Rolex Air King Ref. 5500 - advice and expertise....

[FrontierGibberish]

Sold my last Rolex (which was a mere Explorer) some years ago. I struggle with the BS quotient around them a bit if I'm honest. But...have fancied an older, not silly money piece for a while and I really like the look of the ref.5500 Air King. They seem to be available sub £2k, and I like the clean, simple looks of the non Roman numeral watches.
But what I know about old Rolexes fits on a postage stamp. Does anyone have any advice, experience or thoughts?

[MartynJC (UK)]

I would say vintage is a minefield and open to scams. So buy from a reputable dealer for example:

https://www.miltonaires.com/product/8960

i have an air-king-date from 1978. Lovely piece, not for sale!

[FrontierGibberish]

Cheers. Totally with you on this. There's stuff i do know very well (Seiko particularly) but vintage Rolex is certainly a lot of tiger traps for the clueless (me).

[Gomers]

Parker’s in Sheffield usually have a few 5500’s in stock. https://parkersjewellers.co.uk

The 5500 had a reasonably long production run, early precision only are manual wind, super precision are self-winding. When I was looking last year, availability seemed good which means you can take your time to find the right watch.


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[FrontierGibberish]

Parker’s in Sheffield usually have a few 5500’s in stock. https://parkersjewellers.co.uk

The 5500 had a reasonably long production run, early precision only are manual wind, super precision are self-winding. When I was looking last year, availability seemed good which means you can take your time to find the right watch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you!