Rolex vs Rolex Air King New vs Old Shootout and Review: Reference 126900 vs 116900
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- čas přidán 2. 09. 2022
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Today Tim compares the new for 2022 Rolex Air-King Ref. 126900 to its predecessor, the 2016 Rolex Air-King Ref. 116900.
First introduced in 1945, the "Air-King" name celebrated the British Royal Air Force pilots who flew with Rolex Oyster Perpetuals strapped to their wrists through WWII.Since then, the Air-King has remained a staple in the Rolex collection. For most of its nearly 80-year history, the Rolex Air-King was the true entry-level option in the Rolex catalog. One of the hallmarks of the Air-King was a classically sized 34mm case, available with a wide variety of dials pulling from all corners of the Rolex collection. This formula lasted until 2016 when the Air-King transformed into a 40mm sports watch with a radical new dial design inspired by the instrument dials in the Bloodhound SSC rocket car.
Ref. 116900 was in production until 2022, when Rolex unveiled Ref. 126900 at Watches and Wonders in Geneva. This new Air-King harkens to the line's roots as a celebration of aviation. Featuring several minor tweaks to the existing design, the 2022 Air-King may be a subtle upgrade to its predecessor but represents a solid addition to the current Rolex lineup.
For complete details, watch the full Rolex Air-King review and comparison by Tim Mosso!
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So glad everyone prefers the new one. I prefer the old one.
💯
Agree
Me too...
You do you. I'll take the style of the new one any day of the week
New one is a wannabe sub… the baby sun. Older sticks to the true design purpose of the watch. I prefer the older one. Plus last version of that generation has a higher collection value. Btw I own both… still love the old model. Cheers
The new one is way too perfect … I love the quirky nature of the old, and that is what gives it charm.
Fantastic work. Best review of old vs new I’ve seen yet. I owned the previous model, which I loved, and it had a certain charm…. But I also now own the new model and I absolutely love the upgraded features.
The comparison we’ve all been waiting for
Best Rolex NEw Air King comparison & review I've seen. Thanks!
Old one has a better looking case
I actually prefer older one. Case looks much more masculine and I like the fact it doesn’t have crown guards.
Old one doesn't look masculine - it looks like a pregnant fat lady
I agree 💯
Agree agree!
So prefer the old
Old one for me
The clockwise setting of the hands/crown was a beautiful thing about the older Rolex movements. I noticed the switch immediately when seeing the new 70hr movements.
Maybe it's just me, but the dial on the older one looks a bit greyer/matte here, and the new one looks more black/gloss (?).
I bought the old model of the Rolex air king 2016 from New York and I’m very pleased
New movement is nice. Old watch has more presence and uniqueness.
I’ll stick to the 116900.
Fantastic watch reviews, by far the most in depth reviews and beautiful pristine images. Perfect thank you!
MUCH prefer the new one, but honestly don't really prefer either.
never liked the AirKing... it used to be the Rolex nobody wanted..
Probably the best review on YT ever.
Best reviewer in the watch game!
Prefer the old version, much more me.
Excellent Video. Thanks
Funny how so many said the airking is such a piece of shit,yet it almost doubled in resale price and rolex made them.again with just the crown guards, the other specs don't even make a difference.
Try it on haters if you can find one. Bad ass piece
gone is the sexier curvier case, and in its place a machine made slab reminiscent of the sub and Tudor. Sad.
I Love the 2016 Airking a litle more
Very nice-old and new.
Wait did Tim just Troll Us by setting the watches? LOL
Old one is better by far. Gimme a little heft and presence rather than the longer flatter Omega speed feel… blehhh
Tim, this is a great review/comparison of old v. new Air King. Leave it to Rolex to make so many changes (more than I was aware of) and end up with a new Air King that, to the non-enthusiast/casual observer, looks very similar to the old one. While the new one is much improved, I am still not a fan of the Bloodhound-inspired Air Kings. Rolex missed an opportunity here to make the new Air King look very different than the old one.
Tim the new piece is "amagnetic", whereas the old one leans more towards "antimagnetic". The former is from using parts that can't be magnetised (amagnetic parts), whereas the latter resists magnetism (soft iron cage is antimagnetic). An important distinction.
The 126900 was my first piece offered at my AD and it's very nice. I wasn't a big fan of the 36mm Explorer as it fits a bit too small for me, this one satiates my Submariner hunger as well.
Excellent review!
I didn't realise they'd updated to white lume for the hour numerals. That almost matches the minutes and cleans up the design for me.
