Rolex Air King

Why We Love It When it comes to "budget" Rolex, there are few watches more attractive than an Air King. The proportions are perfect, the movement robust and the styling timeless. It’s not hard to make the argument that the Air King is the one of the most versatile models in the Rolex collection, as all it takes is a strap change to transform one from a black-tie accoutrement to a BBQ grill timer. Yet because of the Air King's wide appeal, so many of them got worn - and worn hard; The Air King was the everyman's go-to.   With a crisp case and an immaculate glossy black dial with beautifully aged luminous indices, this particular example Air King doesn't show the telltale signs of rough abuse, making it a rare find and a great option for even the seasoned collector. The Story Launched in 1945, the Air King was one in a series of watches released to honor the RAF pilots who defended the island against the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. After the war, spirits were riding high in “their finest hour,” and the fighter pilots were the heroes to whom everyone in England looked for inspiration. As an ardent lover of his adopted land, swept up in patriotic fervor, Wilsdorf’s company released models with names like Air-Lion, Air-Tiger, and Air-Giant. Wilsdorf meant the Air-King to be worn by pilots, and many companies like Pan Am did indeed choose the Air King as a presentation watch for retiring pilots. The Air-King went through many different variations throughout the model’s long run. The example that we offer here is a Reference 5500, which was first launched in 1957 and ran for 37 years. Compared to the earlier Air-Kings, which used Hunter movements, the Reference 5500 was the first to be equipped with the Calibre 1520 movement. The Air King Reference 5500 (produced from 1957 to 1994) is a tremendously desirable timepiece by any standard, combining a self-winding Calibre 1520 in-house movement with Rolex's signature Oyster Case. Many dial colors were used during that period, from silver to the black (featured here), which is perhaps the most visually-arresting of them all.