BeckerTime BLOG

There is a very good case for describing the Rolex Air-King series as the forgotten watches of the brand’s portfolio. In fact, it almost seems that for more than 30-years or so starting in the mid-fifties, even Rolex sort of forgot about them. That was the reign of the ref. 5500, starting in 1957 and […]

Rolex’s Date and Datejust models are as closely related as the names suggest, sharing the same core design and functionality. The main difference, as it has been since the beginning, is in their respective sizes. Where the Datejust was originally a 36mm watch (and the series now includes 31mm, 36mm and 41mm—with a 28mm Lady-Datejust) […]

To date, there have only been six iterations of the Rolex Air-King, which seems a surprisingly small number for a watch that has been in almost unbroken production since 1940. But when you remember that a single reference, the ref. 5500, stuck around for an unbelievable 37 of those years, it starts to make a […]

If there is an archetypal Rolex visual, it is the meeting of steel and gold known as Rolesor. The term, first patented by the brand all the way back in 1933, can be used to describe a watch with any of the three colors of the precious metal—but it is the yellow gold version specifically […]