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Rolex GMT-Master II 5-digit ceramic family

This is a checked version, approved on 14 September 2026. New changes may have been made.


The 5-digit ceramic era is the bridge between the aluminum 16710 world and the current ceramic GMT-Master II line. It runs from 2005 to 2019 across five references: 116718LN, 116713LN, 116710LN, 116710BLNR, and 116719BLRO.

Rolex brought Cerachrom to the GMT in yellow gold first, then Rolesor, then steel. In 2013 the Batman introduced the first two-colour ceramic insert, and in 2014 the white-gold Pepsi extended the process to red and blue.

Core map

  • 116718LN (2005-2019): first Cerachrom GMT-Master II; solid 18k yellow gold, black bezel
  • 116713LN (2006-2019): two-tone Rolesor yellow-gold GMT; first ceramic GMT-Master II to reach steel-in-case form
  • 116710LN (2007-2019): first steel GMT-Master II with a ceramic bezel; all-black Cerachrom
  • 116710BLNR (2013-2019): first two-colour Cerachrom reference; blue-and-black Batman
  • 116719BLRO (2014-2019): first ceramic Pepsi; white-gold only

The suffixes are French bezel descriptions: LN for lunette noire, black bezel; BLNR for bleu-noir; BLRO for bleu-rouge. The case across the family is the Super Case generation Rolex rolled out from the mid-2000s, wider at the lugs and heavier at the crown guards than the 16710 it replaced.

Where the family changes

Cerachrom chronology

The rollout order flips the usual pattern. For the first two years of the ceramic era, the only way to buy a Cerachrom GMT-Master II was in precious metal.

That ordering hands the 116718LN the role the steel reference normally plays: development vehicle for the newest bezel and dial technology in the line. The steel 116710LN inherited a proven insert rather than introducing one.

Two-tone ceramic arrived next, in two steps. The blue-and-black Batman 116710BLNR came at Baselworld 2013, the red-and-blue ceramic Pepsi 116719BLRO at Baselworld 2014. Both extended the process to a new colour combination inside the same 40mm Super Case architecture that had carried the single-colour Cerachrom references since 2005.

The two-colour ceramic patent story

The real technical break is the two-colour insert, and it forced a change of material as well as process. The single-colour Cerachrom of 2005 was zirconia-based, the ceramic most watchmakers prefer for its density and resistance. European patent EP2746243B1, filed by Rolex in 2013, describes why zirconia would not do for a second colour: the fix was an alumina-based ceramic instead, by weight 96.7-97.9% aluminium oxide and 1.5-2.9% chromium oxide with small traces of rare-earth metals, first sintered into a solid red body at 850-1300°C. A second pigment — cobalt, zinc, or iron, depending on the shade of blue wanted — is then infused into the still-porous surface before a second firing locks the colour in. Because the pigment soaks into the material rather than sitting on it, the boundary between the two colours stays sharp and the colour itself cannot wear off. The 2013 Batman proved the process at blue-and-black; the 2014 white-gold Pepsi proved it again at red-and-blue, a deliberate callback to the 1955 GMT-Master's original bezel. That manufacturing step made the later ceramic GMT catalogue possible.

Caliber 3185 into 3186

The movement side is far simpler than the bezel side. Caliber 3186 launched in the 116718LN at Baselworld 2005 and is the movement of record across the ceramic 5-digit family. It brought the blue Parachrom hairspring, Paraflex shock protection, and a cleaner independent-hour-hand mechanism than the earlier 3185, with a 48-hour power reserve.

The late aluminum-bezel 16710 still used 3185, but no documented ceramic 5-digit example has surfaced with it.

Branch map

The 5-digit ceramic era splits cleanly by dial-and-bezel identity rather than by mechanical variation.

  • Black bezel, steel: 116710LN. One dial configuration — glossy black with a green "GMT-Master II" signature line and a green 24-hour hand. Two documented commission runs sit outside standard production: a Sultanate of Oman piece (Sotheby's, circa 2010) with the Khanjar dagger engraved on the caseback and a Khimji Ramdas retailer stamp on the papers, and a 123-piece batch made for personnel associated with the Royal Navy's Westland Sea King helicopter, numbered against the Sea King engraving and the motto "Fear God Honour the King" and sold only to Sea King-associated buyers rather than through normal retail.
  • Blue-black bezel, steel: 116710BLNR. One dial configuration — the 116710LN dial minus the green signature line, with a blue 24-hour hand. The Batman is a bezel variant of the 116710LN rather than a separate case platform.
  • Red-blue bezel, white gold: 116719BLRO. Two dial configurations by production window — black lacquer -0001 (2014-2018), matte blue -0002 (2018-2019). Same case, same bezel, same movement across both.
  • Black bezel, yellow gold Rolesor: 116713LN. Single gloss-black dial configuration. Narrowest branch in the family — no sub-variants.
  • Black bezel, solid yellow gold: 116718LN. Two parallel dial configurations across the run — standard black and green anniversary. Sotheby's tracks the green as the collector variant; the black is the steadier seller.

The Rootbeer colour scheme sat the ceramic era out. The brown-and-gold dial-and-bezel pairing that ran through the 1970s 1675/3, 16753, and 16758 did not survive into Cerachrom. Rolex did not bring Rootbeer back to the GMT-Master II until the 6-digit 126711CHNR and 126715CHNR in 2018, by which point the gold side had shifted from yellow to Everose.

Collecting context

The 5-digit ceramic era moved from current production to discontinued between 2019 and roughly 2024, and the market has rearranged around that.

The Batman 116710BLNR is the reference the post-discontinuation market formed around. Prices climbed hard after 2019, and the watch is now the standard illustration of how quickly a recently discontinued Rolex reprices once supply closes.

The Pepsi 116719BLRO carries the same pattern in white gold. Sotheby's has moved multiple examples through Fine Watches and Important Watches sales from 2023 through 2025, with a circa-2014 -0001 selling for EUR 35,560 at Fine Watches 2023. Period retail was about GBP 25,600, which puts the post-discontinuation auction result comfortably above launch.

The all-black 116710LN is quieter. It tracks neither the Batman nor the aluminum-bezel 16710, trading in a band of its own above the neo-vintage aluminum Pepsi and below the two-colour Cerachrom siblings. Fratello's January 2025 comparison against the 126710GRNR — the newest steel GMT-Master II — traces the same point: Rolex went straight from the monochrome-black 116710LN to two-tone Cerachrom bezels and has not brought a plain-black insert back to the steel case since.

The 116713LN is the narrowest branch by auction footprint. Sotheby's has catalogued a 2014 direct-sale listing and Bonhams offered a 2017 example in its Fine Watches sale; beyond that the reference moves through the secondary market rather than the salerooms.

The 116718LN auction market is dominated by the green anniversary dial. Sotheby's has offered the variant at Important Watches 2019 and again at Fine Watches 2024, five years after discontinuation. Christie's has catalogued a black-dial example. Post-discontinuation green-dial examples trade through certified pre-owned channels, and secondary-market indexing tracks the green dial separately under 116718LN-0002.

The split between the 5-digit ceramic references and the neo-vintage 16710 is the collecting line that matters here. Aluminum-bezel 16710 Pepsi and Coke examples trade on vintage appeal. The ceramic references trade on waitlist memory instead of patina, and the Batman and the white-gold Pepsi are the anchors inside that group.

Related references

Sources

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