Rolex Nicknames: Pepsi, Starbucks, Kermit and the Rest

Pepsi

“Pepsi” describes the two-tone red-and-blue bezel Rolex has fitted to the GMT-Master II — and, before it, the plain GMT-Master — since the line launched in 1954. The colors were functional first: red for daytime hours, blue for night, read against the 24-hour hand so a pilot could track a second time zone at a glance. The name came later, from the resemblance to the soda brand’s logo.

The vintage references most often called Pepsi are the 1675 (1959–1980, acrylic crystal, no date magnifier on early dials) and the 16700 and 16710 (1988–2007, sapphire crystal). All three used a bi-color aluminum bezel insert, which fades unevenly with UV exposure — collectors specifically hunt faded “ghost” Pepsi bezels for that reason. Rolex revived the colorway in ceramic (Cerachrom) in 2014 on a white-gold case, then made it accessible again in 2018 on the steel 126710BLRO, still in current production on a Jubilee bracelet. See Rolex’s own GMT-Master II page for how the current lineup presents it.

A steel-and-gold two-tone version, the 16713, wore the same red-and-blue insert through the 1990s and is sometimes called the “Root Beer” instead when its bezel has faded toward brown — a reminder that these names describe what a bezel looks like today, not a fixed factory spec, and can shift as an aluminum insert ages.

Batman and Batgirl

“Batman” is the black-and-blue GMT bezel — introduced on the 116710BLNR in 2013 as the first two-color Cerachrom bezel Rolex ever produced, and continued on the current 126710BLNR. The name comes straight from the color pairing on the character’s costume, no deeper story than that.

“Batgirl” is the same black-and-blue bezel on the smaller, two-tone steel- and-white-gold GMT-Master II women often gravitate toward, paired with a Jubilee bracelet and diamond hour markers on some dial variants. It is not a separate Rolex reference family so much as a size and bracelet distinction collectors made to tell the two apart in conversation, since “Batman” had already been claimed by the full-size steel version.

Both run on Rolex’s Caliber 3285 movement, which added an independently adjustable local hour hand — the feature that makes a GMT-Master II a true dual-time watch rather than a simple 24-hour indicator. Neither Batman nor Batgirl was ever produced in a dedicated “anniversary” run; both have stayed in ordinary rotation since launch, which keeps supply steadier than the shorter-lived references elsewhere on this page.

Root Beer

“Root Beer” covers the brown-and-black or all-brown GMT bezels Rolex has run across several two-tone and Everose references — the color reads closer to the drink than to any fruit or gemstone name, which is how it got picked over alternatives. Vintage two-tone 16753s from the late 1970s and 1980s wore a brown-and-gold-toned bezel collectors already called Root Beer decades before the modern revival.

The current version is the 126711CHNR, introduced in 2018 in Everose gold and Oystersteel with a black-and-brown ceramic bezel and a chocolate-brown dial. Because it pairs a precious-metal case with steel rather than going full gold, it sits as one of the more attainable two-tone GMT-Master IIs Rolex currently makes — still a five-figure watch, but priced below the all-gold references in the same family.

Rolex’s own catalog copy never uses “Root Beer” — the reference is listed simply as “Oystersteel and Everose gold.” That gap between the factory name and the collector name is the pattern behind nearly every entry on this page: the official description tells you the materials, the nickname tells you which one people mean at a glance.

Sprite

“Sprite” is the newest bezel-color nickname in the GMT-Master II family, attached to the 126720VTNR — a black-and-green ceramic bezel introduced in 2022. The green half echoes the soda brand’s logo the same way Pepsi’s red-and-blue echoes its own, which is exactly how the name got picked.

What sets the 126720VTNR apart from every other watch on this page is the case itself: it is Rolex’s first-ever left-hand-crown GMT-Master II, built for wearing on the right wrist, with the day/night 24-hour hand and date window mirrored to suit that orientation. Collectors nicknamed the layout the “Destro” configuration — Italian for “right” — a separate, older term some use alongside Sprite for this specific reference.

Soda-brand comparisons have become such a fixture of GMT-Master naming that the enthusiast press now jokes about which flavor gets used next — Fratello Watches has floated NuGrape and Fanta as tongue-in-cheek names for bezel colors Rolex hasn’t made yet. Sprite is the only one on this list Rolex fans didn’t have to invent.

Starbucks

“Starbucks” names the current green-bezel Submariner: the 126610LV, released in 2020 with a black dial under a green Cerachrom bezel, in a shade close enough to the coffee chain’s own logo that the comparison stuck almost immediately on collector forums.

It replaced the earlier Kermit as Rolex’s green-bezel Submariner Date, moving to the larger 41mm case, the Caliber 3235 movement, and a slightly more olive-leaning green than its predecessor’s brighter grass tone. For a closer look at how the two compare side by side, see Fratello’s history of Rolex’s green-bezel Submariners.

