Reference:gmt-master-ii-5digit-ceramic-family

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The 5-digit ceramic era is the chapter that pulled the GMT-Master II out of its aluminum-bezel past and into the catalogue Rolex still builds against. It opens in 2005 with the solid yellow-gold 116718LN at the fiftieth anniversary of the GMT-Master line, closes in 2019 with the simultaneous retirement of the steel 116710LN, the steel 116710BLNR Batman, and the yellow-gold 116718LN at Baselworld, and runs roughly fourteen years across five references. Each reference is a Cerachrom chapter. Together they rewrite what a bezel on a Rolex sports watch is supposed to do.

The defining technical achievement sits in the middle of the run. In 2013 Rolex shipped the first two-colour ceramic insert on the Batman. In 2014 it shipped the red-and-blue version on the white-gold 116719BLRO. Firing two colours in a single ceramic ring, without muddy joins at the boundary and without cracking the disk during the sintering cycle, was the patented process that made the rest of the modern GMT-Master II catalogue possible.

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

LN parses as lunette noire, black bezel. BLNR parses as bleu-noir. BLRO parses as 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 reverses the usual sports-reference pattern of steel-first, precious-metal-later. Rolex launched Cerachrom on the GMT-Master II at Baselworld 2005 in solid yellow gold on the 116718LN, tied to the line’s fiftieth anniversary. The Rolesor 116713LN followed in 2006. Steel did not arrive until 2007 with the 116710LN. For the first two years of the ceramic era, the only way to buy a Cerachrom GMT-Master II from Rolex was in precious metal.

Monochrome’s retrospective anchors that ordering. The sequence matters because it assigns the 116718LN the role the steel reference normally plays: the 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 at Baselworld 2013, then the red-and-blue ceramic Pepsi 116719BLRO at Baselworld 2014. Each release extended the process to a new colour combination, each in 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 story of the 5-digit ceramic family is the two-colour insert. Single-colour Cerachrom was in production before 2013, first on the Yacht-Master II from 2005 and then across the GMT line. Two colours in a single sintered ceramic disk was a different problem. Different oxide chemistries produce different colours, and those chemistries behave differently under kiln heat. Firing them together risks cracking the disk at the colour boundary, muddy joins where the two colours meet, and colour drift across the face of the insert.

The Batman’s 2013 blue-and-black insert is the first reference that solved the problem in production. The process is a chemical treatment on a single Cerachrom ring rather than two separately fired pieces joined together. The two colours are produced on one ring through a two-stage firing process that turns different metallic-oxide states into different visible hues. Rolex patented the method. The 2014 red-and-blue Pepsi on the 116719BLRO required the same process on harder pigments. Red Cerachrom uses a different kiln chemistry from blue, and the boundary case for red-blue is geometrically different from blue-black.

Monochrome, Fratello, and Revolution all frame the two-colour process as the defining technical achievement of the ceramic era. The Pepsi sat exclusively on white gold for four years precisely because the steel case cost structure could not absorb the insert cost until production scaled. The steel ceramic Pepsi did not arrive until 2018, on the 6-digit 126710BLRO, by which point the process was mature enough to run at steel-reference volume.

Caliber 3185 into 3186

The movement story across the family is simpler than the bezel story. Caliber 3186 powered the launch 116718LN at Baselworld 2005 and became the standard GMT-Master II movement for the entire 5-digit ceramic era. The 3186 debut on the 116718LN makes the yellow-gold reference the first Rolex to carry the movement. The 3186 carried a blue Parachrom hairspring, Paraflex shock protection, and a revised GMT wheel that cleaned up the independent-hour-hand mechanism from the earlier 3185.

Caliber 3185 remained in service on the late-run aluminum-bezel 16710 through to the end of that reference’s production. On the 5-digit ceramic references, caliber 3186 is the movement of record across every documented example in the current corpus. No caliber 3185-equipped 116718LN, 116713LN, 116710LN, 116710BLNR, or 116719BLRO has entered the source layer. A 3185 transitional branch, if one exists, needs direct book sourcing before it enters the article.

Power reserve is 48 hours. The 3186 is what collectors mean when they say the Batman and the all-black ceramic GMT share hearts. They do.

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 institutional-commission dials (Sotheby’s Khanjar circa 2010, Bonhams Sea King 2014) sit outside standard production.
  • 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 is absent from the 5-digit ceramic era. 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. That transition has rearranged the market.

The Batman 116710BLNR is the centre of the post-discontinuation story. EUR prices ran from around EUR 8,500 at the start of the discontinuation signal into the EUR 16,000 range shortly after, and Phillips offered a new-old-stock stickered example from the Guido Mondani Collection at the Geneva Watch Auction XIX in May 2024, five years after production stopped. The reference now functions in grey-market discussion as the reference against which “recently-discontinued Rolex appreciates faster than expected” gets measured.

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 approximately GBP 25,600, which puts the post-discontinuation auction result comfortably above launch.

The all-black 116710LN is quieter. The secondary market tracks a pattern distinct from both the Batman and the aluminum-bezel 16710, which puts the watch in its own price tier: above the neo-vintage aluminum Pepsi, below the two-colour Cerachrom siblings. Fratello’s 2021 comparison against the 126710GRNR anchors the 116710LN’s market identity on the “last all-black-bezel steel GMT-Master II” positioning.

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, but the reference trades mostly through the secondary market. The 116713LN reads as a discontinued fixed-supply reference with a defined pricing band, distinct from the steel ceramic siblings.

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 market split between 5-digit ceramic and earlier neo-vintage 16710 is the structural collecting fact of the family. Aluminum-bezel 16710 Pepsi and Coke examples sit in the vintage-leaning tier. The 5-digit ceramic references sit in a post-discontinuation tier defined by waitlist memory rather than by vintage patina. The Batman and the white-gold Pepsi are the reference points inside that tier.

Sources

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