The dial is something altogether different, Rolex is known as a conservative company and the Air King 116900 is anything but that. I like the dial, I do appreciate that this isn’t for everyone with the mixed numbering dial design intended to resemble cockpit instruments. There are oversized polished Arabic numerals at the 3, 6 and 9 o’clock positions; the minute index markers are meant to represent an instrument panel. I like the green second hand with white lollipop reflective indicator. I am not so hot on the Mercedes hour hand but understand this is a Rolex design feature.

The 3131 movement is the Milgauss movement, complete with a Faraday cage, the 40 mm Milgauss case and bracelet really tell us this is a Milguass with an updated dial. This makes sense as the previous version Reference 14000 of the Air King was 34 mm, so this is a much larger timepiece than the previous model. The 48 hour power reserve, this is a little above the standard power reserve but nothing special. The balance wheel is fitted with a Parachrom hairspring. The crown is Twinlock screw-down with a screw-down case back and sapphire crystal, the Twinlock system is pretty old but still seems to work.