Rolex GMT-Master Ref. 1675 (Pepsi)

A watch for the jet age

The GMT-Master was built for airline crews. Rolex's first version, reference 6542, was developed with Pan American World Airways for pilots and navigators crossing several time zones in a single flight. The accounts of how the partnership began differ. One collector's history says Pan Am credits its president, Juan Trippe, with approaching Rolex. Another account says Pan Am's senior navigator, the World War II veteran Captain Frederick Libby, was asked to nominate a watch company and chose Rolex because he had worn one through the war. The sources also disagree on the launch year, giving both 1954 and 1955.

The idea was simple. A fourth hand, colored red, made one trip around the dial every 24 hours, and a rotating bezel marked 1 to 24 let the wearer read a second time zone, usually Greenwich Mean Time, at a glance. The bezel was split into two colors, red for daytime hours and blue for night. The 6542's insert was Bakelite, which cracked easily and carried radium-painted numerals; a cancer lawsuit in the United States led Rolex to move to anodized aluminum.

Reference 1675 replaced the 6542 around 1959 and stayed in the catalog until around 1980. Rolex's marketing aimed it at 'ships' captains, members of the armed forces and international business men' and anyone 'to whom the knowledge of local time only is insufficient,' and it leaned hard on the Pan Am connection, calling the watch the 'finest timepiece available to the flight navigator.' The 1675 took the dual-time watch out of the cockpit and into watch shops around the world.

Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf did not see what it became. He died about a year into the 1675's production.

Crown guards, a bigger case and a working movement

The 1675 grew the case to 40 mm, measured without the crown, with a 47.5 mm length from lug to lug and a 20 mm space between the lugs. It was the first GMT-Master with crown guards, the shoulders that protect the winding crown from knocks. Early cases have sharp, pointed guards that Italian collectors call 'Cornino' and others compare to a parrot's beak. Those pointed guards appear until about 1963-1964 case production, and rounded guards take over around 1964-1965. The steel case is rated to 50 meters, a quarter of the depth rating of the Submariners of the same years.

Who made the cases is not documented. One detailed collector's guide says it 'seems likely' the steel cases came from Genex S.A., a Swiss case maker whose hallmark appears on several Rolex sports models of the era and which Rolex later bought; in 1984 a Rolex director said Genex employed about 1,150 people. Until about 1972, Rolex stamped the production date inside the case back, which helps date a watch today.

Inside, the earliest 1675s used Rolex caliber 1565, an automatic chronometer movement with a date and the 24-hour hand, beating at 18,000 vibrations per hour with a 44-hour power reserve. One history says the first examples used caliber 1535 before 1565 arrived around 1960. In 1965 Rolex switched to caliber 1575, with a 48-hour reserve and a faster beat: 19,800 vibrations per hour in one guide, 19,600 in another. Around 1971 Rolex added a hacking function that stops the seconds hand while setting the time. Neither movement was decorated. They were built to run.

The 1675's hour hand and 24-hour hand move together. To track a second zone the owner turns the bezel. Independent setting of the local hour hand came only with the GMT-Master II in the early 1980s.

Reading the dial and the bezel

Collectors divide 1675 dials into two families. Glossy gilt dials, with gold-colored printing on black lacquer, run from the start of production to around 1966, or roughly the 1.6 million serial range. The earliest carry the words 'Officially Certified Chronometer,' and collectors call them OCC dials. Around 1962 some dials show a small dot of lume under the six o'clock marker, the so-called exclamation dial; around 1963 the closed chapter ring gave way to an open minute track, and some 1963-1964 dials carry an underline that is read as marking the move from radium to tritium. From 1964, 'SWISS - T < 25' at the bottom signals tritium.

Matte dials arrived around 1966 and lasted to the end. They were made by the dial makers Singer, Beyeler and Lemrich, and collectors sort them into variants called Mark 0 through Mark 6. Some have names of their own: the 'Long E,' where the middle bar of the E in ROLEX is as long as the top and bottom bars, and the 'Radial' Mark III. One documented 1976 Mark III Radial example belonged to President Jose Lopez Portillo of Mexico.