Previously I couldn't tolerate the 3,6,12 markers being contrasted to a merely insipid and light dependent level (shiny metal vs white) yet at some angles unavoidably not matching either. It was a mess.
Fantastic
I prefer the asymmetry of the dial 5, the solid gold markers and the rounded case of the old one
Agree. What is this nonsense that the numerals on a watch face need to be symmetrical, you never see 01, 02 etc. to balance 10, 11, 12? Can’t believe Rolex conceded on this.
Couldn’t agree more!
The older one has more wrist presence bc it's thicker.
Excellent, very interesting
Not sure why the air king in general isn’t more popular. On some days, I’d even prefer it to an explorer
I think I prefer the old one (the Milgauss vibe is cool)
Is it me or the new air king when u turn the crown, the second hand jerks as if it wants to move and is moving a bit?
The font Rolex uses is called Eurostile, designed in the 60s by Aldo Novarese.
Great review, Tim. I own both and can say that I prefer the new one by a mile. It wears so much better, is no longer top heavy and looks so much more thin, sleek and coherent in design. Add up all of the other technical advancements that you mentioned and it's a total win. As you said, this is a completely different watch than the previous version. Some may still not like the dial asthetics but I would suggest trying this one on before writing it off since it looks so much better in person.
PS. Another big change to note is the addition of anti reflective treatment to the crystal. This has made a big difference - the dial now has an inky black appearance from almost every angle....very different from the old version.
Owning both of these puts you in a category of Fanboi seldom seen. Respecktos.
@@feedthefatrabbit1073 lol....wasn't planned that way. Need to sell the old one now. Hopefully, prices will go up a bit in Sept so I don't lose my shirt.
Thanks for mentioning this. The difference AR makes is very noticeable in the clip. It's a vast improvement. One question: Is there a difference in the crown marking to indicate the application of AR?
@@bobsaffron8284 no indication on the watch but i believe Rolex mentions it on the website.
@@ron74555 Thanks for the clarification.
I feel the new dial is better balanced. I believe the clasp in all sport models should feature the micro-adjustment. I love that on my Seamaster. Nice review as always, thanks Tim!
the 116900 in fact does have a micro adjustment
I’m sold on the new one wow
Old is a Gold
Wooo!
New model got much better glass - with antireflex better coating,
It is pretty visible on the movie, less milky reflection of new model than older one.
I believe the crown on the new one is much, much larger as well…
Meravigliosi emtrambi ma forse in un futuro chissà quanto lontano 116900 sarà ricordato come la prima versione dell'orologio del futuro. Richiamano molto gli anni 80 90 come stile ed eleganza. Belli!
Everything about the new AK is better EXCEPT the crown guard which broke the perfect streamline profile! I personally hate the guard!
I can’t tell if I like the AK, it’s such an enigma
Would love to see every one of the arabic indices lumed. Then it would be a "pilot's" watch. I have the 116000 concentric dial OP. It is from 2008. It has the 05 at 5 like the new airking and lumed 3/6/9.. So while the old airking version started in 2016 and is a riff of the bloodhound speedo, clearly Rolex was made (better balanced) speedo like dials at least 8 years before.
Amazing that Tim made zero comments about the fact that the new one has anti-reflective coating (not sure if just underside, or both top and bottom), whereas the old one doesn't have any AR coating. Tim - you're slipping.
The King is alive and the original is perfection in imperfection! If you hold a classic long enough it becomes an antique!
If you hold an antique long enough you’ll be dead as an antique is generally regarded as 100 years old. 😂 A vintage piece is generally as 30 years too.
I got mine last week and i love it. My explorer 2 and SD43 got no more wristtime lol
I got Rolex to swap the dial from the old to the new on my AK. I'm going to email them now about the possibility of laser welding the crown guards so I get essentially the same watch for a fraction of the price.
I like the old one
Here come the “get off my yard” crew, lol
The new air king appears to be replacing the 214270 for people who don’t want the 36mm explorers
I thought that too. There's good differentiation between those two models now.
Oh no! Missing the silver 9,3,6 on the new one!
White gold not silver
@@melvinhernandez1051 so true Sir!
AK should've been discontinued.Not be rehashed to be more like a Explorer 39.
A shame, it now looks like a Hamilton Field King. Heh, just realized the name resemblance. I do like the new gloss dial instead of the matte dial, although that goes against the now sportier image.
Like the 🆕 Air-King..!
Groundbreaking, completely night and day between these two…
Another revolutionary rollout by Slowlex
I was very close to pull the trigger on the old one. Not anymore...
