Today, we’re talking about the Milgauss, a watch that has always been, and will always be a bit of an outlier in the Rolex collection, though it certainly isn’t without its charms. Though it dates all the way back to 1954, it has really only seen two major redesigns, but when we say major we aren’t exagerating. The initial reference was the 6543, which only lasted a couple of years in production, and looking at that first model there was very little that distinguished it from a Submariner other than the word Milgauss written across the dial. Using a soft iron Faraday Cage, the watch was capable of resisting magnetic fields of up to 1,000 Gauss, which being in the time prior to digital/electronic timekeeping, was a legitimately practical thing for those working in power plants, on railways, or several other fields. With the switch to the reference 6541 in 1956, the Milgauss added its lightning-bold seconds hand that remains part of the design of present generation Milgauss watches. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, also known as CERN, would quickly put these watches to the test in real-world scenarios. It was offered with either a timing bezel or a smooth one, though in either configuration it managed to stand out from its siblings at the time, not to mention it is one of very few Rolex that occasionally appeared with a waffle textured dial.
When 1960 rolled around, the Milgauss was in for some fairly significant change. Out the window went the Submariner-styled design, and in its place we see a case and dial design much closer to that of an Air King, though it measured 38mm in order to have extra space for its Faraday cage. This was the reference 1019, which managed to stay in production relatively unchanged through until 1988 when Rolex finally decided sales were not substantial enough to justify maintaining the model. During its 28-year production run it remained largely unchanged, seeing slight variations to its dial and indices, which were only ever available in either silver or black.
Unsurprisingly it was nearly 20 years before Rolex thought it safe to reboot the relatively unsuccessful model. In 2007 we first saw the reference that remains in production today, the 116400. The first two models were presented with either a white or black dial and contrasting orange accents, including the return of its lightning bolt seconds hand. Not long after came the 116400 GV, which stands for Glace Verte or green glass. Easily the most obscure feature of the model is its green-tinted sapphire crystal that gives the watch a bit of a green halo depending on the angle it’s viewed from. These examples are all powered by the caliber 3131, using a non-magnetic parachrom hairspring and delivering a power reserve of 48 hours. Though in its earlier days it was one of the larger Rolex models out there, the current iteration comes in at a modest 40mm in diameter and 48mm from lug to lug, making it quite wearable for a range of wrist sizes.
Possibly the most peculiar variant to arrive landed just recently in 2017, where Rolex celebrated 10 years of the model’s reboot with a vibrant sunbrushed blue dial. Depending on your preferences, the combination of a blue dial, orange accents, and a green-tinged crystal can be a bit much for some, but if you prefer your watches a little more bold and out of the ordinary this might be just what you’re in the market for. Given its lengthy production run and the brand’s push to update its calibers, we’re still curious to see if we’re going to get an updated Milgauss in the next year or two.
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16 сен 2024