The bezel insert is the other half of the story. It is anodized aluminum, and it fades. Early inserts have a smaller triangle at 12 o'clock and an auburn, red-orange tone. Inserts on watches in the 1.8 to 1.9 million serial range (1968-1969) can be a vivid pink that collectors call 'fuchsia' or 'Pink Panther.' The early 1970s brought bolder 'Fat Font' numerals, and some inserts from the late 1960s and early 1970s are a deeper 'petrol blue.' All-blue 'Blueberry' inserts exist and are widely faked. Sources disagree on when all-black inserts appeared: one says the early 1970s, another the late 1970s.

Bracelets changed too. Early watches came on riveted Oyster bracelets with 80 end links, references 7206 and 6636. American-market watches often wore unsigned 'C+I' rivet bracelets or heavy oval-link Jubilee bracelets made in Woodside, New York. Around 1970 folded-link Oyster bracelets (reference 7836) took over, and around 1976 the solid-link 78360 with 580 end links arrived. A 1960s watch on a 1980s bracelet is a common mismatch.

Two decades on the wrist

The 1675 arrived in a year when jet travel was new. Pan Am had introduced the first American jetliner, the Boeing 707, in 1958, and it flew its first Boeing 747 service from New York to London on January 21, 1970, while the 1675 was still in production. The airline remained the largest international carrier for much of the century.

The GMT-Master spread well beyond Pan Am. Histories of the model say it was adopted by U.S. Air Force pilots and by NASA astronauts: Jack Swigert wore a GMT-Master on Apollo 13, and accounts name different crew members wearing one on Apollo 14. A gold-and-steel 1675 is informally linked to Clint Eastwood, who owned one and wore it in several films.

It was not a luxury object at the time. In 1966-1968 the steel 1675 sold in the United States for about $245 to $275, among the higher prices for a steel Rolex sports model but well below a gold Day-Date at $600 on a strap and $1,200 on a bracelet. A 1962 British catalog listed it at about 73 pounds.

Colonel Kurtz's watch

The most famous 1675 has no bezel at all. Marlon Brando wore a steel 1675 made in 1972 while playing Colonel Walter E. Kurtz in Francis Ford Coppola's 'Apocalypse Now,' released in the United States in August 1979. According to his adopted daughter, Petra Brando Fischer, he was told on the set in the Philippines to take it off because it would stand out. He argued, 'If they're looking at my watch, then I'm not doing my job as an actor,' and kept it on, but removed the bezel. He also scratched 'M. Brando' into the case back himself.

In 1995 Brando gave the watch to Petra after her graduation from Brown University, telling her, 'This watch is like a tank.' She gave it to her husband on their wedding night in 2003, and he never wore it. The watch has a Mark IV matte dial, a 3.24 million serial and a 1972 case back, and was described as unpolished, with its dial, hands, case, crystal and crown original. Brando owned a second 1675, from 1961, which stayed with Petra's mother, Caroline Barrett.

The Kurtz watch sold at auction in New York on December 10, 2019, for $1,952,000 with fees. The buyer was the Omani collector Mohammed Zaman. In November 2023 it was offered again in Geneva as part of his collection and sold for more than $5 million with fees. Reports of the total differ: $5,124,783 in one and $5.08 million in another.

Away from the headline sales, ordinary 1675s are not rare; Rolex made them for two decades. What collectors pay for is originality: unpolished cases with their bevels intact, period-correct bracelets and dials and bezels that have aged in their own way.

