The Rolex Air King (Past and present)

[pborkstrom]

Originally Posted by padi56

Some say the first Airkings were particularly designed for pilots as such but IMHO they were not, but world war 11 did have a part to play with the Airking. And many models now becoming collectable especially the Airking dates especially the red date roulette.Now before WW11 Rolex was always popular with the armed forces in the UK.Now old Hans being a good business man saw there was a market for a slightly bigger watch.Now watches at these times were quite small 30m was the average size.Now Rolex started producing 33m models under the names of Air Lion,Air Tiger,Air Giant and the Air king.They all used a 15 jewel manual wind movement,then came in steel even TT plus all gold but then mainly 9ct.And were in production from the mid 1940s to early 1950s when they were all dropped,except for the Airking.Now over the next few years the Air king gained a auto movement and now the same size as OP,and some of the most sort after Airkings now are models like the 1960s 5504 with the honeycombed dial.Now the first Airking date arrived on the scene late 1960s Ref 5700 were only sold in the then Commonwealth countries like Canada and the UK.Now they made a 5700n Explorer Date but that was only sold in the USA.Later 1970s 5701 Airking dates had the cal.1525/35 movements,and they made a TT version of the 5701 quite rare, but again for the Canadian only market but the Airking date faded out of production in the 1980s. IMO a shame the Airking has quite a lot of history, and IMHO now a very underrated watch.


The Air King is a classic and the one of the longest continuously produced models in the whole Rolex line

Air-King models though the years.
4365,4499, 4925, 5500, 5501, 5506, 5520, 6500, 6552, 7784,14000, 14000M, 14010, 14010M

KD9GNS. 72's!

[carlsid]

Here is my Air King. Classy, elegant and timeless. I'm a big fan!

rsz_11img_2687.jpg

rsz_1img_2686.jpg

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[JJCPT7]

Hi,

First post!

I am looking for the watch that Tom Cruise wore in the 1988 movie "Cocktail". I believe it was a Rolex Air King Date, silver with silver dial. 36mm. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thank

[JJCPT7]

Originally Posted by carlsid

Here is my Air King. Classy, elegant and timeless. I'm a big fan!

Attachment 878549

Attachment 878550

Attachment 878551

Wow! That is classy. I am looking for the same one with a date. What year is this model? Where did you purchase it?

Thanks!

[Birky101]

My 14000 circa 1997 says hello

Sent from my Harrier Tab from EE using Tapatalk

[scotrick]

Nice watches all around lads!

Birky are you a fan of the new 116900?

JJCPT7, take a look at the 5700 if you like the classic Air King look.

Cheers,
Rick

[Birky101]

Originally Posted by scotrick

Nice watches all around lads!

Birky are you a fan of the new 116900?

JJCPT7, take a look at the 5700 if you like the classic Air King look.

Cheers,
Rick

Hi @scotrick I think the new 116900 is imo the worst watch Rolex have produced
To me the 14000 has it all

Sent from my Harrier Tab from EE using Tapatalk

[scotrick]

It is certainly a departure from the old Air King and I don't blame you for thinking so!

[Birky101]

Originally Posted by scotrick

It is certainly a departure from the old Air King and I don't blame you for thinking so!

Yes they should have given that model a different name and left the Air King as it was after all it's one of the oldest models and is so classic
With mine I had the explorer minute and hour hands fitted and to me makes it perfect

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[scotrick]

Yes that looks great Birky!

The 39 mm Explorer is also nice in the new watch line-up,retains more of the classic look than the new AK.

Cheers,
Rick

[Nikrnic]

I want a new 116900

[Tommygio]

Birky,

How did you go about doing the explorer hands? I have a 114200 and love it. However, i wear it when i fly and i have a tough time reading it at night. The explorer hands might solve that problem for me. Also, does retrofitting the hands do anything to the serviceability from Rolex?

Thanks

[Birky101]

Originally Posted by Tommygio

Birky,

How did you go about doing the explorer hands? I have a 114200 and love it. However, i wear it when i fly and i have a tough time reading it at night. The explorer hands might solve that problem for me. Also, does retrofitting the hands do anything to the serviceability from Rolex?

