Lot 270

Rolex

Milgauss

An attractive Geneva wristwatch anti-magnetic to 1000 Gauss, in near mint condition

Sold

The white dial and the hands of this Rolex Milgauss 116400WD are fitted with Super-LumiNova and in perfect condition. Serial and reference numbers are easily legible.The case only shows only very slight signs of wear and the bezel is in excellent condition. The bracelet is almost new and hardly worn. The watch was bought in 2008 from Toussaint in Bonn and has hardly been worn since.

Telecommunications, aviation and aerospace industries, medical imaging, research facilities – to name but a few of the many sectors where scientists, engineers and technicians are exposed to strong magnetic fields on a regular basis. The Oyster Perpetual Milgauss has been purpose-built for these environments. Its name is a combination of "mil" (a thousand), and "gauss", (the unit of magnetic flux density, named after the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss), and the wristwatch is resistant to a magnetic flux density of 1,000 gauss or tesla. Rolex uses its own parachrome spring and an escapement wheel made of a new paramagnetic material in the Milgauss. Ferromagnetic alloys provide the magnetic shielding protecting the movement. The original Milgauss was mostly sold for its unusual design – not many people needed a watch with all those functions the Milgauss provided. Thus the watch was never a big seller and Rolex discontinued the production in 1986. However, in 2007 Rolex relaunched the Milgauss with an outstanding design in three different styles: stainless steel with a white dial, stainless steel with a black dial and stainless steel with black dial and green glass. Since its comeback the Rolex Milgauss has come to be an extremely popular luxury timekeeper.