Athlete Johannes Klæbo spotted wearing a Rolex

Johannes Klæbo, the most decorated cross-country skier of his generation, was photographed at an outdoor barbecue session — likely somewhere in western Norway given the lush, steep green backdrop — wearing a Rolex GMT-Master II 'Pepsi' on what appears to be the five-link Jubilee bracelet. The setting is relaxed, the choice of watch anything but ordinary.

The reference 126710BLRO is one of the landmark releases of the past decade. When Rolex unveiled it at Baselworld 2018, collectors reacted with near-instant frenzy. The watch restored the iconic red-and-blue 'Pepsi' colorway to stainless steel for the first time since the ref. 16710 was discontinued in 2007 — and crucially, it introduced the Jubilee bracelet to the GMT-Master II line, a pairing that had never existed before and that immediately proved polarizing in the best possible way. The Cerachrom bezel insert is executed in two separately fired ceramic pieces bonded together, a manufacturing challenge Rolex solved with characteristic engineering discipline.

Under the 40mm Oyster case beats the Calibre 3285, Rolex's proprietary in-house movement featuring a Chronergy escapement, a Parachrom hairspring, and a 70-hour power reserve — a meaningful upgrade over the Calibre 3186 it replaced. The independently settable 24-hour GMT hand, black lacquer dial, and date window at 3 o'clock remain functionally unchanged from GMT-Master tradition dating to 1955, when Pan Am pilots first used the original model to track two time zones simultaneously.

Klæbo, a five-time Olympic gold medalist from Trondheim, has the kind of global profile that attracts serious horological taste. His choice of the 126710BLRO fits a pattern common among elite Nordic athletes — understated luxury that performs as well as it looks, nothing flashy, nothing fragile.

On the grey market, the 126710BLRO continues to trade at a significant premium above its retail price of $10,800. Current secondary market values hover near the $23,000 mark, reflecting persistent demand that authorized dealer waitlists have never fully absorbed. For a watch that debuted just six years ago, that kind of sustained premium speaks to genuine collector conviction rather than speculative bubble.