What Rolex is this, Part 2– probably an Air King??

I had posted a picture of this vintage Rolex (well, maybe-Rolex) the other day and people had asked for more pictures. I did some more research on my own, hoping to find these unique numerals on another vintage Rolex dial. The closest watch that I can find is the Rolex air king 4499. It shares these numerals, but the dial ‘should‘ have two lines of text and ‘should’ have a minute track. I did find a different oyster Rolex from that time. It does have one line of text, but it doesn’t have those air king numerals. It’s hard, because Rolex did a lot of wacky things with their dials in that time period also. 


The shop is going to open up the back in the next couple of days with their watchmaker to let me know what movement is inside. I would ‘probably’ be OK with this watch if it has a service dial, but an authentic movement inside. But if it’s not the right dial and not the right movement… Definite pass

Even if it doesn’t work out…I’m kind of enjoying the hunt!

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That's a head-scratcher. My guess would be an OP or a Royal. The thing that is throwing me off is the font used for the numbers, which really doesn't match either of those, but the rest looks like one of those from that era. 

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RobertWood

That's a head-scratcher. My guess would be an OP or a Royal. The thing that is throwing me off is the font used for the numbers, which really doesn't match either of those, but the rest looks like one of those from that era. 

I know! It’s like a Frankenstein of numbers from one watch and font from another… and of course since it’s from the 40s, it’s not like you can find it in the catalog so easily. The optimist in me says this is such an unusual dial that it would be strange for someone to try to fake it… Maybe? 😬

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I went through both books I have on the history of Rolex models and could not find this one anywhere, or an example of the logo model layout. Not to mention the crown is defintely not a Rolex crown, and it really does not look like an Oyster case. 

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What Rolex is this? Easy, this is no Rolex at all. The better question is: what was it before someone turned it into a "Rolex." The font used for the text on the dial is a disaster. The case is not an Oyster - looks like an ordinary case which was in theory of the "waterproof" kind, you can tell that by the fact it uses what looks like a hermetic push-pull crown that was meant to house a gasket, though it could well be just a larger dustproof one. For what it's worth, Rolex used either the Oyster case, or totally non-waterproof ones (non-gasketed press-in back, non-hermetic crown).

So, returning to the question of what it is - it's either an amalgamation of parts that just happened to fit each other, on top of which amalgamation someone placed a dial with fake Rolex print, or it's just a watch that was perfectly genuine before someone decided to repaint the dial with fake Rolex print in order to peddle it as a Rolex.

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It’s trying to look like one of these, I imagine 

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MrBloke

What Rolex is this? Easy, this is no Rolex at all. The better question is: what was it before someone turned it into a "Rolex." The font used for the text on the dial is a disaster. The case is not an Oyster - looks like an ordinary case which was in theory of the "waterproof" kind, you can tell that by the fact it uses what looks like a hermetic push-pull crown that was meant to house a gasket, though it could well be just a larger dustproof one. For what it's worth, Rolex used either the Oyster case, or totally non-waterproof ones (non-gasketed press-in back, non-hermetic crown).

So, returning to the question of what it is - it's either an amalgamation of parts that just happened to fit each other, on top of which amalgamation someone placed a dial with fake Rolex print, or it's just a watch that was perfectly genuine before someone decided to repaint the dial with fake Rolex print in order to peddle it as a Rolex.

Yeah, I’d been sucked in to identify the dial, and was ignoring the case. The lugs, caseback… just not right. 
 

thanks gang! (But, bummer) 

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Nice clean, classic look for sure.