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Actor Jay Hernandez spotted wearing Rolex

Season five of the rebooted Magnum P.I. arrived this week, and sharp-eyed viewers will have immediately clocked that Jay Hernandez's wrist carry is no throwaway prop. The actor is wearing a steel Rolex GMT-Master with the legendary red-and-blue 'Pepsi' bezel — a deliberate piece of costume continuity that connects the new series to the watch culture of the original show and to the broader mythology of Hawaii-set adventure television.

The watch on screen displays a black dial with applied hour markers, a red GMT hand, and the classic GMT-Master text with 'Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified' sub-text — hallmarks consistent with the reference 16700 or 16710 generation produced between the mid-1980s and 2007. The 40mm oyster case sits on an oyster bracelet, and the acrylic or sapphire bezel insert (depending on exact sub-reference) frames a dial that reads as period-correct to the original Magnum era. The movement inside these references is the calibre 3175 or 3185, both derivatives of the legendary cal. 3035 architecture, offering GMT functionality via an independently settable 24-hour hand.

From a collector standpoint, the 'Pepsi' GMT-Master occupies rarefied ground. References 16700 and 16710 represent the last generation of steel Pepsi bezels before Rolex discontinued the combination on steel cases — the colourway only returned in 2018 on the white-gold 126719BLRO and later the jubilee-bracelet 126710BLRO. That gap of over a decade made transitional references fiercely sought-after, and values have tracked accordingly.

Jay Hernandez has worn the GMT-Master consistently through his run as Thomas Magnum, making it a signature piece of his character's identity — much as the Ferrari 308 GTS defined the original. The choice is intelligent production design: the Pepsi GMT-Master existed in continuous production during the original series' 1980–1988 run, lending authentic period credibility.

On the grey market, clean examples of the 16710 in full-set condition regularly trade between $12,000 and $18,000, with 'BLRO' laser-printed bezel variants pushing higher. The 16700 with acrylic crystal commands a premium among purists seeking the vintage aesthetic closest to what appeared on Selleck's wrist decades ago.