Journal · Nicknames
Pepsi, Batman, Hulk, Fat Lady, Paul Newman — where the collector nicknames come from, and why they are really just reference numbers in disguise.
Almost none of Rolex's nicknames are official. They come from collectors, dealers, and forum threads — shorthand that stuck because it was faster than reciting a reference number. Over time the nicknames became a language of their own, and learning them is half of learning to read the watches.
The biggest family of nicknames describes bezels. On the GMT-Master II, a red-and-blue bezel is a Pepsi, blue-and-black is a Batman, black-and-red is a Coke, brown-and-black is a Root Beer, and black-and-green is a Sprite. On the Submariner, the green bezel-and-dial 116610LV is the Hulk, the green-bezel/black-dial 16610LV is the Kermit, and the newer green-bezel/black-dial 126610LV is the Cermit or Starbucks.
A nickname is a compression algorithm: "Pepsi" carries the bezel colour, the model, and half the history in five letters.
Others describe the watch itself. The first GMT-Master II, reference 16760, is the Fat Lady (or Sophia Loren) because its case was thicker than the model it replaced. A Daytona with a black-and-white dial is a Panda; the reverse is a Reverse Panda.
A few honour the people who wore them. The most famous is the Paul Newman Daytona — an exotic-dial Cosmograph the actor wore, now among the most valuable Rolex watches ever sold. The Datejust with a slim Roman-numeral bezel-less dial in a particular configuration is sometimes tied to Wimbledon for its green-and-gold accents.
Nicknames are not just trivia. Because they map cleanly to references, they are how collectors search, compare, and verify. Get them right and you signal that you know the watches; get them wrong and you signal the opposite. That is also why we build a dedicated reference page for each one — the nickname is the way people actually look.
Nicknames FAQ
No. Almost all Rolex nicknames are coined by collectors and dealers, not by Rolex. They persist because they are quicker and more memorable than reference numbers, and because they map cleanly to specific references.
The "Paul Newman" Daytona is the most celebrated. The actor's own Paul Newman Daytona sold at auction in 2017 for 17.8 million dollars, making it one of the most valuable wristwatches ever sold.
The Kermit (16610LV, 2003) has a green aluminium bezel with a black dial. The Hulk (116610LV, 2010) has a green Cerachrom bezel and a green sunburst dial — green all over, hence the stronger nickname.