Rolex Air King 6 Month Review - 116900

roadwarrior

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40 mm x 13 mm. Movement, Rolex caliber 3131

Feb 19, 2020

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Bruce Williams

I review the underrated 116900 Air-King from the perspective of 6 months of ownership and use. It is an excellent watch and perhaps the best value professional purchase. Here is the link to my purchase experience-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqEIaBw_AMs


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The aeronautical heritage

OYSTERSTEEL

Rolex uses Oystersteel for its steel watch cases. Specially developed by the brand, Oystersteel belongs to the 904L steel family, alloys most commonly used in high-technology and in the aerospace and chemical industries, where maximum resistance to corrosion is essential. Oystersteel is extremely resistant, offers an exceptional finish once polished and maintains its beauty even in the harshest environments.

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BLACK DIAL

The Air-King dial features a distinctive black dial with a combination of large 3, 6 and 9 numerals marking the hours and a prominent minute scale for navigational time readings. It bears the name Air-King in the same lettering that was designed specially for the model in the 1950s.

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THE OYSTER BRACELET

The Oyster bracelet is a perfect alchemy of form and function, aesthetics and technology, designed to be both robust and comfortable. It is equipped with an Oysterclasp and the Easylink comfort extension link, also exclusive to Rolex. This ingenious system allows the wearer to increase the bracelet length by approximately 5 mm, providing additional comfort in any circumstance.

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3131 MOVEMENT

The Air-King is equipped with calibre 3131, a self-winding mechanical movement entirely developed and manufactured by Rolex. Like all Rolex Perpetual movements, the 3131 is a certified Swiss chronometer, a designation reserved for high-precision watches that have successfully passed the Swiss Official Chronometer Testing Institute (COSC) tests. Its architecture, in common with all Oyster watch movements, makes it singularly reliable.

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CONQUERING THE SKY

The new Air-King epitomizes Rolex’s privileged ties with the world of aviation during its golden age in the 1930s. It was a period when spectacular progress in aircraft performance constantly ex-panded humanity’s capacity to conquer the skies, and led to the introduction of long-distance flights. One of the pioneers of this era, English aviator Charles Douglas Barnard, set a number of flight records. Of the Oyster, he said: “The peculiar qualities of this Rolex watch render it eminently suitable for flying purposes and I propose to use it on all my long-distance flights in the future”.

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Reference116900MODEL CASEMODEL CASE
Oyster, 40 mm, OystersteelOYSTER ARCHITECTURE
Monobloc middle case, screw-down case back and winding crownDIAMETER
40 mmMATERIAL
OystersteelBEZEL
SmoothWINDING CROWN
Screw-down, Twinlock double waterproofness systemCRYSTAL
Scratch-resistant sapphireWATER-RESISTANCE
Waterproof to 100 metres / 330 feetMOVEMENTMOVEMENT
Perpetual, mechanical , self-winding , with a magnetic shield to protect the movementCALIBRE
3131, Manufacture RolexPRECISION
-2/+2 sec/day, after casingFUNCTIONS
Centre hour, minute and seconds hands. Stop-seconds for precise time settingOSCILLATOR
Paramagnetic blue Parachrom hairspringWINDING
Bidirectional self-winding via Perpetual rotorPOWER RESERVE
Approximately 48 hoursBRACELETBRACELET
Oyster, flat three-piece linksBRACELET MATERIAL
OystersteelCLASP
Folding Oysterclasp with Easylink 5 mm comfort extension linkDIALDIAL
BlackDETAILS
Highly legible Chromalight display with long-lasting blue luminescenceCERTIFICATIONSuperlative Chronometer (COSC + Rolex certification after casing)

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