Real Vs Fake: Rolex GMT-Master II "Pepsi"
Replicas of coveted Rolex models, such as the GMT-Master II ref. 126710BLRO, are getting better by the year. Our watchmaker reveals key inaccuracies to watch out for.
The Rolex GMT-Master II ref. 126710BLRO “Pepsi” is a highly coveted luxury watch that has been replicated by fake watch manufacturers for decades – with increased accuracy. During an authentication process conducted by our in-house watchmaker, Peter Glomb, which included the dial, crystal, case thickness, weight, and movement inspection, we discovered some inaccuracies you should be mindful of:
The Bezel
If you watch our videos, you’ll know that the Cerachrom material they use for Pepsi differs from the one they use for other bezel inserts. When you shine the UV light at the blue portion of the bezel on the Pepsi, it should glow red, and as you can see here, although the amount of glow is a little bit different just like the loom plots on the dial and the end, there are some slight differences. But, if you take a UV light and zap that blue part of the bezel, you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference unless you have the authentic one. The authentic Pepsi also sounds different – it’s smooth and clicks into place, and the fake one is crunchy and sounds like something is grinding underneath. You can see that the teeth on the bezel that are milled into the side to give you grip are extremely similar under 50 times magnification, save for a slight difference in the size of each radius.
The Crystal
The fake watch has a slightly taller crystal – it’s either the gasket or the crystal itself that’s thicker. You can also feel a very clear bevel on the edge of the crystal, so it’s not quite as sharp as the Rolex. And, of course on every Rolex crystal, there’s a laser-etched crown at 6 o’clock. Many years ago, they already started etching this into fake crystals, so that’s not a sign of a fake anymore. The shape of that crystal, as you can see, is slightly different but unless you’re very well-versed with what the crown has looked like over the years (it does change and we do take note of when they change it), you can see that immediately with magnification this crown is not consistent with an authentic crown – this particular watch should be 2024, and the 2024 laser crown has two ovals in the center instead of one, which is a recent change. There’s also a cyclops on this particular watch because it has a date and it magnifies the date 2.5 times on the authentic watch. You can spot that the magnification on the fake one is different straight away and that the date is much too far away from the dial, which is a red flag.
Case and Bracelet
We always measure the thickness of the watch. There is a Delta even within the authentic watches that range from 0.1 to 0.2 of the millimeter, and this fake Pepsi is 0.4 of a millimeter thicker than the authentic one. The finishing of the case and the bracelet, however, seems authentic – they’re using 904L steel, so its weight is also very similar to the authentic Pepsi. There’s also a slightly larger gap between the end link and the first link both on the 12 and 6 o’clock side, so they’re not producing this oyster bracelet with the same tolerances as Rolex does. The clasp on the bracelet also doesn’t have a glide lock, but an easy link instead.
The Movement
These guys are using an entirely cloned 3200 Caliber. Its surface finish is pretty similar to the authentic movement. However, these fake manufacturers buy blank movements (sometimes referred to as Ébauche movements) and put the desired logos on top. If you look at the screw heads, they’re all damaged because they’re not made from carbon steel (which is used for all Rolex pinions and screw components). We also looked at the Parachrom Bleu hairspring and the inertia weights, which will determine the watch’s frequency and timing results. While the former is consistent with the authentic Pepsi at 28,800 Hz, the timing results showed the Delta value close to 15 (the Delta of the authentic one is closer to 5), plus the average rate of the fake watch is nowhere near zero.
Box and Papers
There’s not much information on the Internet about the authentication of the box and papers, but we look at every accessory that comes with the watch. First, we do a smell test similar to how one might do a smell test with a sneaker because all Rolex boxes smell the same. This one doesn’t even come close, because it's either poor-quality leather or not leather at all. The printing of the green Rolex moniker inside is way too dark. Inside the authentic Rolex box, you’ll find all two booklets, a leather pouch for your warranty card, a white tag, and a green chronometer tag. The white tag is the only thing that determines the color the dial comes with. This particular fake did not come with a warranty, but it came with everything else. The new card has NFC and you can just stick your phone up to it and it’ll pull up the Rolex website. The real card also utilizes a special kind of 3D printing, which is virtually impossible to imitate.
