{"id":33539,"date":"2026-06-22T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T07:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=33539"},"modified":"2026-06-21T19:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T02:37:17","slug":"the-pepsi-rolex-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/06\/22\/the-pepsi-rolex-story\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pepsi Rolex Story"},"content":{"rendered":"<h6>By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n<p>I&#8217;m a big fan of GMT watches, and in that world, the Pepsi Rolex is perhaps the most desirable.\u00a0 This video (mentioned in my previous blog) tells the story better than I ever could, so I&#8217;ll let it do the talking:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Why the Pepsi Had to Die in 2026\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QfoBd7EyUBc\" width=\"957\" height=\"538\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The video is good from the perspective of the watch\u2019s history and it is good in telling the story behind Rolex\u2019s masterful control of supply and demand.<\/p>\n<p>Back in the 1970s and 1980s, any Rolex was a status symbol.\u00a0 I know it sure was in the US defense industry.\u00a0 The most commonly-worn one was the Pepsi with an aluminum bezel (the ceramic bezel was still a few decades into the future).\u00a0 One of my fellow Yuppies in the Aerojet heirarchy explained to me that Pepsi with a worn aluminum bezel (like his, with a scratch or two, and faded colors) was even more of a status symbol, as the worn bezel implied that the wearer had been successful for a while.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think that was true, but hey, it was his watch, he believed it, and it made him happy.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33540\" src=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pepsi-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"357\" height=\"266\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pepsi-2.jpg 357w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pepsi-2-300x224.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 357px) 85vw, 357px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Most of the the Rolex GMT watches have bezels with two different colors, one for the a.m. hours and one for the p.m. hours.\u00a0 On the Rolex \u201cPepsi,\u201d the p.m. bezel hours are blue, and the a.m. hours are red.\u00a0 The red and blue colors are similar to those on a can of Pepsi, hence the name.\u00a0 There\u2019s also a Batman nickname, for bezels with blue and black, and a Coke nickname, for bezels in red and black.\u00a0 There are a few others, but I don\u2019t know them all.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33543\" src=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3009-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3009-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3009-600-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3009-600-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>My Rolex is a two-tone watch (stainless steel and gold, as you see above).\u00a0 I just had mine serviced by the wizards at LA Watchworks in Pasadena and they did a great job.\u00a0 It wasn&#8217;t cheap, but hey, what is anymore?<\/p>\n<p>Well, that&#8217;s a good question.\u00a0 I thought it might be cool to own a Pepsi, but I didn&#8217;t feel like shelling out $40K for a Rolex Pepsi.\u00a0 So I did the next best thing.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-33542\" src=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3005-600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3005-600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3005-600-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/IMG_3005-600-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Casio Pepsi dive watch above was on sale on Amazon for $53 a few weeks ago, and I couldn&#8217;t let that get away.\u00a0 And you know what?\u00a0 I am enjoying the Casio just as much.\u00a0 It actually keeps better time than the Rolex, too.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<style>\r\n        .wpedon-container .wpedon-select,\r\n        .wpedon-container .wpedon-input {\r\n            width: 171px;\r\n            min-width: 171px;\r\n            max-width: 171px;\r\n        }\r\n    <\/style><div class='wpedon-container wpedon-align-center'><form target='_blank' action='https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/cgi-bin\/webscr' method='post' class='wpedon-form'><input type='hidden' name='cmd' value='_donations' \/><input type='hidden' name='business' value='ExNotes@ExhaustNotes.us' \/><input type='hidden' name='currency_code' value='USD' \/><input type='hidden' name='notify_url' value='https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-admin\/admin-post.php?action=add_wpedon_button_ipn'><input type='hidden' name='lc' value='en_US'><input type='hidden' name='bn' value='WPPlugin_SP'><input type='hidden' name='return' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='cancel_return' value='' \/><input class='wpedon_paypalbuttonimage' type='image' src='https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/en_US\/i\/btn\/btn_donateCC_LG.gif' border='0' name='submit' alt='Make your payments with PayPal. It is free, secure, effective.' style='border: none;'><img alt='' border='0' style='border:none;display:none;' src='https:\/\/www.paypal.com\/en_US\/i\/scr\/pixel.gif' width='1' height='1'><input type='hidden' name='amount' id='amount_54f32c1026b727cdda1dd44a29b6afd3' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='price' id='price_54f32c1026b727cdda1dd44a29b6afd3' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='item_number' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='item_name' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='name' value='' \/><input type='hidden' name='custom' value='23447'><input type='hidden' name='no_shipping' value='1'><input type='hidden' name='no_note' value='0'><input type='hidden' name='currency_code' value='USD'><\/form><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Joe Berk I&#8217;m a big fan of GMT watches, and in that world, the Pepsi Rolex is perhaps the most desirable.\u00a0 This video (mentioned in my previous blog) tells the story better than I ever could, so I&#8217;ll let it do the talking: The video is good from the perspective of the watch\u2019s history &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/06\/22\/the-pepsi-rolex-story\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;The Pepsi Rolex Story&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33521,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[392,507],"tags":[2147,4981,4328,4980,249],"class_list":["post-33539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-back-in-the-day","category-watch","tag-aerojet-ordnance","tag-casio-dive-watch","tag-gmt","tag-pepsi","tag-rolex"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Pepsi.jpg","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33539"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33547,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33539\/revisions\/33547"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}