GMT-Master II 16710 Coke and Pepsi (1989-2007)

The 16710 is Rolex's steel travel watch from the aluminum-bezel era. A red hand circles the dial once every twenty-four hours, while the ordinary hands show local time. The local hour can be moved independently when changing time zones, without stopping the watch.

It was made with three bezel treatments: red and blue, red and black, or all black. The two-color versions divide the twenty-four-hour scale into halves. The black version does the same timekeeping job without that visual division.

The reference arrived at the end of the 1980s and continued into the 2000s. Its 40-millimeter case has relatively narrow lugs, and the aluminum insert makes a slim frame around the black dial. The later ceramic generation kept the nominal diameter but surrounded the face with a broader-looking case and a glossier insert.

That gives the 16710 a distinct appearance even before a particular color is chosen. The red twenty-four-hour hand is a fine line with a clear arrowhead, the ordinary hands remain prominent, and the outer scale is easy to separate from the hour markers. There is quite a lot of information, but each part has a different job.

Most of the reference's production used calibre 3185; late examples can have calibre 3186. Both provide the independently adjustable local hour that distinguishes the GMT-Master II. The movement transition is an identification question for a particular watch, rather than a change to the basic experience of reading two times.

The aluminum insert is also replaceable, so the colors on a surviving example do not by themselves establish how it was originally sold. What stays constant is the compact arrangement beneath them: four hands, a date and a second scale around a single dial.