Rolex Oyster Perpetual Air-King

Well if you were not a fan of the Rolex Air-King, you probably didn’t realize it was absent from the market for a few years.  Lets start with a bit of Air-King history:

The original Rolex Air-King has a history going back nearly 70 years of production. During World War II, Rolex supplied their SpeedKing or other models to British POWs.  As the war ended, Rolex honored the pilots of the Battle of Britain with a series of aviation watches.  The “Air” series included the Air-Giant, Air-Lion, Air-Tiger, and the Air-King.  In 1945 the Air-King  as we know it today was the only one that remained of the four models until recent years.

The Rolex Air-King remained a standard entry-level watch as a way to introduce the brand to new collectors.    In recent years with the surge of the big face watches, the 34mm Air-king fell prey to the giants (size wise).  But the absence from the market was short lived. In 2016 the Air-King returned as the all new Rolex Oyster Perpetual Air-King.

What would be different?  For starters the Air-King went from the original 34mm case of the past to a 41mm case going forward.  That in itself is huge, figuratively and literally!  A much more suitable size for today’s market but not so big that when the trend for large watches subsides, the new Air-King Perpetual Oyster will not have lost presence and relevance in the market place.

The heart of the new Air-King is the in-house 3131 caliber mechanical movement with a 48-hour power reserve. The Air-King is COSC certified and also comes with the Rolex in-house Superlative Chronometer certification.  The Air-King Perpetual Oyster comes with a Sapphire crystal, stainless steel case, screw down crown and a solid Oyster bracelet with the trademark Rolex buckle.  True to the Air-King of the past the new Air-King garnishes its trademark smooth bezel.

There are no complication, no day/date, bells or whistles… just a solid, quality time piece that for generations will stand the test of time… Classic Rolex in every way!

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