1. Yes, the watch in the pictures is Hillary's - the Beyer Museum has the documentation to prove it.
2. If you go to the Rolex website, it states that the Explorer Oyster was brought out after the 1953 expedition. Rumour has it that the expedition was supplied with the Oyster Explorer prototypes, but Tenszing definitely wore the bubbleback (it is in Rolex's own museum), and Hillary's was not the Explorer Oyster that people suppose was used.
3. You might want to take this up with Rolex, as on their website it clearly states: “…Explorer made an auspicious debut in 1953, after Sir Edmund Hillary’s successful ascent of Everest.” I was not aware of the Ref6098 - do you have any pictures. It would be worth getting to the details on this. However, as the documentation atests, the Air King was Hillary's and he wore it; Tenszing wore the bubbleback.
Thanks for reading and the interesting questions.
Kind regards
Andrew H
This message has been edited by 219 on 2009-03-06 06:47:17