My Mother's First Vintage Watch

By Charlie Dunne

Both Eric and I have recently had the honor of gifting our mothers vintage Rolex watches. We couldn’t help ourselves and decided to do so before Mother’s Day.

A few months back, I had an ego-shattering phone calls. It was from own mother! My mother called and shared that she recently grabbed lunch with an old friend. They were catching up and she informed her about my career in the vintage watch industry. “I showed them your company’s website and they were very impressed” my mother relayed. “They showed me their matching Cartier watches and asked me what watch I was wearing.” My mother was wearing an Apple Watch. I was seriously depressed. Until this moment, I had neglected to realize my mother did not have a respectable vintage (let alone mechanical) watch. My stomach churned as the scene replayed in my mind throughout the evening. I went into work the following morning and told Eric the shameful news.

“NOO!” he barked at me when I got to the part about the matching Cartiers and my mother’s generic Apple Watch. “Yes” I said hanging my head. “What am I? An animal? How could I let this happen?” “This is a disgrace. You know this reflects terribly on the business, right?” Eric mumbled under his breath. “Eric, I need a watch. I don’t care what brand. I just need…” “Stop!” Eric interjected. “We will get her a Rolex. Better yet… a vintage Rolex”

Eric helped me source an Air-King reference 5500. It was a respectable watch on an Oyster Rivet bracelet (my favorite) and was just tested to be water resistant. It dated to circa 1970 and was 34mm in diameter - just the right size in terms of legibility. It had a luminous and vertical brushed dial which was quite attractive. The hands and dial furniture were gold - which goes with my mother’s style of wearing silver and yellow gold jewelry.

I hadn’t noticed until shooting macros that the hour markers were extremely cool. They featured a stepped interior with a grooved outer section. In addition, the Air-King font was super funky. I really appreciated this style of printing and began saving photos in a Dropbox folder to explain the typefaces to my mother after delivery. The dial had some wear, but it was a vintage watch. With all of the conversations around vintage watches over the years, my hope is that she would understand my passion for these timepieces. The case was polished in the past, but like my personal “Meters First” reference 5512, that didn't matter. It was just a great watch.

Delivering the Air-King to her was a very special moment. “What is this!?!?” she exclaimed upon opening the white Wind Vintage box. Her face maintained a big smile as she looked at it throughout the evening. We went to dinner and she continuously glanced at it and expressed her love for the watch. It was truly a special moment that I will remember forever!