The red and blue GMT-Master II is gone, and no Coke replacement showed at Watches & Wonders 2026.
The Pepsi exits quietly
The Rolex GMT-Master II ref. 126710BLRO, known universally as the Pepsi for its red and blue ceramic bezel, is no longer a current production watch. As of April 13, 2026, the model had disappeared from Rolex.com in both its stainless steel and white gold configurations. No announcement came. No press release. Rolex simply stopped listing it.
The signals had been building for months. By early 2026, authorized dealers across multiple markets had quietly pulled the listing without explanation. Kirk Freeport, the Rolex authorized dealer in Grand Cayman, reportedly told a customer in February that Rolex had confirmed the Pepsi was no longer in production. Secondary market prices began climbing in response, well before the official absence became undeniable.
Why Rolex cut it
The most plausible explanation centers on production. Making a two-color Cerachrom bezel insert has never been straightforward. Rolex acknowledged in an early bezel patent that the pigmentation process carried inherent inconsistency, and the rejection rate for red and blue inserts was reportedly higher than for any other bi-color piece in the lineup. The white gold Pepsi debuted in 2014. The stainless steel version followed in 2018. Neither had a smooth road to shelf.
Discontinuing a watch that remained one of the brand’s most sought-after models reads as a deliberate calculation. Rolex let the Submariner Hulk, the green-dialed ref. 116610LV, exit the catalog in 2020 when demand for it was near its peak. Values climbed for years afterward, and the watch passed into collector lore. The Pepsi is now positioned the same way. The GMT-Master II lineup still includes the Batman, the Batgirl, the Bruce Wayne, and the Sprite. None carry a red bezel.
The Coke that never materialized
Much of the watch world had expected something else entirely. In 2022, Rolex filed US patent 12,428,335 B2, describing a manufacturing process capable of producing stable red and black ceramic. The original Coke colorway, a red and black bezel, appeared on GMT references from 1982 through 2007 and has never been produced in Cerachrom. The patent, read alongside the Pepsi’s disappearance, looked like a roadmap.
Watches & Wonders 2026 in Geneva opened on April 14 without a Coke. Rolex announced a Yacht-Master II return, a centenary Oyster Perpetual, a new Datejust, and a reimagined Daytona featuring what the brand called a new alloy. The GMT line was untouched. The red bezel, present on GMT references in some form since the original ref. 6542 in 1955, is now absent from the current steel catalog for the first time in the Cerachrom era.
What the secondary market absorbed
The 126710BLRO is now the only modern stainless steel GMT-Master II that ever carried a red and blue bezel in ceramic. That slot no longer exists in current production. Secondary market dealers had already adjusted pricing by late March, and the confirmation from Geneva that no replacement was coming pushed that movement further.
The comparison most observers reach for is the Hulk. When that watch left the catalog, collectors on long waitlists found themselves with no retail path forward. The Pepsi now occupies a similar position, a reference with eight years of production, a 70-year lineage, and a fixed and shrinking supply.
Authorized dealers face a more immediate problem. Clients who spent years on Pepsi waitlists must now be redirected to something else, a difficult conversation when the red and blue bezel was the specific reason they signed up in the first place.
The red bezel’s open question
Rolex does not file manufacturing patents to abandon them. A Coke GMT will almost certainly arrive at some future show, likely in white gold first, mirroring the Pepsi’s own timeline. When it does, the anticipation around it will have been years in the making, shaped in part by exactly this moment.
For now, the steel catalog has no red. Whether Rolex held back the Coke intentionally to preserve a guaranteed headline for a quieter year, or whether technical challenges remain unsolved, the result is the same. The brand answered no one, proved the leakers wrong, and left collectors with a gap where the most famous bezel colorway in watchmaking used to be.