Rolex Air King Date

[langdalematt]

I am trying to find out more information regarding these watches. I have been offered one in good condition with original box and all the papers. It is stainless steel and has a black date, the movement is automatic. Not sure of the age at the moment and I am also trying to find out what date ranges these watches were produced over. I know it is a model 5700, but little else. Please can someone help. By the way I can buy this for £1,350.00 or USD around the 2k USD mark.

Thanks,

[padi56]

Originally Posted by langdalematt

I am trying to find out more information regarding these watches. I have been offered one in good condition with original box and all the papers. It is stainless steel and has a black date, the movement is automatic. Not sure of the age at the moment and I am also trying to find out what date ranges these watches were produced over. I know it is a model 5700, but little else. Please can someone help. By the way I can buy this for £1,350.00 or USD around the 2k USD mark.

Thanks,

Well the Airking dates are now becoming collectable especially the Airking dates with the red/black 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 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 came in late 1960s ref 5700 and 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 but again for the Canadian only market but the Airking date faded out of production in the early 1980s. IMO a shame the Airking has quite a lot of history,and a very long Rolex production run IMHO now a very underrated watch.

[langdalematt]

Very usefull information. I find it odd that this guy is saying he bought it in 1988, but i guess he probably did not buy this new. Especially as it has one of those vintage small green cases. I think it is a great deal and a must to add to my collection so I think the 1350 GBP he is asking must be reasonable. I have seen one selling for 2000 GBP and that was in similar condition. Once I get the watch I will post pics and you can all fill me in on whether I bought a donkey or a classic.

[padi56]

Originally Posted by langdalematt

Very usefull information. I find it odd that this guy is saying he bought it in 1988, but i guess he probably did not buy this new. Especially as it has one of those vintage small green cases. I think it is a great deal and a must to add to my collection so I think the 1350 GBP he is asking must be reasonable. I have seen one selling for 2000 GBP and that was in similar condition. Once I get the watch I will post pics and you can all fill me in on whether I bought a donkey or a classic.

Yes he must have bought it second hand or its possible old stock, price,seems fair for a good example. But if it had the red date would have been a lot more or a bargain on your part...

[snowbird]

Interesting - so the AirKing date was never sold in the US? I've seen a few for sale in the US (used obviously) but it sounds like originally those watches must have been sold in Canada or another country . . .