What is a Rolex Root Beer?

“Root Beer” is the collector nickname for any Rolex GMT-Master (or GMT-Master II) with a brown or half-brown bezel insert. Although nowadays the term most often refers to the current black-and-brown models (ref. 126711 CHNR and 126715 CHNR), there are also vintage Rolex Root Beers with brown dials dating back to the late 1950’s. In short, in the Rolex world, “Root Beer” means “brown GMT.” We’ll tell you what all Root Beers have in common, then give you a quick comprehensive history of all the models.

Although there is a two-tone brown-dial Yacht-Master that occasionally half-seriously gets called a “Root Beer,” really that term is reserved for Rolex GMT models. We’ll show you the key traits of Rolex Root Beer references, then take you through each generation.

Rolex Root Beer GMT Characteristics

Rolex Root Beer 6542/8 (1958-1959)

The first Rolex GMT-Master Root Beer ever made was reference 6542/8. It only seems to have been made from 1958-1959. Although Rolex had already replaced the radium-filled Bakelite bezel inserts on the steel 6542 with plain aluminum bezel inserts by 1956, they were still using Bakelite bezels on the Root Beer (which is a collector nickname, not an official term) in the late 1950’s for some reason. There is no two-tone 6542 model; the first Root Beers only came in solid 18k yellow gold with brown dials and all-brown bezels, powered by caliber 1065.

Although Jubilee and Oyster bracelets are the norm, you can occasionally find some very rare examples of original President bracelets on vintage yellow gold Rolex GMT-Masters. All GMT-Master models have been fitted with Mercedes hands for many decades at this point, but some of the first GMT’s had stick hands, and those are sometimes known as “Concorde” models. Some early Root Beers can be found with alpha hands, too. No matter the configuration, 6542/8 GMT-Masters go for good money whenever they come up for sale.

Rolex Root Beer 1675 (1960-1981)

By 1960, the GMT-Master ref. 1675 was on the scene with a new movement, caliber 1565. Although the 1065 movements were very good for their day, the 15xx generation is when Rolex movements really started to become overengineered beasts, and they can be serviced more easily than earlier calibers. In the mid-1960’s, Rolex quietly upgraded the movement again to caliber 1575, ticking away at 5.5 beats per second instead of 5.

In typical Rolex fashion, the 1675 Root Beer was an evolutionary upgrade over the 6542, but it was also available in more configurations. The 1675 Root Beer came in both two-tone (ref. 1675/3) and solid yellow gold (ref. 1675/8). The bezel insert, now radiation-free and made of aluminum, was offered in brown/silver and brown/yellow versions in addition to the familiar all-brown colorway. Like the gold 6542, all two-tone and gold 4-digit Rolex GMT-Masters (and Submariners) have nipple dials, named for their nipple-like hour markers.

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Rolex Root Beer 16753 (1981-1988)

In the early 1980’s, the Rolex GMT got another round of subtle evolutionary updates. The Root Beer 16753 (two-tone) and 16758 (solid gold) references have only a few small differences from their predecessors. Equipped with caliber 3075, the watch’s hour hand is now at the bottom of the hand stack, underneath the 24-hour hand that previously held the bottom spot. The seconds hand is still at the top, now ticking 8 times per second. And the watch has a quickset date feature, which is convenient. On older Rolex models, it can be cumbersome having to spin the hands around and around until you get the date right.

The familiar rich matte brown nipple dial of the Root Beer GMT was replaced by a sunburst brown dial with typical hour plots in 1984, right in the middle of the run of the Root Beer 16753 and 16758. 1984 was also the first year that the serti dial became an option on a GMT-Master: in this case, a champagne dial with diamond and ruby hour markers.

One way to tell a 5-digit Root Beer GMT apart from a 4-digit model is the crown logo on the dial. 4-digit Root Beers have applied gold coronets, while newer references just have a stamped logo.

Rolex Root Beer 16713 and 16718 (1988-2006)

The 16713 and 16718 Root Beer models debuted in 1988 with two important updates: an independent hour hand thanks to the new caliber 3185 movement, and a sapphire crystal. Unfortunately, like almost all GMT watches with an independent hour hand that can quickly “jump” between hours, it does not have a quickset date. But you can set the date fairly quickly by spinning the hour hand around the dial–it’s significantly faster than on a fully non-quickset watch. With the new independent hour hand comes a new name: GMT-Master II.

The 16713 (two-tone) and 16718 (yellow gold) remained unchanged until about 1999, when non-radioactive Luminova lume replaced the old tritium. In 2000, a silver (“slate”) serti dial option was added alongside the champagne one, but it only lasted about a year. Those silver serti GMT’s are very rare.

16713T and 16718T

Then, around 2002, the lugholes disappeared and the model numbers changed to 16713T and 16718T. Essentially, you can remember the “T” as standing for “There’s no lugholes.” 2006 was the last year of production for the 16713 and 16718. Some of the very last examples have 3186 movements, which is the same thing as a 3185 except with a Parachrom hairspring. It would be over a decade before there would be another Rolex Root Beer GMT.

Rolex Root Beer 126711 CHNR and 126715 CHNR (2018+)

At Baselworld 2018, Rolex unveiled today’s “Root Beer.” Unlike their predecessors, ref. 126715 CHNR and 126711 CHNR have black dials. The CHNR bezel color (an abbreviation of the French words for “chestnut” and “black”) was also a first for Rolex. These 6-digit Root Beers come exclusively on Oyster bracelets. Like previous Root Beers, the CHNR is only available in two-tone and solid gold, but this time, it’s Everose Gold instead of yellow gold. While the vintage and neo-vintage Root Beers never had more than about 40 hours of power reserve, caliber 3235 gives the CHNR 70 hours to work with.

The two-tone CHNR in particular has been extremely popular since its release, and frankly it’s probably the first two-tone reference that anyone spent years on the Rolex waiting list for. Droves of new fans are now asking for the “Rolex Root Beer” that had no knowledge of the brown versions of yesteryear. The days of two-tone Rolex sports models being endlessly disparaged and selling for massive discounts seem to be well behind us, at least for now.

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