Rolex Air King Blue Dial Ownership Review

I was inspired by the recent post by iim7v7im7 with his initial impressions of his newly acquired Rolex Yacht Master 116622 with a blue dial ( Please click here for the Yacht Master post)

 It's a beautiful looking watch and the blue dial reminded me of my very first Rolex: the Rolex Oyster Perpetual Air King.  This is actually my one and only Rolex in my small watch collection.  It was back in 1998 when I first started getting into watches and my AD had a large variety of Rolex's on display.  I still remember how I was captivated by the stunning blue dial.  It had a iridescent dark bluish color that changed between shades of dark blue and bright metallic blue depending on the viewing angle.  The blue dial had a soleil sunburst pattern which really made the dial stand out. 

The dial is very simple and that's one of the other features that I really liked about the Air King.  It has a simple display of hours minutes and center sweep sends.  The hour and minute hands have a thin stripe of luminous material.  The hour markers on the dial are white gold with both polished and brushed faceted angles.  Near the edge of the dial are small luminous dots that glows fairly bright and makes it easy to tell time at night.  These luminous dots are tritium but they haven't really yellowed and have stayed a whitish color.
At 12 o'clock there is the famous Rolex crown marker.  There's not much writing on the dial itself, just the ROLEX logo with Oyster Perpetual, Air-King on the upper half of the dial; and the words 'precision' on the bottom half.

At the time I purchased the Air King, I was also considering the Rolex Explorer which had a date display.  But I didn't like the cyclops magnifier on the crystal because it seemed to distort the date when I viewed it other than straight on. 

The sapphire glass is fairly thick and has a slight bezel around the outer edge.  It sticks up a few millimeters above the bezel.  Even with all the things I've done with the watch during daily wear, the crystal is still in great shape without any major chips or cracks.  It's held up very well.





The movement inside the Air King is the Rolex Caliber 3130 which is also used in other Rolex watches.  Power reserve is good for nearly 55 hours and water resistance is 100m.  I've taken it to several trips to Hawaii and it survived my kayaking adventures with no problems.
I have to admit that having owned this watch for over 15 years, I've never had it serviced.  It's been used extensively as a daily wear tool watch.  And impressively enough my Air King has been absolutely bulletproof.  It just keeps running fine and keeping perfect time even though the past few years it's been rarely worn on my wrist and  now spends time on a Swiss Cubic winder in the safe.  

 

The diameter of the Air King is 34mm which is considered small these days.  I tend to prefer 39-42mm watches now but even wearing the 34mm it still fits and looks good on my small wrist.  The Air King is somewhat thin at approx 11mm in thickness and it fits easily under my long sleeve shirts.

 

One of the things that I didn't quite like about my Air King is the bracelet.  Even though the links themselves are solid stainless steel it still wiggles around a bit.  The oyster bracelet has a brushed finish and comes with a folding deployant clasp.  It has been functioning well and I've never had it open unexpectedly. 

I'm going to wear my Air King for the next few days and then I'm going to send it in to Rolex Service Center for a good long deserved spa treatment.

Regards,
ED-209