It’s one of the unfortunate downsides of Rolex that entry level really doesn’t exist anymore, and while there are affordable Tudors I honestly couldn’t justify buying most of them when for the same money Omega offers far more attractive watches with better movements in the 50s / 60s era.
That’s just my personal view mind you but a Cal 751/752 or Cal 552 or similar Seamaster is a whole lot of watch for the money.
Something else I should mention btw is the reason a lot of the less attractive / smaller / crummy looking Rolexes have such a high floor price isn’t that people are just desperate to get the brand Rolex and don’t care how small or ugly it is.
The issue is that the small / ugly / crummy Rolexes still have Rolex movements in them, and the movement in many cases can supply donor parts to much more expensive Rolex models like Submariners, GMT-Masters and so on. It’s the same thing that happened to Valjoux 72 chronographs as you really can’t find a cheap one now even if its ugly as hell due to how valuable the movement is as a parts donor.
The flip side of this problem is that these cheap Rolex’s, if you do need parts for the movement will lead to you either having to pay a lot for them from Rolex, or will see you competing with Submariner / GMT-Master owners to buy scarce, no-longer available parts, which can make a cheap old Rolex a very expensive thing to keep running.
Those are some very beautiful looking Calibre 1570 movements you have there, my 1680 says hi... and how healthy are your rotor axles? Just asking for a friend...
Keep your paws off my crummy Rolexes 😉
If you don’t mind I ask how much was that air king?
Airking was $2k a few years ago in a private party sale. I haven’t seen any under $2.5k in a while- closer to $3k these days...which I do find silly money considering a 1601/3 could be had for the same $3k 2 years ago. But the Airking is a special watch- absolute purity of the Rolex style IMO.
What year is it? It looks like the new ones which I do love about Rolex is their designs are almost all the same
The watch is ‘99. It came with a silver dial but under the sapphire crystal I had a hard time seeing the hands against the dial (the OPD is far more readable under acrylic). I also didn’t need two silver dials, so I hunted down a black dial & hand-set from a ‘98 model which was still during the tritium era (have the silver dial & hands in the box). It is pretty common to see these older 34mm Rolexes converted to bejeweled aftermarket dials and sold as ladies watches these days- so the original factory dials pop up all the time.
Not going to bash rolexes I see plenty of them I like and would love to have but I thought I was in r/watches in Reddit turns out I was in r/Rolex and I started reading a multi day flame war between a group of rolexes owners who were all bragging about how they only paid a small percentage over msrp, one of the guys bought three at 10k plus so he could flip them. It really started reading like a financial thread after a while. And then of course all the other threads were “got the call today” showing of their recent purchase. It sounds very stressful being a Rolex person. They were also recommending stocking up on Rolex as money will be worthless with the coming recession, apparently all trade will be done in Rolex.
Hey if you come across an airking maybe 36mm in good condition I would greatly appreciate If you showed me. Even in the 2,000’s 😁
Airking was only 34mm back then.
Hey if you come across an airking maybe 36mm in good condition I would greatly appreciate If you showed me. Even in the 2,000’s 😁
