The Gonzo babe - Double Nine Gonzo!

[KJ2020]

https://www.horbiter.com/en/rolex-ai...y-watchfinder/

https://timeandtidewatches.com/a-mod...-up-to-the-9s/

This is just a teaser - coming soon to an Air King near you!

[Hazing]

I saw this post and thought you did it. Damn,,, I got all excited there for a second.

Did you get everything and ready to start the work?

[KJ2020]

I saw this post and thought you did it. Damn,,, I got all excited there for a second.

Did you get everything and ready to start the work?

Yep, got all the pieces bro. Hope to get to it real soon.

[Rainbowkin]

I wish to get an airking or explorer I with triple 3, triple 6, or triple 9's

[mpx]

I was also quite astonished when I first heard about that some time ago. And we complain about slightly misaligned things on reps for a fraction of the price ...

[p0pperini]

Excellent project! It’s about the only thing that could make an Air-King interesting...

[Stuvetjee]

my ocd would go through the roof with a 9 @ 3. Kudos to you bro KJ2020

[Cadows]

my ocd would go through the roof with a 9 @ 3. Kudos to you bro KJ2020

I would even get paranoid lol

[Hazing]

If anything, I think that watchfinder video difinitively proved that people would be hard pressed to notice.

The original air king that had that QC error went through several owners over several years before some 1 even noticed it.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[KJ2020]

If anything, I think that watchfinder video difinitively proved that people would be hard pressed to notice.

The original air king that had that QC error went through several owners over several years before some 1 even noticed it.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

I know man, that's pretty hard to believe. I bet not many of us would have missed it.

[Subzed]

Ha! KJ you’re worth 10 times the average mortal in entertainment value.

[m5smg2]

Yes we’d all miss that hour marker glitch. It will be like the famous “APH” defect on some Daytona dials... and those are considered more collectible. Only Rolex can f something up and make it more desirable lol. Crazy.

[KJ2020]

Yes we’d all miss that hour marker glitch. It will be like the famous “APH” defect on some Daytona dials... and those are considered more collectible. Only Rolex can f something up and make it more desirable lol. Crazy.

Yes indeed bro - in 20 years the original will command some outrageous price at auction. One thing the article got wrong though was asking "who is the owner of the one and only Rolex Air-King Double Nine in the world?" Hehe.

[KJ2020]

So the marker swap is really a simple mod as mods go. However, I ran into an issue unrelated to the mod that became a bit of a challenge.

I had an extremely difficult time getting caseback off, and when I took it off there was what appeared to be ANOTHER caseback underneath it. I was like WTF!?



This “second caseback” was actually screwed down into the case far enough to contact the movement holder, and is what was holding it in place.



The movement was then anchored only to the movement holder and not to the case.



Whaddaya know, I’ve opened up quite a few reps and had not seen this arrangement before. It’s pretty ingenious except for one thing. The threads in the case had TWO places where there were significant bumps of un-cut metal in between the threads. This explained my extreme difficulty getting the caseback off, and getting the “second caseback” off was even worse. I didn’t think it was ever going to come off. I actually ended up putting the case in a case holder, put the case holder in a vice, and used a pair of plumber’s channel lock pliers on it. OMG! Amazingly, I was able to completely unscrew it , each half turn having to overcome thread bumps in the case threads. I cannot overstate how much of a PITA this was.

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Channell...-440/100002119

After I got it off I used a diamond file to chew the case thread bumps down to nothing and sanded the space with some sandpaper backed by a thin screwdriver. Geez.

Now down to business. To get a marker off, you just scrape the glue off the back then push the marker pins out with a needle. The marker should just fall off.







It helps a lot if the markers are from the same factory then they should have the same pin and hole arrangement. If not you have to sand one pin down and use glue on the dial front which is much more challenging on markers with thin surface areas or a coronet. It’s not bad at all on big round or rectangular hour markers, you can blob the glue on almost willy nilly and not muck it up.



Just pop the new marker pins in their holes and glue the pins in place from the backside of the dial. I used BSI epoxy, love the stuff.







While waiting for the glue to set I removed the calendar parts from the movement. No need for all this junk on a no date watch!



Next I filed down the middle hump on the Setting Lever Jumper so the stem won’t catch there and there won’t be a crown position 2. Sweet!





Remount the dial and hands, replace the movement in the case, regulate it and Boom!





Double Nine Gonzo, yeah!

[Stuvetjee]

Absolutely marvelous work brother! KJ2020