Rolex is a very marketable brand, what they have done is nothing short of amazing from both a consumer perception and perceived value perspective. When the rest of the Swiss watch industry was in rapid decline, Rolex reinvented itself as a luxury brand and they have been on an upward trajectory since then. 

What Rolex is known for is being conservative and traditional, they are not a risk taking business. This is somewhat at odds with the strategic decision to reposition the brand during the upheaval brought about by the quartz disruption. The Air King was discontinued by Rolex in 2014, released in 1945 to honour the RAF pilots of the Battle of Britain. 

So people were surprised when the redesigned dial of the Air King 116900 was released. The Air King was originally released for pilots but had apparently strayed from that design. Rolex became involved in the Bloodhound SSC project, the dial of the 116900 matches the instrument face of the instruments. 

I like the dial, it is totally different from the 14000 references or the older 5500 references, this is the time Rolex became less conservative and actually became a little innovative. Moving from 34 mm to 39 mm was more to my style, the 34 mm is just too small and is now a woman’s size. So, at 39 mm most of us will be able to wear this watch, smaller  6″ wrists can wear this as a full size watch, and those of us with larger 7″ and 8″ writs can still wear this without being too small.