Thoughts on this Air King 5500

[byron123]

Hello Guys,

Thinking of purchasing either an oyster perpetual 1500 or an air king 5500. Found this air king for sale. Just need your thoughts on the condition and correctness of the watch bases on the pictures. What should be the max I should pay for the watch. Would greatly appreciate your inputs.

[Dan S]

Watch looks legit, with some condition issues (ugly lume in hands, a few spots on the dial, poorly polished case). The Swiss rivet bracelet adds value obviously but the 19mm versions aren't super expensive. Maybe $2000 USD given the condition. That may seem low to some people, but it's not an appealing watch to me so I don't think it's an easy sale.

[byron123]

Do you think the marks on the left side of the case can be polished off?

[offrdmania]

I dont think you want to polish that case anymore, it has already had a hard life

[byron123]

Alright I thought the 2200 usd selling price was a great deal for this. Appreciate the feedback.

[offrdmania]

Originally Posted by byron123

Alright I thought the 2200 usd selling price was a great deal for this. Appreciate the feedback.

It is a good deal but you will have to drop another 2 grand into it to get it back to where it should be

[byron123]

Just to correct the over polishing or is there any other thing that has to be done to the watch?

[Nick9]

One of my pet peeves is washed out pictures like that — nowhere near the actual colour of the steel and can hide a lot of wear and tear.

Both vintage Air-Kings and 1500s are great workhorse watches. To me, the asking price is reasonable if the watch is in good running order and not too beat up. Personally I would never buy that watch without seeing much better pictures.

[TuRo]

1002 caseback is correct. Agree with everyone - be £2200 or so for me as it's redemption is the lovely 13 link, 57 el. Raised Big Crown 19mm rivet.... worth £500 plus all day long !!

[TuRo]

Originally Posted by byron123

Alright I thought the 2200 usd selling price was a great deal for this. Appreciate the feedback.

Agree, given the r/c rivet.

[byron123]

so is the price a steal or would I be able to easily find similar ones easily? Just bought a watch recently, thought of getting this only if I would not be able to get one at this price again.

[byron123]

The watch is listed at $2100. Is it a steal or can similar examples be easily found for the same price. Just bought a few watches recently, only thought if buying the watch since I thought it was a incredible deal. If not, I would hold off and maybe look for 1 next year. Thanks

[Dan S]

If you can tolerate the below average condition and you are impatient, then buy it. It's not a crazy price. But given the condition, it's certainly not a steal or a bargain IMO. And if you ever wanted to upgrade, it would not be an easy watch to sell.

[TuRo]

Not a steal...just good price imho. I suspect the dial will look better in the flesh, rather than those washed-out/over saturated photos.

It's not perfect by any judgement, but £1750 is very keen price given the £500 plus 13 link rivet (which often get swapped out and find their way onto say a 6239 Daytona or a pricey 5500 Explorer dial - hence price) .

If in UK at £1750-1800 I'd buy it probably...but that's a personal opinion only, as I'm personally happy with an original, but honest, heavily polished non-perfect dial/handset, if all is ORIGINAL at a appropriate tarif.

I concur with Dan though....you can find much better cased ones....but I suspect you'd be more like $2700-2900 for an AK with a nice bracelet.

One thing I wouldn't do though is spend money on it pumping it up -you'll not get your money back. If you like it just buy it and enjoy it.

Ps check the no. serial matches the 66 caseback if you do buy :-)