Editor’s note: Rolex is probably the strongest watch brand on the planet, but as well as their worldwide fame and popularity, they make incredibly reliable and robust wristwatches. One key part of their success at consistently producing hard-wearing watches is the quality control at their factory, ensuring that every timepiece that leaves the building has met their strict standards. As a result, it’s an incredibly rare moment when a Rolex is found with any mistakes, but that is exactly what happened when an Air-King popped up with a very unusual dial. It’s a modern-day escape from Alcatraz, where the escapee is a defect on a watch that makes it to market, and Alcatraz is the Rolex manufacture. That, I suspect, is flattering Alcatraz. Because, the fact that a modern Rolex with a defect you can actually see even exists is unthinkable to the point of immediately being suspected as a hoax. But here it is. Not only does a ‘double nine’ Rolex Air-King 116900 — with a nine where the ‘3’ numeral should be — allegedly exist in the wild, it’s been captured by Watchfinder & Co., who used the occasion to do a proper exposition on just how extraordinary that fact…
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