Rolex Air King Pool Intairdril Dial Ref 5500

The Air King has been in the Rolex line up since it was introduced in the 1940s to pay respect to the Royal Air Force pilots who took part in the Battle of Britain.

This is an interesting AIr King as it was an employee gift from Pool Intairdril, an oil servicing company. It supplied the labour, rigs and plant equipment to the big oil companies including Occidental, Agip and the Libyan NOC (National Oil Company).
The watches were given to Pool Intairdril employees typically as safety awards. Safety was a huge issue and so rig managers and other personnel in charge of safety management would be given the Rolex Air Kings with their names engraved into the case back along with a certificate of commendation.

The watch remains in lovely condition, with a good case.
The soleil silver dial is in outstanding condition and has the ‘P’ logo in the lower half of the dial.
The case back has the engraving “I Lara 11-10-86”, which we assume was the employee to whom the watch was awarded. This Air King is fitted with a Rolex oyster bracelet ref 78350 with endlinks 571 and a clasp stamped s v10. The movement has been fully serviced by our watchmaker.

We find these logo dial watches fascinating and have written a new article on them that you can read here. Please get in touch to discuss this cool AK some more!

Specifications:

- Reference 5500
- 34mm steel case
- Serial 634xxxx dating to 1980
- Smooth steel bezel
- Pool Intairdril logo dial
- Rolex oyster ref 78350 with endlinks 571
- Fully serviced by our watchmaker
- One-year mechanical warranty
- Includes a handmade leather watch pouch
- Free worldwide Fedex Priority shipping

This watch has been certified at Certifiwatch under registration number CF-0104246