New to watches and while I’ve learned quite a bit (though nowhere near enough) about omegas, I know next to nothing about Rolexes except there are a lot of fakes out there.

looking at this air king. Going for 2400. Any insight as to if it’s worth a dang or not is much obliged.

 

I’m not clued up on vintage but that just looks very tired to me. Jubilee has quite a lot of stretch also.

 

What reference is it - 5500?

What has your research shown so far? Do you have any other pictures?

From what limited info we have it certainly doesn't seem like a great buy to me. If it's unserviced from a private seller I'd say it's at or probably slightly above market.

 

2400 is quite steep for that example. The 5500 is quite common as well and with a little bit of patience, can be had in better form for less or equal money. The jubilee a lot of stretch and a repair on that will be a lot of ¥£€$.

I bought my ‘69 Air King from a single owner with service history for $1,800 a couple months ago. It didn’t have the original rivet bracelet anymore but with a bit of patience and the help of another member on here, I for a NOS full link no stretch ‘69 Rolex rivet bracelet For $500. here is the watch pre bracelet. Once the bracelet came in I gave it to my dad

 

there’s a video with the listing but I’m waiting to hear back on service history, etc. that said, the feedback from the forum has convinced me off of it. So grateful for this community and all of its wisdom. Saving me from myself (and teaching me a lot).

 

That’s a beautiful watch and example. I do love the jubilee bracelet combo but this doesn’t feel like the one. (Adding it to my vintage Seamaster and Connie Hunt, though. Eventually one of these will have to hit, right?)

 

Pardon all of my typos... yeesh haha. I like Jubilees as well but depending on the year (of your original post) it very well could have come on a rivet bracelet. That is one thing to be mindful of, specially if you have a collectors value with possible resale in the future. The value of the watch will greatly change depending on pieces that were original to it (mostly in this case being the bracelet). Even if the bracelet was something that didn’t interest you and you were going to put a different one on as a substitute... if it was something you could potentially sell in the future, having period correct items will aid in ease of sale and return. Just something to be mindful of with your hunt, and this is being said without knowledge of the piece you had listed (year of it). But yes, the 5500 in silver dial was very common. There are a lot of examples to search through. Another thing to look for is patina and that it matches/is consistent between the lume plots and the hands. But, have fun with your search!

 

Oh and to add, early years came on rivet bracelets. Later years came on oyster bracelets. I could be wrong but I don’t believe they (Air kings) came on jubilee.

 

I think 5500 only came on 7205, 7835 or 78350 bracelets

 

Omega or Rolex, it’s all still buying vintage and the same axioms apply. Condition first, price second, desirability (X-factor etc) third. Your example is pretty tired, a little over market price and I’m not personally a fan of the dial colour or lume plots but YMMV.
These aren’t rare and regularly pop up, mine is also a ‘69 on its original rivet and was about $3K.

Edit: Just found it on Reddit, the dial’s nicer than the pictures posted above but the lugs have taken a few clatters. For sub $2k on a nice leather strap it could be a cool beater Rolex if there is such a thing but it’s never going to be a killer piece.

 

yeah another poster messaged me re: jubilee bracelets. This is why I love this site.

 

For the most part no, but I think that depends on the geographical locale. In the Philippines I have seen many airkings and precisions on their original Mexican Jubilees.

 

You can do better than this for less money IMO. The dial patina is even, but isn’t attractive to me, it’s too yellow and these dials should sparkle in all their silver glory.

My slightly later OPD with shimmer galore:


These 5500’s are not rare watches (despite what Rolex would have you think about every single one the millions of watches they have made). Just be patient- which I know is hard when you get the bug.

 

It could also be even because it's a yellow gold dial

 

Did they make a gold dial for the Airking?!?! That would be a new one on me - but that doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

 

Yep and also made two-tone airkings as well as airking dates. No real rhyme or reason to the Rolex models.

 

Well then there we go, it may be a gold dial....which I still think is ugly

 

You know, I thought I was looking at a white balance issue that made the dial extra gold colored, but I found it weird the case/bracelet weren’t affected the same way. Now this...

...is leaving me with more questions than answers. The idea of collecting them all seems endless challenge accepted though

 

Just don’t buy a gold dial- it’s fugly

 

Agreed!