Id have left the 3, 6, 9 in unlumed white gold and put lume on every other number.
It's traditional for pilots watches to have lum at 3, 6 and 9 (plus triangle at 12), and this is the "Air-King" after all. Take that away and you have basically taken away any link to the air whatsoever.
The old one is thicker due to better magnetic resistance the rest is just ugly crown guard and only substantial difference is the newer 70 hour power reserve movement
The soft iron core actually doesn't do much at all. The anti-magnetism is due to the specialised hairspring material and other amagnetic materials used in other key components of the drivetrain. By comparison my Omega Planet Ocean 600m has resistance to magnetic fields up to 15,000 gauss (1.5 teslas) which is massive and it has no soft iron core, and actually has an exhibition caseback. The soft iron core is an anachronism and I am sure glad they got rid of it for this model. The crown guards are practical and look great. No one complains about them on the GMT-MasterII but people just freak out when anything is changed, even for the better.
@@thegorn but the older air king still has better magnetic properties than the newest one and that's a fact add to that with welcome changes as far as newest movement I still prefer the 5 instead of 05 which really is dumb just to make dial balanced adding a zero before 5, crown guard won't also add water resistance it's just aesthetic change but I think older and newer are unique and neglected among Rolex sports models
Thanks Tim. I own seven of the old model but 12 of the new model. Goes to show. I love the new one.
Dude you only have two wrists you know.
More money than sense
Tim: Points out some miniscule changes.... "those are some major changes" :O
Prefer the new one
I miss the 34mm air kings, there was plenty dial colors to chose from.
It's a great watch if you are 140 pounds
@@stanwilson7040 42 or higher...
@Archie Baldwin go get some cheese with your whine
All this talk about shafts and roundels
Disappointed the older one has the thicker shaft
The usual “get off my yard” prune crew are here, lol.
I'm really not sure if I like this or not 🤔
New one is superior in every way, IMO.
New one is so good
The old 39mm Explorer beats both of em! 😃
...not on my 7.5 inch wrist it doesn't. Way too small....
the dial is too busy, but i prefer the new one
Older version is way better
yeah love that 40 hour power reserve or whatever it is versus the newer one's 70. Should have made the newer one 20 hours and you'd buy ten lol.
@mt89......really? so I take it that you own the old version, and have compared it directly to a new one in the flesh? I suspect not 🤔
The new model beats the old in every way. Newer movement, larger dial, much better lume, better bracelet and crown guards. So glad I didn’t get the call for the older model. I do love both but the newer one is definitely a better watch.
Never was a fan of the old, the new one is much better in my opinion
I would prefer a nice Aqua Terra....
Aqua Terra is a Datejust equivalent, don’t see any comparison. Railmaster is closest Omega in comparison
I don’t know why they made such an ugly quadrant and still not doing anything to improve it
Why are your hands shaking so much. Need to look into that.
Смешно)
This is truly the DOG of the current lineup.
Nah.....the 2 tone 36mm explorer holds that title followed by the yachtmaster 2.
@@ron74555 the Yachty II is in a league of its own; you're right.
Also, anything two tone that isn't a Bluesy sucks ass, and even they look dated unless you're 57+ yrs old
….see it in the flesh and you would NOT describe it as a dog. Wears beautifully on the wrist and with the colour accents really does work surprisingly well.
@@gjonno it's a nice watch objectively don't get it twisted. However, compared to literally every other steel sports model IMO, it's barking at me a bit. Much like Auggie, mah doggo.
@@feedthefatrabbit1073 lol I do see where you are coming from, but I rather think that’s the appeal of it. It is an oddball Rolex
Most polluted dial of any Rolex watch. New model has a zero-five. Next year will be zero-three, zero-six and zero-nine. Just because there is not enough numbers on this dial…
Of all the dumb and annoying things Rolex has done over the years, reversing the time setting winding direction is now at the top of my list. There is absolutely no technical reason to do this. It's just a case of "wouldn't it be fun...?" What's next? Wouldn't it be fun to swap the minute and hour hands? Wouldn't it be fun to show the time in the reverse direction? Literally counter-clockwise? Jeeezz... It's a bit of a shame, the overall improvements really do look nice. Esp. the clasp, crown guards, and dial font / lume.
It is a surefire way to tell a fake from a real one though
New one is moved a way from Air King identity. Looks like a dog with cat legs , chicken feet and pig tail
i can't tell the difference between those 2. They have equally ugly dials, that all i can notice
Over priced brand of watch. No thanks.
New version is on fire.