Air King History

[Cato]

Does anyone have a link to its history? I assume it was designed for airplane pilots?

[Wolfgang427]

Here you go, from Mr Rolex himself;

After WWII, Rolex revised the whole of their range after the introduction of the Datejust as their new top of the line model.

Several new models were introduced and many others were renamed, the Oyster Royal remained as the most expensive manual wind model, but now that the Perpetual was well established it no longer was a top of the line watch. Before WWII, Rolex had always been the favourite watch of long distance flyers and the fact that it had become the watch of choice for Battle of Britain fighter pilots made an impression on Hans Wilsdorf. He chose to honour these flyers with a new line of manual wind Oysters; they were new because (like the new Datejust) they were much larger than the previous manual wind watches, in order to fit in with the new look. In fact we would now consider them quite small, they were 32 to 33mm diameter.

The new range of watches bore the names “Air Tiger”, “Air Lion”; Air Giant” and “Air King”; they all used the legendary 10.5 hunter manual wind movement with 15 jewels and no shock protection on the balance staff. The Air Giant was the largest of the 4 watches and like the rest, was available in steel, steel & gold or low carat (9 or10k depending on the market) gold.

These watches remained in production from about 1948 to the early 1950s but never really proved popular and were dropped from the catalogues. Only the Air King remained and that gained an automatic movement. Since then the Air King has kept its place in the Rolex catalogue as the least expensive gent’s Oyster Perpetual. Nowadays it is only available in stainless steel, but up to the late 60s it was available in low carat gold, steel & gold and in a gold filled top steel back configuration.

[eric23]

I love the AK, what a great history!

[padi56]

Originally Posted by Cato

Does anyone have a link to its history? I assume it was designed for airplane pilots?

Not particularly designed for pilots as such 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 mainly 9ct.And were in production from the mid 40s to early 50s 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 late 60s 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 70s 5701 Airking dates had the cal.1525/35 movements,and they made a TT version of the 5701 but again for the Canadian only market but the Airking date faded out of production in the 80s. 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

[yannis]

Nice info thank you guys!! This watch has an amazing history!!

[Cato]

It's amazing to think the Air King was considered a large watch for its day. Folks nowadays see the Air King as very small watch. Wow, will our grandchildren be wearing 50mm watches?! Thanks for the information!

[builtforspeed]

Great thread, thanks everyone.

Cheers,

Chris

[DanP]

agreed this was very informative! thanks all

[mickeydainish]

Excellent..... very interesting.... Tx all. :-)

[rolexjim]

Being a first time Rolex owner with an Air King on my wrist, I found that very informative.
Thanks

[speelat]

Originally Posted by padi56

.Now the first Airking date late 60s 5700 were only sold in the then Commonwealth countries like Canada and the UK.

Hi

I inherited my fathers Air King date The dial says Air King Oyster Perpetual Super Precision, it has a Date model 5700. I have the receipt 1959 bought in Sheffield UK. must say never seen one like it having spent many years trawling the net the dial seems very unique (Ivory, elongated SS diamond markers and Space ship looking 6 and 9 markers) .

[moogsolo]

Hi

My lovely wife ha just treated me to an Air King for my forthciming 50th birthday. I chose the AK becaue of its clean, classic, understated class. Not even the 'cyclops' magnifier of the datejust to spoil its perfect form. ok its a wee bit smaller than the Datejust but its a watch that doesn't scream "look at me" and that speaks volumes about the wearer IMHO!

[Taffi Abernathy]

It's always nice to have a history behind the watch since it makes ownership that much more meaningful.

[Sperry]

I handled a very nice new Z-serial pink faced with WG arabic numerals Air King today.
It had the Precision movement. With the older clasp, bracelet, and watch body,
it also came with the older list price.

Can anyone chime in with their preference for the pinkish rose face on a Rolex?