A born Pepsi or “made” Pepsi. Any difference in value?

[HogwldFLTR]

As others have said, most of the GMTs were uncoded wrt bezel insert. If for some reason one feels the needed to have a watch that was coded and has the original bezel insert then good luck. The inserts are still really cheap to acquire from Rolex. There likely more value to most buyers to have the collection of bezels as well as the watch and papers.

[strafer_kid]

Originally Posted by g-boac

If you are buying a loose watch, then you can't tell. If buying a GMT-Master II originally sold in USA as a full set, it is fair to consider this: the warranty papers indicate the original configuration of the watch from the factory. It ultimately is up to the market to determine whether this has value and how much; but generally speaking, you can expect a given attribute to have some valuation.

Condition being equal, I think it's reasonably fair to expect you'll find that sellers will ask, and buyers will pay, a reasonable premium for an original ("born") Pepsi. All three variants have their own unique looks, but the Pepsi bezel traces its look to the look of the original 6542.

As others have said here, when it comes to enjoying the watch, all three inserts are interchangeable, regardless of what came from the factory. Incidentally the codes on the papers were:

16710A = Coke
16710B = Pepsi
16710N = Black ("Noir")

A couple other points: the first generation GMT-Master II, the 16760 "fat lady" only came in the black/red Coke bezel. Approximate date of production 1983-1988.

The final generation GMT-Master, the 16700, only came in blue/red Pepsi bezel.

The second (and final) generation GMT-Master II, the 16710 was the one that came in all three variants of bezel, and overall, had the richest variation of parts throughout its production lifecycle. In addition the featuring Coke, Pepsi, and black bezels, this reference featured tritium, Luminova (SWISS -only dials), and Super-Luminova ("Swiss Made") dials. It also featured two distinct movements: the 3185 movement for most of the production, and a small batch of 3186 movements that went into the final production models. The cases featured lug holes (up through the K-serial) and no lug holes; while bracelets featured both stamped and solid endlinks.

Any way you go, the 16710 is a watch you can't collect too many of! ;)

Just in relation to the reference made to the 16710LN above, I was recently in RSC London where I had a bezel insert changed on my Z serial 16710 from red/blue to red/black. The RSC assistant who carried out the work initially informed me that he would have to check to see if the insert change was "permissable", but arrived back with me a short time later to inform me that I "was fortunate" that since my watch specifically showed up on their records as an LN designation (unknown to me at that point), Rolex were content for it to be fitted with either of those two combinations or all black. I must say that up until that point I had not heard of that particular "rule", but there you go!

[padi56]

Originally Posted by strafer_kid

Just in relation to the reference made to the 16710LN above, I was recently in RSC London where I had a bezel insert changed on my Z serial 16710 from red/blue to red/black. The RSC assistant who carried out the work initially informed me that he would have to check to see if the insert change was "permissable", but arrived back with me a short time later to inform me that I "was fortunate" that since my watch specifically showed up on their records as an LN designation (unknown to me at that point), Rolex were content for it to be fitted with either of those two combinations or all black. I must say that up until that point I had not heard of that particular "rule", but there you go!

Well that must be a new rule because myself have changed 3 different inserts for 16710 at St James Sq London RSC with no problem whatsoever and kept old inserts.

[strafer_kid]

Originally Posted by padi56

Well that must be a new rule because myself have changed 3 different inserts for 16710 at St James Sq London RSC with no problem whatsoever and kept old inserts.

No - no problem at all. I was happy that he provided the new insert and let me keep the existing one, albeit at a mark up of 50%. I was just a bit bemused regarding the LN comment - had never come across that one before.