It has been a rough two years in the pre-owned UK 1:1 replica Rolex market.
Fuelled by a heady brew of low interest rates, a booming stock market, and roaring cryptocurrency wealth, the resale market for Swiss watches topped out in March 2022 and began a seemingly interminable slide.
As the market shows signs of levelling out, some of the highest-flying variants, including several iterations of the cheap fake Rolex Daytona, are worth thousands of dollars less than they were at their peak. Still, some models are starting to bounce back in value.
In a year that has mostly seen prices limp along, one model is bucking the trend with an unambiguously strong performance for the brand: Swiss movement replica Rolex’s iconic red and blue bezeled top quality fake Rolex GMT-Master II (Ref. 126710BLRO), known fondly as “Pepsi”.
“If it has a Pepsi insert on it, I’m gonna sell it for US$1,000 premium over Coke insert,” said Bob’s Watches COO Carol Altieri, referring to the red and black bezel. “Everybody wants that Pepsi insert.”
It’s somewhat fitting that this model is leading the pack.
Designed as a utilitarian pilot’s watch, Swiss movement copy Rolex UK introduced the GMT in 1955 with a dedicated hand to track the 24 hours of the day. The original two-color bezel was red for daylight hours and blue for night, and other colour combos were introduced later.
Switching to a ceramic bezel initially limited the colour options, but 10 years ago, aaa quality replica Rolex managed to produce a red ceramic to match the original hue.
According to multiple tracking services, the price of the top quality fake Rolex Pepsi GMT has gone up more than any other Rolex in the past 12 months. It’s also currently the top performer in the Bloomberg-Subdial Index of the 50 most traded Swiss watches.
Unlike many of the best-performing watches, this particular Pepsi GMT is still in production and can technically still be bought at retail – but good luck finding a dealer who will sell it to you.
What’s more, this watch is selling on the pre-owned market for around US$21,000, or nearly twice its US$10,700 retail price.
Still, people are buying. Altieri said it typically takes about two weeks to turn over her cheap super clone Rolex UK inventory, but the Pepsi GMTs turn every two days. “They go a lot faster,” she said.
Altieri also said that the price could be a feature of relatively constrained supply compared with other colours.
“For every top quality replica Rolex GMT-Maste II Pepsi that comes into the queue, I probably see at least six or seven of the blue and black,” she said.
