The story goes that in the early 1950s, Rolex was approached by CERN, the Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire, and asked to develop a wristwatch that would maintain accurate timekeeping while being exposed to powerful magnetic fields.
The most anti-magnetic watches of the time could withstand about 4,800 amperes/meter, which is about the limit of what the average wrist-watch-wearing man would encounter in his daily life. But the quantum physicists at CERN were being exposed to magnetic replica watches fields ten times that strength, standing beside powerful particle accelerators, and their watches weren’t up to the task. They needed a watch that could keep time even in a magnetic field of 70,000 A/m, or about 1,000 gauss, or mille gauss. A legend was born and we have something else to thank CERN for besides contributing to the invention of the Internet.
The Rolex Milgauss, with its soft iron Faraday cage and dateless dial protecting its movement, was a breakthrough, and antimagnetic watches became something of a fad in the 1950s, at least with the watch companies. As we’ve seen, IWC and Omega soon after came out with their own “a-mag” watches, the Ingenieur and the Railmaster, respectively.
All three models are still sold today but they are by no means the most popular sellers. The Milgauss has always been a slow seller for Rolex, prized more by the world of collector geeks (like us) than by the general public. The model has gone through numerous iterations over the decades, before finally being discontinued in 1988. With the recent re-introduction of the Milgauss, there is a renewed interest in vintage examples and today we’re showing you one that is for sale by renowned Rolex collector Mike Wood at The Old Watch Shop in Southport, UK.
This reference 1019 from 1967 is in terrific condition and has the coveted silver “CERN” dial which lacks fake rolex luminous markers. One of Rolex’s more subdued designs, the 1019 lacks even the trademark lightning bolt second hand that many references have. But the red dial text and red-tipped sweep hand still hint at something special..
Click here and scroll down for replica watches uk more gorgeous photos and details of this classic scientist’s watch.
