Tudor Release Black Bay GMT Pepsi with White Opaline Dial

The Tudor Black Bay GMT is an absolute staple of the collection with its two tone, 24-hour bezel. Typically, it’s a fairly reserved model, especially the S&G edition from last year, but for 2023 Tudor have come out of their shell to add a bit of colour to the range. Technically, the new watch is called the Tudor Black Bay GMT Ref. 79830RB, but you may as well call it the Tudor Black Bay GMT Pepsi.

Pepsi is a nickname most commonly associated with the Rolex GMT Master II with its distinctive red and blue bezel that looks like the Pepsi logo. Since the new BB GMT has exactly the same colourway and Tudor is Rolex’s sister brand, it makes sense to use the name here too. The bezel is definitely the most eye catching aspect of the new watch, particularly in combination with the opaline dial.

Opaline is a very bright silver colour that looks almost white until you get it under a light and see the shimmer of its metallic surface. It pairs beautifully with the impactful colours of the bezel, granting them a lightness and vibrancy that might be lost if the dial itself were darker. If you were to line this up alongside Tudor’s other releases this week like the Black Bay 54 and Black Bay burgundy bezel, this would be the one that has the most striking visual impact.

Beyond the new dial and Pepsi bezel there’s nothing that differentiates this watch from the existing GMT range. It has the same 41mm diameter presented in stainless steel and comes on the usual three piece steel bracelet or fabric strap.

Beneath the surface is the Calibre MT5652, an automatic movement with 70-hour power reserve featuring hour, minute, seconds and GMT functions. It’s an impressive movement to be sure but raises the question, when will we see Tudor complication watches with METAS Master Chronometer ratings? Perhaps it’s too early to ask that considering the Black Bay core collection only just received its first Master Chronometer in the form of the burgundy bezel edition.

In terms of price, it sits at £3,330 on fabric strap or £3,590 on bracelet. In some circles Tudor has a reputation for simply producing more accessible Rolexes and that comparison is difficult to avoid here – especially with the Pepsi nickname floating around. But for all that I do like the Tudor Black Bay GMT Pepsi, it has a brightness to the colours that the Black Bay can sometimes lack.