Why Do You Insist On Calling The CHNR A “Root Beer”? It Isn’t

It’s been about 4 months already since Baselworld 2018 began. I understand there’s a lot going on during Baselworld each year and people get caught up with the steady outpour of new watches from their favourite watchmakers. I also understand that people will take quick (sometimes false) shortcuts during Baselworld for new watches just to help to internalize information about the new watches. What I can’t understand though is why 4 months later we are still referring to the new Rolex GMT-Master II CHNR models as “Root Beers”.

Here’s a steel and Everose gold CHNR:

And this is a true Root Beer:

If you can’t see the difference between this actual Root Beer and the new CHNR models then I don’t know what to tell you, but they are obviously two very different watches. Yes, they are both GMT-Master II’s, both have bicolor bezels, and are available in a combination of steel and gold at the very least. What is the most common reason for nicknaming a Rolex sports model? Its color! A Root Beer and a CHNR are very different watches in that their bezels are completely different. They only share the color brown in common, but even then it’s a different shade of brown.

Within psychology there are two approaches to how we process bring new information into our understanding of the world, we either accommodate or assimilate new information. People have been accommodating instead of assimilating this new line of watches. They see any GMT by Rolex with brown color on the bezel and they shove it into the”Root Beer” category (accommodation) as opposed to recognizing that the two are similar, but fairly easily distinguishable and understanding that they are different watches entirely (assimilation).

This is probably just the rantings of a crazed watch nut, but at the same time it is truly an issue of being able to distinguish between different Rolex models going forward. As a fix I suggest the following nicknames, but feel free to add your own recommendations in the comments:

Dr. Pepper (This would continue with the soda trend of names)

Mr. Pibb (For those that think Dr. Pepper is too “mainstream”)

Old Fashioned

Brown Bear

Black Bear

Honey Badger

Walnut

Molasses