The horizon of possibilities
A descendant of the Oyster worn on the wrists of history’s most dauntless pilots, the Air-King pays tribute to those who made the skies their own territory of unprecedented conquest and accomplishment.
In the wake of pioneering aviators, Owen Cathcart-Jones, Arthur Clouston, Anthony Ricketts and Alex Henshaw made history in the 1930s. With Rolex Oysters on their wrists, the British pilots set numerous speed, endurance and long-distance records flying from England to the far corners of the British Empire.
The aviators praised the watch for its reliability and resistance in the face of the extreme conditions encountered during their flights. Their feedback contributed to the development of future models for the entire Oyster Perpetual range.
At a time when aviation was a feat of physical and technical prowess, Rolex stood alongside the heroes of the skies. The Houston expedition, which made the first-ever flight over Mount Everest in 1933, was equipped with Rolex Oyster watches.
Aboard their biplane, Lord Clydesdale and Lieutenant-Colonel Stewart Blacker failed at their first attempt due to particularly adverse weather conditions. Several days later, however, on 19 April 1933, the sun was high in the sky when their small plane successfully reached an altitude of 9,000 metres (29,528 feet) and flew over the summit of the Himalayas.
In the bitter cold, breathing through an oxygen cylinder, Blacker managed to photograph the planet’s highest peak. The mission was a success, and the aviators received a hero’s welcome on their return to England. In a letter that Stewart Blacker wrote to Rolex, he said: “I can hardly imagine that any watches have ever been subjected before to such extremes.” Kept secret until 1951, the photographs taken that day were later used by the Hunt expedition, which successfully climbed Everest for the first time in 1953, also equipped with Rolex watches.
