I’ve always had a soft spot for the old GMTs. Some may recall the gilt PCG from 1963 – that was a watch – that I traded a year or two ago and although I loved it I was always a bit put out by the non-hacking and non-quickset movement. I waited a loooong time for the “right” 16750 to come along and when it did I bought it knowing it was a watch that I’d be holding for the long term. It really is the nicest I’ve seen, actually, much like the 5513 that sits next to it in the watch box when not on my wrist.

Anyway, when it arrived it looked like this…

Pretty lovely, I have to say. The thing is, I then saw a couple of photos of another GMT with a much newer insert and I decided to go on the hunt for a NOS Pepsi to see what it would look like. I eventually found one being sold by a guy called Niels in Germany, and who has a pretty good reputation over on TRF. I decided to give it a go, and as soon as I fitted it I knew it had been the right thing to do.

Amazing! Not only did it look glorious, but it also looked completely different to when it was wearing the faded insert. I was pretty much settled on the new look, but something kept nagging away at the back of my mind… what would it look like with a black insert instead? Try as I might I couldn’t ignore the need to have a look, and sure enough Niels had a lovely NOS black jobbie for sale. (In fact, the first one I bought got lost in the post, but he bore the cost of that and managed to come up with another one.) I popped it on this morning, and yet again it looks really nice, and [I]totally[/I] different.

I can’t say that I have a particular preference, as I love each of the different looks almost equally. However, it does show how effectively these wonderful old watches can change in appearance – to the extent that they barely look like the same watch.