Transcription
[Music] Welcome to Watch Symposium. I'm Austin, and this is a custom video for Cliff.
All right, Cliff has a beautiful two-piece Rolex collection. It's a very refreshing collection. You know, we're often talking and thinking about these five-digit and six-digit steel professional Rolexes. You know, those are the kind of watches that tend to come up during these custom videos, but his watches are completely different. He's got a couple of vintage four-digit Rolexes, and I love his collection; very unique. Let's get into his email and take a look.
Hi Austin, long-time fan. Love your channel and your honest insights. I'm a 36-year-old guy just making his living working for a packaging business-to-business manufacturer company, and I travel a lot for my job. Currently, I'm under a 21-day quarantine in mainland China, trying to take it a day at a time, and your videos do a lot to help with that. A while back, I sent you an email requesting your opinion about the Air King Explorer 5500, which I wanted to follow up on.
All right, a little bit of a backstory. We were corresponding via email in regards to this reference 5500, which is, for the most part, an Air King; a 34-millimeter time-only, acrylic crystal, four-digit Air King. They started producing the 5500 in 1957. It ran for over three decades until 1989, and they came out with the Air King 14300. So again, the 5500 Air King started in 1957, and a year later, in 1958, they started putting an Explorer dial on some of those 5500s. All right, and they started doing that in 1958 until 1967, just for about a decade. And you know what? Was it an Air King? No. Was it an Air King Explorer? Maybe. The dials had the 3-6-9, but there was nothing Air King on them; they said Explorer. And this is something that they would never do these days; it would be like putting a Yacht-Master dial on a Submariner. But back then, maybe they thought that the world would appreciate a 34-millimeter Explorer, or that Air King wearers would want that dial style. Anyway, from 1958 to 1967, there existed some 5500s with Explorer dials and, and with—well, they were Explorers. Okay, 34-millimeter Explorers. Now, anything with Explorer on the dial, of course, is pretty collectible, and so it's no surprise that sometimes you'll see Franken 5500s. And that would be like, uh, you know, a watch that falls outside of that time period—from 1980, for example—but has that Explorer 3-6-9 dial, and that would be off. All right, and uh, that's the watch we're talking about.
Okay, again, as I mentioned in the previous email, I purchased a 1967 Air King Explorer, and the serial number matches that year. So he's checked out the serial number on the case of his watch; he's dated the watch as a 1967 piece, and it's got that Explorer dial, and that's right on the cusp of when Rolex stopped doing that, so it seems to be fine. I mean, it's uh, as far as the period goes, seems to be a legit watch, but he writes, "There's no box or papers to prove it." I bought it at a reputable shop in Nakano during my trip to Japan in 2019. And then he goes on to say that a lot of these Franken 5500s come out of Hong Kong, and question why vintage people wouldn't know better than to buy them, and wouldn't these shops uh, know better than to risk their reputation? And look, Cliff, we can only speculate about what's going on when when these sketchy pieces get sold. I think a lot of the times is ignorance or willful ignorance. You know, a a shopkeeper gets a piece in, and they think, "Well, I'm just not gonna ask any questions; I'm just gonna put it in the case, and buyer beware." You know, if anybody asked me about it, I don't know; I don't know. You do your due diligence; you buy it; it's on you. And look, this is Hong Kong, and I imagine things get pretty vicious there. A lot of the pieces probably go abroad with their customers, and it's really difficult to have recourse if you take a watch abroad. It's not like you're going to fly back and and you know, bring your your Frankenwatch back. It's pretty much a done deal. And even if you're in Hong Kong, I mean, if you've had the watch for a couple of years, recourse, I imagine, is really hard. And if the seller really wants to play ball—hardball—then they can always say, "Well, I sold you that watch, but I didn't sell you that dial in that watch," and release your word against his. So um, yeah, as far as the motivation goes, I'm not sure, but you bought it in Japan; that's a good thing, and that would make me somewhat relieved because they do their due diligence here. They know about these watches; they have often on-site watchmakers that check things out; probably they check the back of the dial, made sure it's a tritium dial. We'll talk about that, but I would feel—if I had to put money down on whether this watch is legit or not—I would just put money on the side of it being legit, just because of the shop that sold it. All right, and it's a 1967 piece; it falls within the period where you could expect this style to show up, so that's a good thing.
