Rolex Milgauss

Antimagnetic watch with character

Developers and researchers in particular often come into contact with magnetic forces in their laboratories. These do not have to have the magnetic strength of a particle accelerator, as between 50 and 100 gauss are enough to throw the sensitive mechanics of a watch out of balance. Especially in our technological world of smartphones and computers, the wearer of a luxury watch must expect to be exposed to magnetism when it comes into contact with everyday objects such as various devices or the clasp of a handbag. This can seriously mess up the time display on the wrist.

Protected from external influences of all kinds

Perhaps with a certain foresight, the watchmakers and engineers at Rolex addressed this very problem in the 1950s: They wanted to develop a luxury watch whose delicate mechanism would be completely shielded from external magnetic influences. Rolex developed a watch that was made with an important component made of ferromagnetic alloys, which formed a magnetic protection, a so-called “magnetic shield”, for the inner workings of the luxury watch. The Swiss watch brand patented this innovation in 1956 and launched the first Rolex Milgauss in the same year. This Rolex watch model actually has its properties in its name: the Rolex Milgauss can withstand magnetic interference up to a strength of 1000 Gauss (“mille” = French for thousand; “Gauss” = unit of measurement for magnetic flux density) and maintains its chronometer-like accuracy. The claim that the Rolex Milgauss can withstand 1000 Gauss was already confirmed in the 1950s by scientists at the CERN nuclear research institute in Geneva during their experiments.

Modern high-performance watch with mechanical heart

The Rolex Milgauss has long since become a Rolex classic. Even though production of the Rolex Milgauss was discontinued in the 1980s, Rolex seems to have continued to refine the watch model over the past 60 years, so that it was perfected and reissued two decades after the supposed end of production in 2007 and 2011. The old watch models from the 1950s to 1970s are now highly collectible and are rarely found in online watch shops. However, the modern Milgauss from Rolex can be bought online like many other watches and is nothing more and nothing less than a modern high-performance watch with a mechanical heart that runs reliably even in extreme weather conditions. The coated hands and indices allow the time to be read precisely in a wide variety of lighting conditions. This makes the Rolex Milgauss model ideal for regular use in the fields of science, technology and research, and is highly valued for its robustness and elegance, not only by scientists.