At its beginning, in 1954, the bezel of the GMT-Master II was made of Plexiglas and the color and the white scale were printed on the underside. From 1959 to 2007, quality fake Rolex produced the bezel in aluminum, with the colors applied via an anodizing process. This was followed by a track made of zirconium oxide ceramic and with it, problems with the color. Monochromatic bezels were standard since two-tone tracks appeared to be a technical impossibility. But Rolex persisted in its research and found a solution for the first Batman by 2013. It developed and patented a process for the monobloc bezel that added a metallic salt on one half of the bezel prior to heat treatment in a kiln. The final colors were produced by sintering in a kiln at 1,600 degrees Celsius for more than 24 hours.
A second problem was achieving the desired red color for the blue-and-red Pepsi bezel, since there is no mineral-based pigment that produces a rich red. After years of research, perfect Rolex replica came to rely on a ceramic based on aluminum oxide and added chromium oxide, magnesium oxide and a rare-earth oxide to produce the red half of the ceramic bezel. For the blue color, one half of the bezel was saturated again with a metallic salt solution prior to sintering.
The bezels of the Batman and the Pepsi are based on different ceramic substances, zirconium oxide and aluminum oxide, which explains why the blue colors on the two bezels look so different. On our test watch, the blue appears much brighter than on the new Pepsi model. However, the incident light plays a major role on our perception of color and as always, there are slight differences among the Pepsi bezels.
Both materials forming the track condense and shrink during the sintering process and must be machined with diamond tools to the exact measurements. To ensure that the numerals remain perfectly legible, the entire ring is coated with platinum using a PVD process and then carefully polished to leave the precious metal behind in the recessed dots and numerals. Both processes have been patented by Swiss made fake Rolex. In addition to its scratch resistance, the ceramic bezels have the additional advantage of being UV resistant and do not fade.
