1965 Rolex Oyster Perpetual Air-King Explorer Dial 5500
Ref: 5500
Specification
Lugs : 19mm
Condition : Pre-Owned
Box & Papers : Box & Papers
Case Material : Stainless Steel
Warranty : 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty
Points of Mention
This watch is sold with its Rolex box and paperwork. The watch comes paired with a 19mm Rolex Oyster stainless steel rivet bracelet with a folded clasp, this bracelet will fit up to a 7.7inch wrist. The watch is from December 1965 and is sold in worn vintage condition, but remains in all original and fantastic condition for its age, as you can see from the photographs. The watch comes with our 12-Months NON-Waterproof Warranty.
For more photos see here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BrIxe04JLfxwFY29T4mIvbV_kxlVNpYa?usp=sharing
4K YouTube video, skip to 9:29 - https://youtu.be/7nz0U21DMsY
The Watch
Here we have a 1965 Rolex Oyster Perpetual Air-King Explorer Dial, Hans Wilsdorf, in 1945 introduced an aviation-inspired “Air” series, many RAF pilots started buying these Chronometer timepieces for their accuracy and endurance. The models included Air-Giant, Air-Lion, and Air-Tiger, at the end of the war, Rolex released the “AIR-KING” in tribute to the pilots who flew at the Battle of Britain, 1957 they released the Ref 5500 Air-King, which had a production run of 37 years. The 34mm stainless steel Oyster case has a gentle curve that leads to tapered drilled lugs, a lug-to-lug length of 39.5mm and a case thickness of 11.5mm ensuring a comfortable fit on your wrist, on the right is a signed crown, a smooth bezel holds a domed acrylic crystal above a white "Explorer" dial, an outer minute track with Tritium pips, attractive raised gold toned diamond shaped and gold-toned Arabic 3, 6 and 9 indexes mark the hours. Gold-toned elegant Dauphine hands are infilled with Tritium, complemented by a tapered sweeping second hand, at 12 o’clock the Rolex crown, the text is precisely printed with “Oyster Perpetual Air-King” and at 6 o’clock “Super Precision” on the dial. On the reverse, a coin-edged screw-down case back, inside an automatic Rolex Cal. 1530, 17 jewels, beating at 18,000 beats per hour, this movement was in production until 1965. The watch comes paired with a 19mm Rolex Oyster stainless steel rivet bracelet with a folded clasp, and the watch comes with its Rolex presentation box and papers.
Personal Note
It's not every day you get the opportunity to get an "Explorer" dial Air-King like this, in this condition and with a rivet bracelet... So when that opportunity comes up as a watch dealer, you jump at it and resist the urge to keep it! This original example is incredible and I know it will make a collector very happy, so if you are that collector who would like to add this to their watch box, don't hesitate and pull that trigger before someone else does.
The Brand
In 1905, German-born Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis set up a company in London that imported Swiss movements which were installed in British cases and sold to jewellers who put their names on the dials. Recognising the potential for their brand, Wilsdorf created the brand name Rolex in 1908. In 1910, a Rolex became the first wristwatch to carry the Swiss Certificate of Chronometric Precision, awarded by the Official Watch Rating Centre in Bienne, Switzerland. Demand for Rolex watches rose swiftly, and British taxes on the Swiss movements Rolex used prompted Wilsdorf to move the business to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1919. With production costs lowered, Wilsdorf quickly set out to solve the age-old problem of moisture and dust entering a watch case and damaging the movement. The Rolex watchmakers came up with a fully sealed watch case, which Wilsdorf named the Oyster, and released to an appreciative audience in 1926. In 1931, Rolex introduced the first automatic winding wristwatch, giving it the legendary name Oyster Perpetual. In 1945, they released the Datejust which was the first watch to have the date jump instantaneously at midnight. The 1950s saw a whole lot of releases such as the Air-King (1958), the Explorer (1953), the Submariner (1953), the GMT Master (1955), the Day-Date (1956), the electromagnetic field resistant Milgauss (1956), the Lady-Datejust (1957) and the first Deep Sea model (1960). Wilsdorf’s death in 1960, saw ownership of Rolex S.A. (a collection of sub-companies) passed to the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation which was founded by Wilsdorf in 1945, the mission of which is simply to sustain Rolex S.A. indefinitely.