sotheby’s and a world-renowned expert on Rolex. “You have to look at the crown guards, the dial, the GMT hand, the font on the bezel, the bezel material, if there's an underline or not and so on. There are so many iterations and details, which has generated some of the best scholarship in all of watch collecting.”
Despite all that, the distinctions between various models can seem more confusing than they actually are. Answering these three simple questions can go a long way toward narrowing your search for the right watch.
Remember the Pepsi? Well, that’s not an official Rolex name.
Collectors love giving watches nicknames, and few more-so than the GMT-Master, with its seemingly endless color configurations. The original blue-and-red combination is known as the Pepsi because its colors match those of the soda brand. Over time many Pepsi bezels have faded to all kinds of different colors, but they’re all still Pepsis just the same. One significant variant worth mentioning is the fuschia Pepsi, whose red section has faded to a vibrant pinkish-purple.
As the GMT-Master collection grew, so too did the number of nicknameable options. In 1970, Rolex introduced the two-tone steel-and-gold GMT-Master with a brown-and-gold bezel that earned it the Root Beer moniker. When introducing the updated GMT-Master II model in 1982, Rolex added a black-and-red Coke bezel to the mix, and later on came the left-handed, green-and-black Sprite. Breaking out of the soda theme, the Batman (black-and-blue) has been one of the most popular GMT-Master II references in recent years, along with its Batgirl on the Jubilee bracelet.
A word to the wise: Remember to refer to the watch simply as a “Pepsi” or to its Pepsi bezel. Nothing betrays a newbie faster than uttering “Pepsi dial” in a crowd of collectors.
It wouldn’t be vintage Rolex collecting without a little controversy. There are a handful of known GMT-Master watches from the 1970s with so-called Blueberry bezels, which have a uniformly rich blue color. Many collectors believe these were service bezels added during repairs, while others think they were a custom order available at select retailers. Some even believe the Rolex Blueberry to be outright faked, its bezel inserts added later to make the watches seem more collectible. The fact that there’s no firm answer has made the Blueberry something of a legendary beast among watch collectors.
The original GMT-Master was able to track a second timezone with very little mechanical intervention by gearing a 24-hour hand directly to the main hour hand. The second timezone was set via the bezel, which simply needed to be pushed down and rotated freely in either direction.
But as movement technology evolved, so too did the functioning of the GMT-Master. First among these innovations was the caliber 1575 GMT, introduced around 1967, which allowed the date display to change instantaneously at midnight, as opposed to slowly over the course of several hours. In 1980, the GMT-Master reference 16750 saw the introduction of the caliber 3075, which added a quick-set date – meaning you can independently advance the date display without having to rotate the hands 24 hours.
More importantly, the actual GMT functionality evolved as well. With the introduction of the GMT-Master II in 1988, Rolex introduced the Caliber 3185, which allowed the 24-hour hand to be set independently of the main hour hand. This allows the wearer to adjust the second time zone without disrupting the main time display. And because the 24-hour hand could now be set to Greenwich Mean Time or another time zone without twisting the bezel, that means the bezel can now be rotated to track a third time display. Sure, it gets a bit complicated to read three time zones at a glance, but that’s a lot of functionality from a relatively simple mechanical solution.
“I like a nicely aged bezel that speaks to the story of the watch’s life, with some gentle fading to it.”
When people speak about the bezels of GMT-Master watches, what they’re typically referring to is actually the bezel insert. The bezel itself is the steel or gold ring that attaches to the case, but sitting within the bezel is the insert ring, where the 24-hour scale resides.
On the very first reference 6542 GMT-Master watches, that bezel insert was made of Bakelite plastic. They have a translucent quality to them, with the blue and red seemingly to float beneath the clear surface. It’s an incredible visual effect and unlike anything else in Rolex’s history. However, because the red Bakelite was discovered to be dangerously radioactive, many of these bezel inserts were replaced with aluminum inserts during service. This makes the originals even more collectible.
