Buying, Selling, & Collecting: The Domino’s Rolex Air-King With A Slice Of Pizza
A couple of weeks ago I hopped the Amtrak from Chicago to Milwaukee to meet a couple of watch dealers. While walking from the Amtrak station to the Milwaukee Public Market, I decided to pick up a Domino’s pizza, not because I wanted one – though I can pretty much always go for a slice of pepperoni – but because I thought it’d pair nicely with a certain vintage Rolex. And so I walked across Milwaukee with a fresh, hot Domino’s pizza in hand (choose any two or more for $6.99!).
In the 1970s, Domino’s founder Tom Monaghan started giving watches as awards to high-performing franchisees of his tasty pizza chain. In his fiercely named autobiography, Pizza Tiger, Monaghan recalls that he started the tradition in 1977 after a franchisee saw a Bulova with a Domino’s logo on his wrist and asked what he’d have to do to get a watch from Monaghan. Nowadays, the Domino’s dial Rolex is charming because we know it’s something that would never be done in 2024.
Domino’s Air-King ref. 14000, courtesy of John Krovitz. I brought the pizza.
“Turn in a $20,000 sales week,” Monaghan responded. And with that, the Domino’s Pizza Challenge was born. In the following years, Monaghan started giving out Seikos and then Rolex watches to franchisees who met the sales mark.
The first Domino’s Rolex was the Air-King ref. 5500, the long-running reference produced from 1957 through the 1980s (and my first love in vintage Rolex), with the pizza chain’s red-and-blue logo added at six o’clock. Eventually Domino’s upped the challenge, requiring four consecutive weeks of $25,000 in sales, but the challenge has remained since the 1970s. It’s difficult but doable, which means you can usually find a few dozen Domino’s Rolex watches on the market at any given time.
Domino’s Air-King ref. 5500 “big logo.”
There are a bunch of relatively common corporate dial Rolex watches: Coca-Cola, Hallmark, Winn Dixie, Pan Am, Anheuser-Busch, Chevrolet, and so on. But the Domino’s Rolex got popular over the past few years, mostly for the peculiarity of this most luxurious of watchmakers being subjected to an affiliation that triggers cravings for a greasy slice best consumed while imbibing or indulging in one of life’s other delicious vices. I mean, who besides a certain beleaguered former Vice President wants a Rolex with a Haliburton oil dial? But pizza? Everyone loves pizza.
Domino’s ref. 14000 “tilted logo.”
The first Domino’s Air-King ref. 5500 had a “big logo” at six o’clock. In these early years, Domino’s would also engrave the recipient’s initials as well as “TSM” (for founder Thomas Steven Monaghan) on the caseback. Even the papers are made out to “Domino’s Pizza.” It’s a bonus to find a Domino’s dial in a case that still has its full caseback engraving to legitimize its provenance and originality. This personalized caseback engraving later changed to an engraving of the Domino’s domino.
Mr. Pizza, your watch is ready. Image: courtesy of Loupe This
This additional proof of provenance is such a bonus because old-school dealers will tell you that, back in the day, they’d even swap these Domino’s dials for standard silver dials and polish off that caseback engraving because no one wanted the logo of a crappy pizza chain on their Rolex. Slowly and then all at once, the market changed, and people not only wanted these Domino’s dials, but were willing to pay a premium for them. Dealers were rummaging around in the back of every drawer for those old pizza dials, and if they found one, they’d plop it in any Air-King case they could find to print money out of thin air.
Then, as with most things, it got really weird during the pandemic. Christie’s sold a couple of Domino’s dials for more than $20,000 in 2020 and 2021. Even more traded hands privately. It wasn’t uncommon to see a Domino’s Rolex sell for more than $15,000 – like here, here, or here.
In 1989, Rolex phased out the 5500 for the Air-King ref. 14000. As with other models that transitioned from four-digit to five-digit references around this time, the 14000 is mostly the same as its predecessor, but with an updated movement and sapphire crystal.
(L) Rare (but boring!) black logo made for only about a year towards the beginning of ref. 14000 production; (R) ref. 5000 big logo.
In the first year or so of ref. 14000 production, Domino’s Air-Kings also stayed the same, with a similar big logo at six o’clock.
After that, we see a brief switch to a black logo – the same big logo as before, just monochromatic. These only seem to appear for a year or so, which means it’s much more rare. But let’s be honest: the colorful, cheesy Domino’s logo is what we want.
Domino’s 14000 with “small logo.” Image: courtesy of Loupe This
Realizing the error of their ways, Domino’s and Rolex soon switched back to a colorful “small logo.” It’s the same red-and-blue logo as before, shrunk down to a slightly more digestible size.
Then, in the mid-1990s, we get to the tilted logo, seen in both the ref. 14000 and the ref. 14010, the same Air-King, just with an engine-turned bezel (this is the logo seen in photos throughout this article). Despite my affection for the ref. 5500, the tilted logo is my favorite flavor, the perfect amount of playful for America’s favorite pizza delivery chain.
In 2000, Rolex replaced the 14000 references with the 14000 and 14010m – same as before, just with an updated caliber 3130.
In the mid-2000s, tragedy struck. Rolex retired our beautiful baby, the Domino’s dial, instead placing a steel logo on the first full bracelet link instead. It’s boring and comparatively clunky compared to the bold logo on the dial that we enjoyed for all those years.
Later Domino’s Oyster Perpetuals that, sadly, merely have the pizza chain’s logo affixed to the first full bracelet link.
In 2014, Rolex discontinued the simple Air-King, and by the time it introduced the updated ref. 116900 in 2016, it was much too busy and confused for any Domino’s logo. Instead, Domino’s began giving the ref. 114200 (34mm), 116000, followed by the 126000 (36mm), to high-performing franchisees. You’ll also find smaller OPs with Domino’s logos.
Grab a Slice
Things have cooled down significantly since the days of easy money and $20,000 pizza dial watches. The last few Domino’s Air-Kings to sell publicly have sold for more like $6,000 to $8,000. For a couple of years, the spread between a standard Air-King and a Domino’s dial got completely out of whack. A standard, silver ref. 5500 selling for, say, $3,000 while a Domino’s dial sold for $20,000 made no sense.
But the premium is starting to make sense again, if you’re into that sort of thing. It’s not exactly a choose two for $6.99-level deal, but it might hit a certain craving. Either way, the Domino’s Rolex is a quirky bit of history; in a modern world where brand and image are so carefully controlled and Rolex doesn’t collaborate with anyone, no less a pizza chain with questionable quality (to be clear: I love Domino’s and would eat it weekly if my cholesterol would allow it), it’s also charming because of the bygone era it represents.
Thanks to John Krovitz for letting me take photos of his Domino’s Air-King ref. 14000 seen throughout.
Hodinkee
