Reference:5500: Difference between revisions

Consensus across Rescapement (Tony Traina), Monochrome (Erik Slaven, January 2025), Goldammer (Marcus Siems), and Phillips lot essays converges on **1957 introduction and 1989 end** — a 32-year span. A small dealer outlier reads "37 years" by conflating the gold-capped 5520 sibling that ran into the 1990s; treat that as a different reference, not a longer 5500.

The "underline" dial carries a small horizontal line under the AIR-KING text or the SUPER PRECISION line, signaling that the luminous material had changed. Rescapement and Goldammer both attribute the underline to the radium-tritium transition. The "exclamation point" dial carries a single dot below the six-o'clock marker — a similar luminous-dosage flag indicating reduced radium content. Phillips lots 76 and 49 both feature exclamation-point dials.

Joyería Riviera, the Havana retailer established in 1943, is the strongest retailer signature in the 5500 auction record. Phillips Geneva FIVE 2017 lot 76 (1962 gilt Explorer 3-6-9 with double-Swiss exclamation, hammered CHF 32,500) and Phillips Double Signed Geneva 2019 lot 49 (1962 gilt Explorer 3-6-9, hammered CHF 37,500) are both Joyería Riviera examples and both sit at the top of the 5500 market. A Tiffany & Co.-signed 5500 surfaces in dealer corpus but no major-house anchor was located in this pass. Cartier-signed 5500 Explorers appear in forum discussion (RolexForums, WatchUSeek) but authenticity is contested without auction-house confirmation.

Aftermarket Saudi or UAE crest dials circulate widely. Without provenance papers tying the dial to the original commission, treat any government-crest 5500 as suspect. The Kuwait Al-Sabah signature is the only government-crest 5500 with major-house auction anchoring; the other crests appear in dealer / editorial corpus only.