Air-King 126901 fake

As a watch enthusiast, when I go out, I will consciously or unconsciously observe what watches passers-by are wearing. A while ago, one day I was riding the subway and found that the little brother next to me was wearing a Rolex Air Fighter 116900.

The Air Master 116900 is the lowest-priced professional sports model currently on sale by Rolex. Compared with popular sports models such as the Submariner, Daytona, and GMT-Master, the Air Fighter is easy to be “ignored”. But in fact, the Air Master is also one of Rolex‘s oldest sports watches. So I want to talk to you today about how the Air King came about.

Air Kings, that is, Air King, in English. As soon as we hear the name, we will think that this watch may be related to airplanes. In fact, the Rolex Air Fighter is related to “air combat”. In order to pay tribute to the pilots who participated in the “Battle of Britain” in World War II and defended the United Kingdom, Rolex launched a variety of sky-related watches, all of which began with Air, including Rolex Air Lion, Air Giant, Air Kings, and Tudor Air Tiger. Among them, only the Air Kings has survived to this day.

It was in 1957 (or 1958) that the Air Master became part of the Rolex Sport watch series. The first model of the Air Fighter was the 5500. The 5500 identifies some of the essential features of the Rolex Air Master. These include a polished bezel, a relatively simple dial, no extra features, and the 34mm size that has long been maintained in the history of the Air King. Moreover, the name Air Kings also appeared on the dial. The Air Master 5500 and some of its sub-variants, from 1957 to 1990, were produced for a very long time and became the most important entry-level model in Rolex sports watches.

The Air Fighter 5500 mainly uses two movements. One is the 1520 movement and the other is the 1530 movement. The difference is that the calibres are not adjusted with the same precision. The 1530 calibre is a super precision level, and the watch dial will be printed with the words Super Precision; The 1520 calibre is a precision class, and the word “Precision” is printed on the dial of the watch. It can be identified from the dial of the watch.

In the Air Fighter 5500, there are some branch models. The Air Fighter 5700, known as the Air King Date, is the addition of a magnifying glass calendar to the Air Fighter. In addition, there is also a very rare “probe a plate” Air King in the Air Master. It is on the 34 mm Air Master case that the dial of the “Tanichi” is used.

One of the most interesting things about the Air Master is that the old Air Master often has some “company-customized models”, and some brand logos will be printed on the dial, which should be customized by some companies to Rolex as “gifts”, “rewards”, and the like.