Shedding Some Light On a Rolex Air King

[neverbatteries]

So this is my first post and I'm hoping someone out here might be able to shed some light on my new Air King purchase. It's a 5500 with a serial that dates its it to late 1977/early 1978. The interesting bit I realized when I bought it is that it has the 1570 movement versus the 1520/1530 I've seen in similar aged Air Kings. After examining it some more, it also doesn't have the hacking feature that I thought was always part of a 1570, like the one on my 1016 Explorer. Has anyone ever come across this movement? I've looked through some of the older post and it appears that a 5500 Air King might have featured a 1570 in that time range, but I've never seen a non-hacking one. I specifically asked my watch guy when I had it open to replace the crystal and gasket and he said that in his 35 years of servicing Rolexes he'd guarantee it is an authentic Rolex movement. If anyone has any info on this or has come across one themselves, please let me know. Also, as far as I have researched, this would make this Air King an Officially Certified Chronometer, not a Precision like the rest of the Air Kings I've seen, right?

[cc33]

I think what happened was that your 1520/30 has had the the rotor bridge swapped out for a 1570.. The rotor bridges on all "15 series" movements are interchangeable. It is possible to see a 1520/30 with a 1570 rotor bridge and since it's non hack that would make sense.

That's my best guess

[sigsvoor]

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Edited September 6, 2013 by sigsvoor

[cc33]

But his watch is from 1977/78 so they would not have put an old non hacking 1570 in there, no way

[woof*]

I think cc33's idea makes sense. I've been looking for a seriously beat up Air King for a long time for a good 1520.

[irolexu]

Last airking I bought had a 1570 stamped movement. Who knows how they end up that way.

[automatico]

I have owned a few AK and some of the movements in them have been mysteries. Most 1520/70 made after the mid 1970s are 26 jewel hack models and I have not owned an AK with a 1570 in it (yet) but did have one with a 1570 autowind plate on a hack 1520. The only thing that has to be changed to do this is the top plate of the aw assembly and it is very easy to do. Sometimes the top plate is changed because the top rotor jewel is cracked and it is easier to change the plate than to r/r the jewel if you are not equipped to do it. Sometimes a 17 jewel aw assembly will have worn out bushings and the entire aw assembly is swapped out with one from a 1560/70 etc.

Look closely at the balance wheel/hairspring in your watch and compare it with pictures of a 1520 and 1570 to see which movement you have. The 1520 will have a flat hairspring with a regulator and the 1570 will have a Breguet type 'overcoil' hs without a regulator. They are easy to tell apart if you have pictures to compare your watch to.

A 1570 will have serial numbers and a 1520 will not. Maybe I will say 'should not' because you never know.

[neverbatteries]

Thank you so much for all the info! I'll pop the back this weekend and check out the hairspring. It does though have a serial number, as seen in the picture. I'm sorry I only have this one on my phone. It could be a switched out autowind plate, but that seems odd if there's a serial number like automatico mentioned, right? Its the 26 jewel by the way. Regardless, it's still good to hear from all of you. I am hoping though that it is a proper 1570, since that's by far my favorite movement.

[txrob779]

See "letter of the law" and "the real world"..ya just never know, It's cool, it's a headache and it is very interpretable.