Thanks

My watchmaker supplied and fitted them but I've kept the original hands just in case

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[Michael Star]

My 114200 ref is a bit different than most.

[BBL]

Originally Posted by Michael Star

My 114200 ref is a bit different than most.

I really like your watch, terrific arabic numbers!

Your first post! Welcome to TRF.

[Michael Star]

Originally Posted by BBL

I really like your watch, terrific arabic numbers!

Your first post! Welcome to TRF.

Thanks!!

[joe100]

[scotrick]

That's a great old 5500 Joe. The alpha hands and Precision script dial combination is unusual, would it be mid 60's?
Cheers,
Rick
1965 No-Precision script dial with alpha hands

[joe100]

Yep, 1.3m serial, 1963.

[scotrick]

Originally Posted by joe100

Yep, 1.3m serial, 1963.

Hi Joe I wonder if that might be from 66? I I have three 65's with 1.2 m serials and 65 stamped in the case back including the 5500 pictured above without "Precision" scripted in the lower hemisphere. This is of particular interest to me because I am curious as to the time span of the 5500 dials that did not have "Super Precision" or "Precision" printed on the lower half of the dial.

Cheers,
Rick

[joe100]

Originally Posted by scotrick

Hi Joe I wonder if that might be from 66? I I have three 65's with 1.2 m serials and 65 stamped in the case back including the 5500 pictured above without "Precision" scripted in the lower hemisphere. This is of particular interest to me because I am curious as to the time span of the 5500 dials that did not have "Super Precision" or "Precision" printed on the lower half of the dial.

Cheers,
Rick

Oh sorry, I mistyped that! It is a 1966.

The Super Precision on the dial means it has a cal 1530 and the Precision or lack of Precision means 1520 calibers. The P or non P dials were market dependent. Lower jewel count USUALLY had non P, not always. Higher jewel movements had the Precision text. It gets more deep than that because it seems that different markets at different times had different dials, or maybe rolex used P dials for non-P service dials, who knows.

To really get to the heart of it, you’d have to get a sample of non P dials and see which version of the caliber 1520 is in there. A rolex watchmaker can comment on how many versions of the 1520 there are but I think there were 6.

[scotrick]

Originally Posted by joe100

Oh sorry, I mistyped that! It is a 1966.

The Super Precision on the dial means it has a cal 1530 and the Precision or lack of Precision means 1520 calibers. The P or non P dials were market dependent. Lower jewel count USUALLY had non P, not always. Higher jewel movements had the Precision text. It gets more deep than that because it seems that different markets at different times had different dials, or maybe rolex used P dials for non-P service dials, who knows.

To really get to the heart of it, you’d have to get a sample of non P dials and see which version of the caliber 1520 is in there. A rolex watchmaker can comment on how many versions of the 1520 there are but I think there were 6.

Thanks Joe you are a wealth of Air King knowledge! If I read you correctly the Precision and no-Precision script dials were produced over the same time period, which I did not realize.

Cheers,
Rick

[Boman]

Great reading :)

[scotrick]

1002, II 69 in the case back

[Old Expat Beast]

Originally Posted by scotrick

1002, II 69 in the case back

Where did that bezel come from? Should be fluted on a 5501.

[scotrick]

That's right Adam I have a 5501, the fluted bezel looks good to me with the jubilee bracelet. I also have a couple of all steel 5500's with silver dial indices. So when I got this 5500 with the gold indices and hands, I decided to try out a smooth bezel with the TT oyster bracelet and gold crown, it's a combination I don't see very often but I like it!

[Fai17]

New to the collection

[Birky101]

My Air king with the other two in my very small collection

Sent from my GT-N7100 using Tapatalk

[scotrick]

Fai, Birky nice watches boys! Quite a time span in these photos, from mine which are 50's-60's to yours!

Cheers, Rick

[Sporkmaker]

My dad's 1983 model which was given to me in '97, it's been my daily wearer for the last 20 years and has only just entered semi-retirement. You can tell how much use it's seen by the wear on the top link.