The Rolex Air King was released in the midst of World War II, and is the only remaining watch in production from the “Air Series”.  The “Air Series” included the Air-King, Air-Tiger, Air-Lion and Air-Giant, created to honor the RAF pilots in the Battle of Britain. As most Rolex Watches, the Air-King was designed for a particular type of person with a particular occupation, in this case it was pilots. Over the course of the years, pilots have adopted the Air-King and some companies even give this timepiece as a gift to retired pilots.

The Air-King was modified a series of times in the post-war years. Dial variations are numerous and provide collectors with a wide array of references to search for and discover. Date complications were featured on some early models, featuring the changing mechanism from the Date-Just which had been introduced in 1945.

The look of the Air-King changed somewhat over the years, fitting into the collection between the Oyster Perpetual models and the Explorer references which were classified as sports watches.

There are also some really interesting limited production pieces of the Air King such as: the Pan American World Airways Air-King models with their own logo on the dials, or the watches made for Domino's Pizza franchise owners that had a custom dial with their own branding.

In 2014 Rolex released a new Oyster Perpetual collection which took over as the entry level model, and the Air-King was discontinued. But this was not for long! In 2016 the Air-King made a triumphant return to the collection. It came back upgraded and revised with the reference 116900 joined. With this upgrade the Air-King joined the sports collection officially, solidifying its return as an aviation watch first and foremost. This Air-King reference sports a 39mm case, a black dial with gold markers, a green hand for seconds and a gold coronet along with the Rolex text. The movement is the Rolex Calibre 3131, which is accurate to +/- 2 seconds per day. It is also guarded by an iron shell, just like the Milgauss model.

The Air-King is one of the longest standing Rolex models and is a beautiful historic tribute. Besides being a fantastic tool watch for pilots, it also features beautiful aesthetics that would elevate the style of any wearer.

Curious about the Air-King? Take a look at the models we have here.