What is a Pepsi bezel?

The name comes from the red and blue halves of the bezel insert, which match the colors on a Pepsi can. Rolex introduced the two-color insert on the first GMT-Master, the 6542, in the mid-1950s so a pilot could read the 24-hour hand against day and night at a glance: red covers roughly 6 in the morning to 6 in the evening, blue the rest. The nickname came from the trade, not from Rolex, and it stuck the way most Rolex nicknames do. Later two-color inserts got their own names, Coke for black and red and Batman for black and blue, but Pepsi is the original.

A faded Pepsi is a vintage aluminum insert whose colors have softened with sun. The inserts on the 1675 and 16750 were anodized aluminum with the color dyed in, and the dye was not stable under ultraviolet light. Over decades the red drifts toward pink, salmon or fuchsia, and the blue toward a pale sky blue or lilac. Every insert fades differently, so a well-faded one is unique to that watch. Collectors prize inserts that have faded evenly and kept their printed numerals sharp, and the 1675 full set we sold, with a sky blue and fuchsia insert, is what a good one looks like.

Look at the fade first. An original insert on a 1970s watch should show some softening of color, and it should be consistent with the age of the lume on the dial and hands. A bright, saturated red and blue insert on a 1971 watch is almost always a later service replacement, which is fine for wearing but worth less to a collector. Then look at the font and the numerals: the shape of the numbers, the width of the strokes and the size of the triangle at 12 changed over the years, and a mismatch between the insert style and the serial range is a tell. Finally, check the lume pearl at 12, which should be aged and intact.

• Even fade, sharp numerals, aged pearl: likely original.
• Saturated colors on an early watch: service replacement.
• Font style wrong for the serial range: replaced.
• Missing or bright white pearl: replaced or repaired.

Rolex moved the Pepsi to a ceramic bezel with the 116719BLRO in 2014, first in white gold and then in steel with the 126710BLRO in 2018. Ceramic does not fade, so a modern Pepsi will look the same in fifty years as it does today. In April 2026 Rolex discontinued the ceramic Pepsi GMT-Master II, which has put fresh attention on both the recent ceramic models and the vintage aluminum ones. Our comparison of the 1675 against the modern Pepsi goes into how they differ on the wrist and in the market.

Yes, against a replaced insert on the same watch, and often by a meaningful margin, because the original insert is part of what makes the watch original. Whether a faded insert is worth more than a crisp original one is a matter of taste and of how attractive the fade is; a pale, even sky-blue-and-pink insert sells for more than a patchy one. Insert condition is one of the first things we price on a 1675, alongside the dial and the case. The two GMT-Masters below show the range.