The numbers

Reference

1675 (steel); 1675/8 in gold, 1675/3 in steel and gold

Caliber

1565 (1959-1964; 18,000 vph, 44 hours); 1575 (1965-1980; 48 hours, 19,800 vph in one source and 19,600 in another; hacking from about 1971)

Case

40 mm stainless steel Oyster, 47.5 mm lug to lug, 20 mm lugs, crown guards, Twinlock crown

Water resistance

50 meters

Bezel

Bidirectional, 24-hour anodized aluminum insert

Crystal

Acrylic with Cyclops date magnifier

Production years

Circa 1959 to circa 1980

Production numbers

No total given in the sources consulted

Timeline

1. 1955

   The first GMT-Master, reference 6542, is launched with Pan Am (some sources say 1954).

2. 1959

   Reference 1675 replaces the 6542, adding crown guards and a 40 mm case.

3. 1960

   Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf dies, about a year into the 1675's production.

4. 1962

   'Exclamation' dials with a lume dot under six o'clock appear around this year.

5. 1963

   The closed chapter ring gives way to an open minute track; pointed crown guards continue to about 1963-1964.

6. 1964

   'SWISS - T < 25' dials mark the use of tritium; rounded crown guards begin around 1964-1965.

7. 1965

   Caliber 1575 replaces caliber 1565.

8. 1966

   Matte dials replace glossy gilt dials, around the 1.6 million serial range.

9. 1968

   'Pink Panther' fuchsia bezel inserts appear on watches in the 1.8 to 1.9 million serial range (1968-1969).

10. 1971

    Rolex adds a hacking function to caliber 1575, around this year.

11. 1972

    Marlon Brando's future 'Apocalypse Now' watch is made; Rolex stops dating case backs around this year.

12. 1976

    Solid-link 78360 Oyster bracelets begin to appear on the GMT-Master, around this year.

13. Aug 1979

    'Apocalypse Now' opens in U.S. theaters with Brando's bezel-less 1675 on screen.

14. 1980

    Production of the 1675 ends, around this year.

15. 1981

    Reference 16750, with quickset date caliber 3075, replaces the 1675.

16. 1995

    Brando gives the Kurtz watch to his daughter Petra Brando Fischer.

17. Dec 10, 2019

    The Brando 1675 sells at auction in New York for $1.95 million.

18. Nov 2023

    The Brando 1675 resells in Geneva for more than $5 million with fees.

The world in 1958

• 1958

  Pan Am introduces the Boeing 707, the first American jetliner.

• Jan 1, 1959

  Fulgencio Batista flees Havana as Fidel Castro's forces advance.

• Mar 9, 1959

  Mattel's Barbie doll debuts in the United States.

• Aug 21, 1959

  Hawaii is admitted as the 50th U.S. state.

• Sep 14, 1959

  The Soviet probe Luna 2 becomes the first human-made object to crash on the Moon.

• Jan 21, 1970

  Pan Am flies its first Boeing 747 service, New York to London.

• Aug 1979

  'Apocalypse Now' is released in U.S. theaters.

Daily price data

FLOAT reprices this watch every day from completed sales. Last updated November 12, 2026.

Every grade and recorded sale for this watch

Price record

This is an asking price, not a sale. It is what a seller wanted on the date shown. Asking prices often sit above what buyers pay, but an ask is not a ceiling: a sale can land on either side of it. It is not a value.

By reference price, Rolex GMT-Master Ref. 1675 (Pepsi) is number 78 of 100 in the watches entries of the FLOAT 100. 54 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (15 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Rolex catalogs pointed out that a GMT-Master can act as a compass: in the Northern Hemisphere, point the hour hand at the sun and the 24-hour hand points north.
• In Rolex's 1960s-1980 advertisements for the 1675, the date is almost always set to 28.
• Brando was told to take the watch off on the set of 'Apocalypse Now.' He refused, and removed the bezel instead.
• Brando engraved 'M. Brando' on the case back of his 1675 himself.
• In 1966-1968 a new steel 1675 cost about $245 to $275 in the United States, less than half the price of a gold Day-Date on a strap.
• Inserts made in 1968-1969 can show a vivid pink that collectors call 'Pink Panther.'
• The bezel insert switched from Bakelite to aluminum after an American claimed the radium-painted bezel had harmed his family's health.