Anyway, mine isn't checked out by an RSC, a Rolex Service Center, nor any vintage or expert dealers yet, as I'm afraid RSC would take it away indeed if it was a redial, even with the matching serial, or the vintage third-party dealer could neither confirm nor deny it. Still a mystery today for me, but I'm happy to wear it as a daily, and it's a beautiful watch. And I can understand how Cliff feels because it would drive me crazy; I would want confirmation. And the thing about taking it to RSC is I would be afraid of a false negative. I would be afraid that they would look at the watch, pull it up on their database, see that a 5500 is an Air King, look at your watch, see Explorer on the dial, and say, "Something's up; something's wrong," when nothing might be wrong, and you might get somebody that doesn't know much about watches, doesn't care much about watches aside from what their database in front of them shows them, and so I would be really afraid of that. Okay, so I don't know if I would take it to RSC. And of course, getting it serviced through RSC is uh, is a real risk because you might lose your tritium hands and and that kind of thing. And we'll go into what I would do. All right, but you bought it at a legit shop. Okay, so that's one. Okay, number two, it falls within the range where you could expect it; that's number two. And then number three, confirmation would be I would make sure it's a tritium dial. So put it under UV light or black light; the tritium should glow intensely, and then when you take the light away, it should fade pretty much immediately. I've never tried that, but it's a way to test the tritium to make sure it's a tritium dial; that to me would show me it's a real Rolex dial and not a fake dial, and that would give me the third bit of confirmation that would pretty much set my mind at ease because it falls within the range where you could get that dial. So even if it wasn't born like that, I'd still be okay, just as long as it's a real Rolex style. The only thing I would be afraid of is that the dial is fake. As long as that's not the case, I wouldn't worry so much about it, you know, whether it was born with it or not. You know, you might never be able to figure that out, and uh, and so I would enjoy it and put your mind to rest because you've done as much due diligence as you can. All right, so I would enjoy it. Come service time, I would revisit this topic. I would find somebody who really knows their vintage watches and have it serviced through a third party. It'll probably be really expensive to find that person and to to have that done, but I would I would think about doing that. Okay, or or I would risk it through RSC, and I'm not saying you should do that, Cliff. Okay, I'm just saying that depending on your personality, you might not be able to enjoy the watch. I don't know that I could; it would probably drive me crazy to the extent that I would say it's all or nothing; we're going for it; we're gonna either confirm it or it's all gonna fall down like a house of cards. Okay, and I would take it to RSC and see what they said. And look, if you really are a gambling man, you could have it serviced at RSC, and you stand to gain a lot; you get back your your dial, you get back your tritium hands, you got papers now for it—service papers—it's got provenance; the value of your watch instantly skyrockets, and you're a winner. All right, but it can go bad as well, and I would be afraid that you might lose the dial. And if it's a fake dial, who cares? Okay, if you lose her, I wouldn't want a fake dial anyway. So go ahead, take it away. All right, but I would be afraid that they would take away the real dial, and and look, I I don't think they would, just as long as they knew that that dial did appear on that configuration on that 5500, but look, I mean, sketchy things can happen, and you know um, do dials disappear in the back and you know, out the back door? I don't know; maybe that would scare the hell out of me. Um, but that's a risk, and and of course, there's the risk that you're gonna get it back; you're gonna get your dial back, but then the tritium hands are gone. Okay, oh, and then you've got your your papers now, but then you got Luminova hands. Ah, you know, so it could go disastrously, but it could go really well, and I'm the type of guy that might risk it. Okay, one time, just to get the the service papers. And it also depends on the relationship you have with your RSC and the person that you're dealing with because if they can guarantee that they're going to give it a historically sympathetic service, I would feel a little bit more comfortable. Where it gets scary is where you have to agree to a bunch of things like, you know, all right, we might replace parts, and you're going to agree to it and agree to pay for them, and when we give the watch back, the parts are gone; it's a done deal, and that's scary, and I don't know that I would agree to that; probably not. Okay, probably not. But I would take it and maybe see what they said, knowing that you might get a false negative. All right, and so don't put so much stock in what RSC says, believe it or not, because they might just be going on what's on their database. Okay, and so to me, what I really would do is put it under a UV light, make sure it's tritium. During a service, maybe with a a third party, make sure it's a Rolex dial; it will be good enough for me. All right, and your watch falls within a period of where it could have had that dial, and so if it does have that dial, whether it was born like that or not, who cares? All right, it it's legit; it's fine, and so I would enjoy it. But I would so desire those papers and that Rolex confirmation that personally speaking, I would be almost willing to risk it all, but I'm not saying you should.
Okay, guys, let Cliff know what you would do; let him know what he should do. All right, I think he should enjoy it; look for a good vintage expert to service it when the time comes; see what he has to say; enjoy it until that time. Me, I'm a gambling man; I might risk it. All right, and I might go down for it, but I might come out a winner with those papers and and everything. So it's a tough choice, but um, I would go with the third party; I think that's the safe choice. But guys, let him know what he should do. Thanks for watching; take care. We'll see in the second video when we talk about his second piece. See you next time.