The story of the Rolex Milgauss
Rolex built the Milgauss for scientists exposed to magnetic fields far above the 50 to 100 gauss that can affect an ordinary mechanical watch, and the vintage models sat in cases, sometimes for years, before they sold. In May 2023 a circa 1958 example sold for CHF 2,238,000, a record for the model.
Chapters
- 2014 to 2023Z-Blue, then the end
In 2014 an electric blue Z-Blue dial joined the green crystal, and the clear-crystal models were dropped in 2016. The 116400 stayed essentially unchanged until Rolex removed the Milgauss from its catalogue at Watches & Wonders 2023; in May 2023 Phillips sold a 6541 for a record CHF 2,238,000.
- 2007 to 201440mm, orange bolt, green glass
Ref. 116400 grew to 40mm, used the calibre 3131 with a blue Parachrom hairspring and brought back the lightning hand in orange. Besides white and black dials, the 116400GV paired a black dial with a green-tinted sapphire crystal, which Rolex calls a first in watchmaking.
- 1988 to 2007Nearly two decades of silence
Rolex discontinued the Milgauss in 1988 and left the name dormant until 2007. Monochrome links the comeback to the completion of CERN's Large Hadron Collider.
- 1960 to 1988The quiet ref. 1019
Ref. 1019 kept the 38mm steel case and iron cage but dropped the rotating bezel, honeycomb dial and lightning hand for a straight seconds hand with a red arrow tip. Silver dials without lume, made for CERN, are known as CERN dials. It ran for 28 years, the longest of any Milgauss reference.
- 1954 to 1957A proof of concept: ref. 6543
The first Milgauss, ref. 6543, borrowed an early Submariner rotating bezel and protected its movement with a soft iron Faraday cage. Fewer than a couple of hundred were probably made, and its lug width fell between 19mm and 20mm, so it would not take a standard Oyster bracelet.
Worn by
Archival images show him receiving a Milgauss 6541 after winning the 1963 Daytona Continental.
Received a Milgauss 6541 after the 1965 Daytona Continental, according to archival images cited by Phillips.
Shared the 1965 Daytona Continental win and received a Milgauss 6541, per archival images cited by Phillips.
Owns a 116400 Milgauss customised with a black PVD treatment on case and bracelet.
The Top Gear and Grand Tour presenter has the white-dial 116400 with clear sapphire crystal.
The former Roma player wore his green-crystal Milgauss while on duty for Italy in 2010.
Has worn her Milgauss for years, and it is visible on her wrist in episodes of Arrow.
Moments
Phillips sold a circa 1958 Milgauss 6541, case number 412'399, complete with certificate, guarantee, hang tag and box, against an estimate of CHF 500,000 to 1,000,000. Hodinkee reported it looked as if Rolex itself was the buyer.
Before 2023 the auction record for a Milgauss was CHF 317,000, set by a 6541 in 2013.
Milgauss joins mille, French for thousand, with gauss, named for the physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss: the watch was rated to 1,000 gauss.
Rolex engraved the symbol for magnetic flux density, a capital B with an arrow, on the shield inside the 116400, where only Rolex-certified watchmakers will see it.
Collectors call the non-luminous dials 'CERN' dials, said to have been custom ordered by scientists without radium for use around machinery sensitive to radioactivity.
Generations and strap changes
- 1954 to 1957Ref. 6543
Prototype-like first Milgauss with a Submariner-style rotating bezel, calibre 1080 and a soft iron Faraday cage rated to 1,000 gauss. Only a handful have surfaced; Christie's sold one in 2017 for CHF 271,500.
Its lug width sat between 19mm and 20mm (about 19.7mm), which ruled out the standard Oyster bracelets of the day.
- 2014Ref. 116400GV Z-Blue
An electric blue sunburst dial under the green crystal, presented by Rolex as an allusion to the lightning-bolt seconds hand. It and the black GV were the last Milgauss models in production.
- 2007Ref. 116400GV
The anniversary model: black dial under a green-tinted sapphire crystal (glace verte). Rolex says the crystal was so hard to make that it did not patent the process.
Rolex specifies an Oyster bracelet with flat three-piece links and a folding Oysterclasp with a 5mm Easylink extension.
- 1956Ref. 6541
Honeycomb dial, lightning bolt seconds hand and a bezel divided into six sections; surviving examples have case numbers starting with 412. A smooth-bezel variant is thought to be for the American market.
The 38mm watch was delivered on a steel Oyster bracelet; the record 2023 example kept its Big Logo Oyster bracelet with end links stamped 65.