Aluminum would go on to be the bezel insert material of choice for Rolex from Approximately 1959 until 2007. The aluminum is lightweight and responds positively to the different color treatments that give the GMT watches their personality. Rolex only replaced aluminum when it introduced Cerachrom, its proprietary colored ceramic, making the bezels more three-dimensional and more durable in the process.
“With the GMT-Master we always look for the same hallmarks as any other vintage Rolex – case condition, how polished it is, the finish of the dial, including the crispness of the printing and the luminescent material,” says Brasesco. “And while a matter of personal preference, I like a nicely aged bezel that speaks to the story of the watch’s life, with some gentle fading to it. I never want something that looks too new.”
While there are dozens of different GMT-Masters out there to collect from the model’s 70-year history, clear generation make the watch a bit easier to understand. Each generation offers a different take on the GMT experience, making for a rich and limitless collecting journey.
The original GMT-Master, designed in partnership with Pan-Am Airways, is the reference 6542. It looks every bit the part of a Rolex sports watch of the era: its stainless-steel case has no crown guards, sharply beveled lugs and a matching stainless-steel Oyster bracelet. It also features the now-iconic blue-and-red Pepsi bezel, rendered in translucent Bakelite plastic with once-glowing radium markers inside. There are two different versions of the dial – the earlier with smaller luminous plots, the latter with larger ones – but both feature a bright white seconds hands and a slim red GMT hand with a small arrow at the tip (features not seen on later references).
A solid-gold reference 6542 was introduced in 1958 with the same general profile as its predecessor. However, it featured a brown Bakelite bezel, Alpha hands (instead of the more common Mercedes-style hands) and a nipple dial (with raised metal markers) for the hours.
It is not uncommon to find reference 6542 GMT-Masters with aluminum bezel inserts in place of the original Bakelite. Because of Bakelite’s radioactivity, many of them were replaced by Rolex when watches came in for service. This makes the watch better suited to everyday wear, but it can also make it less collectible. Original GMT bezels alone can fetch large sums, and they’re one of the more unique design elements in Rolex’s history.
Produced for over 20 years, the reference 1675 is the most classic vintage GMT-Master. It implemented a number of important design changes to the original 6542: adding crown guards to the case (along with a smaller crown), introductng colored aluminum bezel inserts and, eventually, broadening the GMT hand into a larger luminous arrow at the tip.
Hess argues it’s the ideal Rolex for collectors today. “The reference 1675 GMT-Master is that perfect balance of being iconic and extremely wearable,” he says. “The reference 6542 can be a bit fragile because of the Bakelite bezel, and the 1675 has all the history and the deep connection with aviation. It’s also hard to think of a brand today that hasn’t pulled some kind of inspiration from the classic Pepsi – it really is that iconic.”
Because it was around for so long, the reference 1675 witnessed many of the broader changes Rolex made to its sport watches during the mid-century. You can find early models with glossy gilt dials as well as later models with powdery matte dials, and there are GMT-Masters that were originally sold on both Oyster and Jubilee bracelets, with various different end-links. One thing that stayed relatively consistent was the movement, which was either the Caliber 1565 or Caliber 1575 for the watch’s entire lifespan – with the instantaneous date change being the only major difference between the two.
“The reference 1675 GMT-Master is that perfect balance of being iconic and extremely wearable.”
With the introduction of the Caliber 3075 in 1980, Rolex also transitioned away from the familiar four-digit reference numbers. The stainless steel reference 16750 was the first of these watches, acting as a sort of transitional model that spanned the vintage matte dial and modern glossy dial eras. It also had a quick-set date but not a flying GMT hand, placing it in a technical middle ground.
Its successor, the reference 16700, would be the last GMT-Master reference and the last with this combination of features. It was introduced in 1988, but Rolex would continue to make it for more than a decade, finally discontinuing the original GMT-Master altogether in 1999.
What replaced the GMT-Master (with some overlap) was the GMT-Master II, first introduced as the reference 16760 in 1982. This watch introduced both the black-and-red Coke bezel and the Caliber 3085, with its independently adjustable GMT hand. The Pepsi bezel rejoined the party in 1989 with the introduction of the reference 16710, which was still available with the popular Coke bezel, too. This version of the GMT-Master II would be another long-running success for Rolex, remaining in production until 2007, when the next major technological leap arrived.
