Every year, the watch community goes through the same ritual. Someone on a forum posts that the Rolex Pepsi is being discontinued. Prices go up. Collectors panic. Grey market dealers rub their hands together. Then Watches & Wonders arrives, nothing happens, and everyone goes back to their waitlists.

It has happened so many times that most seasoned collectors stopped paying attention. The Pepsi discontinuation rumor had become the watch world's version of crying wolf.

But in early 2026, something changed. Authorized dealers began notifying customers on their waitlists that no more deliveries of the GMT-Master II Pepsi were coming. WatchPro, one of the most credible trade publications in the watch industry, confirmed it directly from authorized dealers. Customers were being told, politely but firmly, to consider other models. This time, it looks real.

What Is the Rolex GMT Pepsi?

For the uninitiated, the Rolex Pepsi is the nickname given to the GMT-Master II watches featuring Rolex's iconic red and blue bezel. A design that has defined the Rolex GMT-Master collection since its very first model. The nickname is self-explanatory: the split red and blue coloring bears an unmistakable resemblance to a certain soft drink brand's logo.

But the bezel is more than just a visual statement. The red half represents daytime hours, the blue half nighttime, a functional design that allows pilots and travellers to instantly read a second time zone at a glance. It is one of the most elegant solutions to a practical problem that watchmaking has ever produced, and it is the reason this watch resonates far beyond the collector community.

Over the years, the bezel went through a significant upgrade. Early models used aluminium inserts, which faded and scratched easily over time. Rolex eventually switched to Cerachrom ceramic — a far more durable material that resists scratches and holds its color for life. 

Today, the Pepsi exists in two forms: the stainless steel reference that most collectors are chasing(ref. 126710BLRO), and a white gold version (ref. 126719BLRO) for those who want something more precious, available with a striking meteorite and blue dial. Both share the same red and blue ceramic bezel and the same caliber 3285 movement, but they target very different audiences in the market.

Of all the GMT-Master II colorways Rolex has ever produced, and there have been many, from the Rolex Batman to the Rolex Sprite to the Rolex Bruce Wayne, the Pepsi remains the one that people point to when they think of the Rolex GMT-Master model.

What Happens To The Grey Market

Now, in early 2026, prices of Rolex Pepsi are climbing again, and this time the discontinuation is not a rumor. It is confirmation.

Since December 2025, the grey market price for the GMT Pepsi Jubilee has already moved from $25,500 to $32,800 as of early March, a jump of over 28% in just three months. And with supply officially cut off, market watchers believe this is just the beginning. Some are predicting the Rolex Pepsi Jubilee could push toward $40,000, a level that would place it firmly in true collector territory.

To understand what likely happens next, it helps to look at a watch that went through the same cycle not long ago: the Rolex Submariner Hulk.

When the Hulk was discontinued in 2020, it was already one of the most wanted Submariners in the lineup. Prices at the time were around $14,000 on the secondary market. What followed was a clear example of what happens when Rolex stops making a watch people love. With no chance of buying one at retail anymore, all the demand shifted to the secondary market. By 2022, unworn Rolex Hulk watches were selling for close to $30,000, more than three times the original retail price. Even after the market pulled back, the Hulk settled at between $17,000 and $22,000 in 2025, still selling for more than the retail price.

The lesson from the Hulk is not that discontinued Rolex watches always keep going up in price forever. They do not. The real lesson is that discontinuation sets a price floor. Once production stops, the number of available watches only goes in one direction, down, and the market reflects that. For the Pepsi, there is little reason to think it will be any different.

Price of Rolex Pepsi from Dec 2025 to Mar 2026

What Comes Next?

Rolex has a consistent pattern when it comes to discontinuing iconic references: they rarely leave a gap for long. The Rolex Hulk was replaced by the Rolex Starbucks. Rolex does not simply remove watches from its catalog without a considered reason, and often, that reason is that something new is ready.

There is a compelling argument that the GMT Pepsi's discontinuation is not the end of the red and blue bezel but the beginning of its next chapter. In 2022, Rolex filed a patent specifically outlining a manufacturing process for a stable two-tone ceramic component in red and black, the Coke colorway that last appeared in aluminium form in the early 2000s. The GMT Coke patent suggests Rolex has been working on solving the two-tone ceramic problem at its root, potentially with a new process that sidesteps the failure rate issues that plagued the Pepsi bezel.

Whether the GMT Coke arrives as a direct replacement or whether a new-generation Pepsi follows, perhaps with a refreshed case, a new movement, or the updated 41mm dimensions seen on the current Submariner, is something we will likely find out at Watches & Wonders 2026, which opens on April 14th.

Left: Rolex GMT-Master “Coke”, Right: Rolex GMT-Master “Pepsi”

What Should You Do Right Now?

If you own a Rolex GMT Pepsi, the answer is straightforward: hold it. The Rolex Hulk precedent suggests that discontinued Rolex icons do not lose value in the long run, particularly when they carry the kind of cultural weight that the GMT Pepsi does. The supply of available watches is fixed from this point forward, and demand is not going anywhere.

If you are on a waitlist, the hard truth is that the call from your AD is probably not coming. The watches that were already allocated may still trickle through, but for anyone who has been waiting for a fresh allocation, the window has closed.

If you have been wanting a Pepsi and have not yet pulled the trigger, the situation is more nuanced. Prices have already moved upward on the back of this confirmation, which means you are no longer buying at the lows. The question is not whether the Pepsi is a good watch; it clearly is. But whether the current secondary market premium makes sense for you personally. If you are buying to wear and enjoy, that calculus is different from buying purely as an investment. What is clear is that waiting for prices to come back down is unlikely to be a winning strategy. The 2024 rumor caused a price spike that corrected when nothing happened.

The Rolex Pepsi has been declared dead many times. This time, the evidence is harder to dismiss. Authorized dealers are delivering the news directly to their customers, and the secondary market has already begun to price in a future without new production.

But if there is one thing the history of Rolex teaches collectors, it is that discontinuation is rarely a full stop. It is, more often, a comma. The red and blue bezel has been part of the GMT-Master's identity since the very beginning, and it is difficult to imagine Rolex abandoning that legacy entirely.

What changes now is the nature of the conversation. For years, the Pepsi Rolex was a watch you hoped to get from an AD someday. From here on, it is a watch you find on the secondary market, at a price that reflects what it truly is: one of the most iconic sports watches ever made, in finite supply, with a story that keeps getting richer.

The watches Rolex discontinues have a habit of becoming the ones people want most. The Pepsi was already at the top of that list. Now, it is officially in a different category altogether.