A history of the Rolex GMT-Master-II "Pepsi" through the ages, touching down with the 126710BRLRO

[Music] hello youtube today we are talking about the rolex gmt master ii pepsi released in 2018 and i'd just like to reflect on a couple of things about this watch because having been there at baselworld 2018 when this watch was released i was surprised about some of the some of the impressions it struck in me and the team and how different this model is the later update which has a very different tone of blue and red if you could call it that to the bezel now when this watch was first released in 2018 and i held it i remember thinking this can't be right these colors are off and the blue was more of a blueberry it was a very bright blue and the red well it was this very odd shade of purple but again i remember thinking are we really going to film this because i'm not sure these colors are what rolex is intending if they're calling this a pepsi of course rolex in their wisdom changed the compound of those ceramic tones and now we have something that much closer resembles the pepsi of yore now this watch of course was the move from rolex away from the tool watch origins of the gmt master and this model reunited the watch with its jubilee bracelet now we're going to get into that in detail in the review but i must say this color corrected pepsi is a very different proposition to the one that i did not fall in love with back in the day and this jubilee bracelet is an extremely comfortable proposition we'll let the voiceover take from here but i just wanted to jump in and say one of the most hyped watches of the last five years for a very good reason let's get into it sure everyone loves steel sports watches from rolex if you're a regular reader of time and tide this shouldn't come as a shock to you and you're probably actually sick of hearing about how much they're selling for over retail or how difficult they are to buy brand new but in this breathless land of hyperbole are there any still sports watches from rolex that actually live up to the hype a lot's been said about the rolex gmt master ii reference 12 6710 blro since it was released in 2018 so let's take a closer look and see if it actually deserves all the love it gets before we do though don't forget to like this video subscribe to tomat and make sure you don't miss out on any more of our videos by clicking that bell icon rolex first released the gmt master to the public back in 1954 after working with pilots from the pan am airline to design a functional travel watch the watch we're looking at today the reference 126710 actually reminds us of the first ever rolex gmt master in the reference 6542 the muted tones of the modern blue and red cerachrom bezel hark back to the two color bakelite bezels from the mid-50s which were replaced by aluminium only a few years after the pepsi bezel continued to be an important part of the gmt master collection with aluminium inserts used from 1959 all the way into 2007 when the reference 16 710 was discontinued in a transitional few years between the original sports watch cases of the past and the modern maxi cases that were first launched in 2005 the modern reference 12 6710 features a 40 millimeter oyster steel case that's relatively slim at a hair over 12 millimeters thick likewise the lug to lug measurement shows just how wearable it is for a range of wrist sizes at just over 48 millimeters with the jubilee bracelet tapering downwards around your wrist almost immediately the case features the polished flanks of the modern maxi case while the tops of the lugs are vertically brushed the case has a solid screw down case back and trip lock crown that guarantees 100 metres of water resistance just as 2005 saw the introduction of the maxi case for rolex sports watches it was also the year that they launched the cerachrom bezel which was first seen in the gmt master ii line in the yellow gold reference 11671 this completely black bezel is thought to have been released thanks to the difficulty of creating two color bezels in the ceramic material and it wasn't until 2013 that two colors were seen publicly in the batman the red and blue bezel of this modern pepsi reference can be turned in both directions and the 24-hour scale has been engraved in the ceramic before being filled in with platinum using a pvd process obtaining our attention now to the jubilee bracelet and we have the second piece of rolex history brought back into the spotlight throughout its journey the rolex gmt master and gmt master ii have been available on the famous five link jubilee bracelet in fact the jubilee bracelet was the first bracelet the rolex was able to make in-house giving it a special place in the watchmaker's history the jubilee stopped being available on the gmt master ii references when the reference 16710 was discontinued and took a hiatus until it returned new and improved in 2018 with the reference 126710 we're looking at today included in the improvements are the solid centrelinks the folding lock clasp and also the easylink five millimeter extension link that can be used on hot days when the bracelet feels a little tight all of these changes result in a supremely comfortable bracelet with the tolerances between the links small enough to make it feel extremely solid while also being incredibly flexible as it wraps around the wrist sure it's just a bracelet but it's a feat of engineering that rolex is almost alone in being able to produce at a mass scale the black and blue batman gmt master ii from 2019 was also released in steel and on a jubilee bracelet the dial of the rolex gmt master ii reference 12 6710 blro is black lacquer that has the almost liquid appearance of a very deep very still pool the hands and hour markers are white gold and filled with rolex's own proprietary blue chromalight luminous material to make the watch easy to read no matter how light it is outside over the dial is sapphire crystal with a cyclops date magnifier which is something we've become accustomed to seeing in the rolex gmt master ii the final important update to the rolex gmt master ii reference 12 6710 and blro is the movement it's now powered by the automatic in-house caliber 3285 which tracks the time second time zone and date to an accuracy of plus minus two seconds per day even better than cost as has been the case with all rolex gmt master ii watches the second time zone is easier to track thanks to an independently movable hour hand a feature that was the main difference between the gmt master and the gmt master ii when it was launched in 1983. the caliber has 70 hours of power reserve an anti-magnetic chronergy escapement and a temperature resistant parachrom hairspring basically rolex's most sophisticated gmt movement to date so there you have it the rolex gmt master ii reference 126710 blro in all its glory is there a lot of hype around it absolutely does it demand a significant premium on the secondary market against its rrp you bet it does but does it deserve the amount of attention it's gotten over the last few years in my book it does not only because the pepsi bezel gmt is one of the more historically important watches in the rolex archive but from a technical and wearability standpoint it's simply one of the most impressive travel watches that's been released in recent years there's a good reason that the legendary independent watchmaker felipe dufour was spotted wearing one at baselworld one year he knows a decent watch when he picks one up and the latest version of the rolex pepsi is a very decent watch indeed what do you think about the rolex pepsi though does it deserve the hype or is it overrated in your opinion let us know in the comments below and as always thanks for watching

Channel: Time+Tide Watches

Views: 44,437

Keywords: watch, time, time and tide, watches, luxury, time+tide, time+tidewatches, timetidewatches

Id: qeOHGPjpymI

Length: 8min 11sec (491 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 11 2021