The Crown Index · October 2026
The watch press spent 2026 covering the Pepsi's discontinuation, and the Pepsi did rise: the median eBay sale for a 126710BLRO went from $21,400 a year ago to $23,550 over the last four months, about 10 percent. But rank every Rolex reference with enough recorded sales to measure, and the Pepsi doesn't win. A 26-millimeter Datejust from the 1970s does.
How we measured it: for each reference we pulled every eBay sale from the last 12 months (via Terapeak, eBay's sold-data tool) and compared the median sale price 8 to 12 months ago with the median over the last 4 months. We only rank references with at least 15 sales in both windows, so a single lucky auction can't top the table.
| Reference | What it is | Median sale, a year ago | Median sale, last 4 months | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6917 | Lady-Datejust 26, 1970s | $3,400 | $4,772 | +40% |
| 69178 | Lady-Datejust 26, full gold | $9,550 | $11,765 | +23% |
| 6916 | Lady-Datejust 26 steel, 1970s | $2,500 | $2,800 | +12% |
| 79173 | Lady-Datejust 26 two-tone | $4,940 | $5,500 | +11% |
| 126710BLRO | GMT-Master II Pepsi | $21,400 | $23,550 | +10% |
| 16710 | GMT-Master II, five-digit | $11,390 | $12,499 | +10% |
| 69173 | Lady-Datejust 26 two-tone | $5,295 | $5,795 | +9% |
| 69174 | Lady-Datejust 26 steel and white gold | $4,890 | $5,340 | +9% |
Two GMTs in a leaderboard otherwise owned by watches under 27 millimeters. That is not a coincidence; it is a change in who is buying.
Three currents feeding one wave. First, taste: a decade of 40-plus-millimeter watches gave way to vintage proportions, and the people who set style online now wear small gold watches with everything. Second, access: secondhand platforms put first-time buyers one tap from a $5,000 Rolex, and the small Datejusts are the best-made watches at that price by a comfortable margin. Third, supply: these were sold as "ladies' watches," and crisp, unpolished examples are scarcer than the market assumed while it ignored them.
Not every small Datejust is rising. The 31mm two-tone 68273 went the other way, with its median sale falling from $8,300 to about $6,000 over the same windows, and the 1970s 31mm 6827 sells too rarely on eBay (13 sales across both windows) to call a direction at all. The newer generation 179174 is flat on the sales we can see. The move is concentrated in the 26mm vintage and neo-vintage references, not the whole family.
A median can move because the mix of watches sold changed, not only because prices did: a few months with more full-set, unpolished examples will push it up. Condition is everything on watches this age, and worn cases and aftermarket dials are common. Every number above comes from recorded sales you can check on each reference page, and the full method is on our methodology page. Buy the watch, not the chart.