Rolex’s line of aviation watches similarly has long had command of the skies, just as their underwater creations have become some of the most recognizable and emulated replica watches ever made. The contemporary lineup includes three models aimed at pilots and international air travelers, ranging in functionality from the exceptionally simple to the perfect complicated. Among them are some of the longest-serving names in the business, alongside perhaps the most immediately identifiable design of them all. 
Up first is the epitome of three-hand minimalism. The Air-King started life during WWII, one of a series of ‘Air’ models commissioned by the fake Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf to honor the bravery of the Royal Air Force and their heroic defense of England in the Battle of Britain.
The RAF’s pilots had been replacing their standard issue 30mm Speedkings with Oyster Perpetuals for years, bought with their own money, and preferred for their larger size and better legibility.
By the early 1950s, only the King remained, and it has stayed in production ever since, with only a two-year interruption between 2014 and 2016 for some well-deserved R&R.
Until its newest iteration it has been available in a range of sizes; 31mm, 34mm, and 36mm (as well as a short-lived 35mm model which had the addition of a date complication)—a variety that has made it a popular if the modestly understated choice for both men and women.
As is the way with the Rolex replica watch, it has been subjected to several updates during its six decades, but with the Air-King all the main modernizations have been on the inside. The calibers have been systematically improved, but have always lagged behind the rest of the catalog. It didn’t receive its first high-beat movement until 2000 with this model, for example, and its first COSC-rating a further seven years after that.
The newest generation is a blend of modern and vintage. Sharing a case setup with the Milgauss, actually, two cases one inside the other to protect the mechanism from the harmful effects of magnetic fields, the new 40mm Air-King harks back to the past with its signature font straight out of the 1950s, together with the traditional Explorer 3/6/9 hour indexes. Possibly the most easily readable dial of them all, it is the only piece in the current range with numerals every five minutes.