Kermit

The 16610LV was Rolex’s first-ever green-bezel Submariner, released in 2003 to mark the model’s 50th anniversary. It paired a black dial with a bright, Kermit-the-Frog green aluminum bezel insert — a far bolder colorway than any Submariner before it, which is exactly why the name stuck.

Rolex made the 16610LV for only seven years, discontinuing it in 2010 in favor of the Hulk, which makes original examples with matching green patina on the aluminum insert genuinely scarce today relative to how many collectors want one. It is the reference that started the entire “green Submariner” lineage this section of the guide traces through the Hulk and into the Starbucks.

Because the 16610LV shares its case and movement with the standard black-bezel Submariner from the same years, the only tell at a glance is the bezel insert color — which is also why a mismatched or swapped bezel is the first thing to check on a used Kermit rather than taking the green color at face value.

Hulk

The 116610LV, introduced in 2010, is the only Submariner Rolex has ever made with a green dial and a green Cerachrom bezel together — every other green-bezel Submariner on this page pairs the bezel with a black dial. That all-green treatment, plus the model’s noticeably thicker maxi case and lugs compared to its predecessors, earned it the Hulk name.

Rolex ran the Hulk for a full decade before replacing it with the Starbucks in 2020, giving it the longest production run of any green-bezel Submariner so far — which also means more of them exist on the pre-owned market today than either the Kermit before it or the Starbucks after it.

The Hulk also introduced Rolex’s Chromalight lume to the green-Submariner line, which glows blue rather than the older green-tinted Superluminova — a small detail that is nonetheless one of the fastest ways to tell a Hulk apart from a Kermit in a dark room, without even checking the reference number on the case.

Smurf and Bluesy

“Smurf” is the all-blue Submariner Date 116619LB, released in 2010 in solid 18k white gold with a blue dial and matching blue Cerachrom bezel — the cartoon-character comparison followed the same pattern as the Hulk’s naming, one dominant color reading as a recognizable character.

“Bluesy” is the informal name for the two-tone steel-and-gold blue-bezel Submariners, most often the 116613LB, where the blue dial and bezel sit against a yellow-gold bezel edge and bracelet links rather than the Smurf’s solid white gold. The two names sort by material — solid white gold gets Smurf, two-tone gets Bluesy — rather than by any difference in the blue shade itself.

Both are Submariner Date references rather than the no-date Submariner, and both use Cerachrom rather than aluminum for the bezel insert — a ceramic that resists the fading and scratching an older aluminum bezel is prone to, which is one reason blue Rolex Submariners from this era hold their color more evenly than a vintage Pepsi or Kermit.

Coke, Polar, Tiffany dial, and Panda

A handful of other nicknames come up often enough to name here in one place. The Coke is the red-and-black GMT bezel on references like the 16710, an option Rolex offered alongside the Pepsi on the same case through the late 1980s and 1990s. The Polar refers to any Rolex sport watch on a white, rather than black, dial — most commonly the Explorer II — named for the model’s original polar-expedition marketing. A Tiffany dial is a vintage Rolex, typically a Datejust or Day-Date, double-signed with “Tiffany & Co.” beneath the Rolex crown, made for the retailer decades before Tiffany became an LVMH-owned competitor rather than a Rolex retail partner. And Panda describes any chronograph with light-colored sub-dials set against a contrasting dark main dial — a Daytona in white with black registers is the reference most people mean when they use the term, though it applies to other chronograph brands equally.

A reverse Panda — dark sub-dials on a light main dial — is sometimes given its own nickname on forums, but the split is inconsistent enough between dealers that it is worth confirming exactly which layout a listing means rather than assuming from the word “Panda” alone. The same caution applies to Polar and Tiffany-dial watches: both terms describe a dial finish, not a single reference number, so two watches carrying the same nickname can still be different models entirely.

How nicknames affect price

A nickname itself adds nothing to a watch’s engineering or rarity — it is scarcity and hype, not the name, that move price on the pre-owned market. A discontinued reference with a short production run, like the Kermit, tends to command a premium over a reference still in current production, like the Starbucks, simply because supply stopped growing years ago while demand kept climbing. A trending nickname can also pull a reference’s asking price ahead of an equally scarce watch that never picked up a catchy name, independent of either watch’s actual condition or completeness.

None of that changes what to inspect before buying one — papers, box, service history, and bezel or dial originality matter the same whether the reference has a nickname or not. Our guide to buying a pre-owned luxury watch covers exactly what to check.

It also helps to remember that nicknames are not standardized. Two dealers can use “Root Beer” for slightly different two-tone references, and a listing that leads with a nickname instead of a reference number is worth double-checking against the actual case-back engraving before you rely on it. The reference number, not the nickname, is what the warranty card, service history, and any future resale will actually be matched against.