List of All Rolex Milgauss Models & History

List of All Rolex Milgauss Models & History

The Rolex Milgauss is perhaps Rolex’s most underestimated, or neglected sports watch, depending on how you see it. But the Milgauss actually has a long and interesting history that goes all the way back to when Rolex first started developing sports watches, including the Submariner and GMT-Master.

And to go to the beginning of the Milgauss history, we need to go all the way back to the 1950s. 1954 to be exact.

The name Milgauss comes from the French “mille”, meaning thousand, and gauss, referring to the unit of measurement of magnetic induction.

During this time, there was one great enemy against mechanical wristwatches, and that was magnetism. Magnetism is still a big enemy of mechanical wristwatches that can have a substantial negative effect on their accuracy and performance. But manufacturers have gotten much better at creating watches that have greater resistance against magnetic fields.

But in the 1950s, most wristwatches could not withstand more than about 50 to 100 gauss, which is equivalent to about the strength of a refrigerator magnet. With this in mind, magnetism was a huge issue for wristwatches. And this was particularly true for individuals who worked in environments where magnetic fields are common, including professions such as scientists, engineers, and technicians.

Rolex identified the issue that these workmen had and set out to find a way to solve it. The goal was of course a wristwatch that could withstand the magnetic fields that these individuals found themselves in, and hence also subjected their watches to. This doesn’t come as a surprise considering the fact that during this period, Rolex doubled down on developing functional sports-and-tool watches that were all developed for a specific field and purpose.

In creating and developing the Milgauss model, Rolex worked closely with the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) which was one of the most well-known and famous particle physics laboratories in the world. The Milgauss that Rolex created was tested at this facility and proved to be resistant to magnetic fields up to 1,000 gauss. Thereby, the name was born, Mille for thousand, and gauss for the unit of a magnetic field.

CERN became an important companion in Rolex’s development of the Milgauss, and this is why Rolex still to this day mentions and refers to CERN in their marketing campaigns.

The first Milgauss models

The very first Milgauss models were the references 6543 and 6541. The reference 6543 came first, but this reference was basically just a prototype model for what would lead to the first production Milgauss watch, reference 6541.

Rolex promotes the official release of the Milgauss as 1956, but the Milgauss can actually be traced all the way back to 1954, which can be explained by this prototype reference.

Both of these models shared a lot of similarities with the Rolex Submariners, and Rolex very clearly had the Submariner as a starting point for the Milgauss when designing this new model. The first references have an Oyster case, an Oyster bracelet, a rotatable black bezel, and a black dial. If you put them side by side with a Submariner from that era, the similarities are striking.

At the same time, these early Milgauss watches were designed with distinct design elements. The most notable design elements include a honeycomb pattern dial, a bright Milgauss print, and dauphine or alpha hands. Worth pointing out is that Rolex also created the 6543 and 6541 with the rotating bezel replaced by a flat, polished bezel, but these examples were reserved for the US market.

In 1965, Rolex replaced the 6541 with the reference 1019 which gave the Milgauss a new design and look. The distinct Submariner similarities were no longer as clear as they had been before. This was an important upgrade to the Milgauss as it helped distinguish the Milgauss as a separate model.

However, reference 1019 never really became a huge hit on the market and in 1990, Rolex discontinued the model.

When the Milgauss 1019 was discontinued, Rolex did not replace it with a new model. Instead, the Milgauss model slowly but surely faded away from people’s minds and was almost completely forgotten. This would change almost 20 years later when Rolex went back to their archives and revisited the Milgauss once more by releasing a completely new model, the reference 116400GV. For the rebirth of the Milgauss model, Rolex presented three models. A white or black dial, and a version with a green glass, which has the reference 116400GV, where the last letters denote “Glace Verte”, or in English “green glass”. The latter is known as an “anniversary model”. If you want to learn more about the green glass, you can refer to our complete guide to the green sapphire crystal here.

The launch of the 116400GV also marked the first-ever Rolex to be released with a tinted sapphire crystal.

The new reference brought several new improvements and upgrades to the Milgauss. To make great magnetic resistance possible, Rolex uses a shield inside the Oyster case, between the case back and the movement, made of ferromagnetic alloys. On the magnetic shield inside the watch, Rolex engraved the letter “B” with an arrow which is the symbol for magnetic flux density. This is a fun and interesting detail, but one that most people never see.

Unlike many other of Rolex’s model lines, there have been considerably fewer Milgauss references ever made. For example, whilst Rolex has made tens and tens of Submariner and GMT-Master models, there are only a handful of Milgauss references.

There are many things that can explain this, but one important explanation is of course the fact that the Milgauss is, at least from a technical standpoint, a rather niche watch. It was originally developed for scientists and other professions that include magnetism. But a dive watch like the Submariner, on the other hand, is something that a lot of people can find useful.

Let’s have a look at the list of all Rolex Milgauss models below.