Five-digit GMT-Masters are often the most confusing for collectors to navigate, so here’s a brief summary of each reference over the years:
The GMT-Master II firmly entered the 21st century in 2007, with the introduction of the first six-digit reference model, the reference 116710LN. This GMT-Master II introduced a few technical innovations and design changes: the stainless steel case became larger – in Rolex parlance, it uses the Maxi case – while the Caliber 3186 utilizes an antimagnetic Parachrom hairspring for improved reliability. Crucially, its bezel insert is made of deep black Cerachrom, Rolex’s proprietary ceramic material, with the 24-hour markings etcged in relief. Interestingly, in 2007 Rolex lacked the know-how to reliably manufacture a single piece of ceramic split between two colors, and so this reference lacks the GMT-Master’s iconic bicolor look.
It didn’t take long for that last thing to change though. In 2013, Rolex introduced the reference 116710BLNR, nicknamed the Batman, with a combination blue-and-black ceramic bezel. The very next year, the Pepsi made its ceramic debut in the white-gold reference 116719BLRO (and eventually in steel in the reference 126710BLRO). In 2022, Rolex added two more firsts to the GMT-Master catalogue with the reference 126720VTNR (AKA the Sprite): a left-handed configuration with the crown and date window moved to the opposite side of the case and a black-and-green Cerachrom bezel.
While much of the appeal of the GMT-Master lies in its relatively simplicity and no-nonsense attitude, there are some more lavish iterations of the famous travel watch, too. The most famous of these is the SARU, or reference 126755SARU, which has a pink-gold case paired with pavé diamonds on the bracelet, lugs and dial, as well as blue sapphires and red rubies on the bezel to create the familiar Pepsi look. Other gem-set options include the reference 116759SANR and reference 116758SANR, which feature diamonds and black sapphires on white- and yellow-gold cases, respectively.
With the introduction of the gold reference 6542 in 1959, the GMT-Master was way ahead of the curve when it came to precious metal sport watches. Precious-metal GMT-Masters would continue to be produced near continuously through the end of the 1980s, with yellow-gold examples proving quite popular. The reference 1675 was offered with brown dials and bezels, while the reference 16710 was outfitted in black. Both could be had on Oyster or Jubilee bracelets, just like their steel counterparts. After a hiatus in the 1990s and early 2000s, the gold GMT-Master was revived, with the reference 116718 bringing back that familiar black-and-gold look (and a special edition with a green dial accompanying it as well).
Rolex introduced white gold for the first time with the reference 116719BLRO in 2014 and Everose gold shortly thereafter in 201. The familiar yellow-gold version was retired in 2019 before getting a new iteration entirely in 2023 with the reference 126718GRNR, which features a black-and-grey bezel and a Jubilee bracelet.
Two-tone models have also long been a mainstay in the GMT-Master lineup, beginning in 1970 with the reference 1675/3 Root Beer. These models traditionally have steel cases with a gold bezel ring, gold crown and gold hands, as well as nipple dials. They were also often delivered on two-tone gold-and-steel bracelets in both Oyster and Jubilee styles. Traditionally, these were always combinations of steel and yellow gold, but in 2014, alongside the introduction of the solid Everose model, Rolex added a two-tone steel-and-rose-gold model for the first time – the reference 126711CHNR. It was eventually joined by the reference 126713GRNR in 2023, which brought back the yellow-gold configuration with a Jubilee bracelet and a black-and-grey bezel.
The Rolex GMT-Master is truly a bottomless rabbit hole of collecting interest and joy. The level of scholarship is nearly unmatched, and the dedication of the collectors and enthusiasts ensures that we will only continue to learn more about these fascinating watches as time goes on. Sotheby's is on hand to support as a trusted partner on your personal collecting journey. Let Sotheby’s Rolex experts guide you and in doing so be part of our passionate community of watch enthusiasts and collectors.
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