Wei wei…I wrote this during my spare time
I was skeptical when I first take this baby home. It was a huge piece of 904L stainless steel.
My fear begin to subside when I put it on my wrist, it just sat nicely on my wrist and comfort too.
This baby is the Pre-owned Milgauss non GV, black dial./ 116400, circa 2009. My dealer has offered to me at a very attractive price.. The watch comes with complete set, leather card holder / card & boxes, etc.
The watch was massive at 157grams, where as the SD weights only at 147 grams.
The Milgauss has a 40 mm. case with polished lugs and bezel. Even the middle section of the bracelet is polished. The case is quite thick and has downward slopping lugs which make the watch sit very comfortably on my wrist.
This is an exact opposite to the SD which seems higher in height and keeps flipping to one side of my wrist.
Source copied from the internet website; “__”
“The name Milgauss is derived from the French "mille" - which means 1,000 -and "Gauss", referring to the German mathematician and physicist Carl Friedrich Gauss who did research into magnetic fields. Another measure for the influence of magnetism is ampere per meter (A/m). According to the DIN norm 8309, a watch is considered anti-magnetic if it can work normally in a magnetic field of 4,800 A/m. Now, 4,800 A/m equals ca. 60 gauss. A normal anti-magnetic watch can only cope with 6% of the magnetic field that the Milgauss can handle. Yet another measure is Tesla (T). 1,000 Gauss equals 0.1 Tesla.”
The case
This current Milgauss sports a Faraday cage. There is an outer and a second inner case back. The outer caseback is engraved Milgauss (x 2) and also sports 4 Rolex coronets. The Milgauss is the first men's watch after the Sea-Dweller to sport a factory case back with engraving. The inner case back is laser etched with a "B" which is the symbol for magnetic flux density.
Upon removing this inner case back with the same tool, you only get to see the movement.
Build like a layered Titanic, the only thing I don’t need is to have an iceberg lying around when using and wearing it.
Crown
The Milgauss’s TwinLock crown is actually a little larger than the standard TwinLock (Explorer 1 & 2 and most Datejust but smaller than submariner) which makes it easier to operate, grip & wind smoothly. The diameter of TwinLock crown of the Milgauss is 7mm.
Dial
The normal black faced Milgauss has orange squares at the end of the markers and has no date feature. A date aperture would mean an opening into the movement that would compromise the antimagnetic characteristics of the Milgauss. The hour and minute hands are standard Datejust style with a bright orange lighting bolt second hand.
Crystal
The Milgauss GV do not sport the laser etched coronet at 6 in the crystal. One report said that the laser etched coronet would be too obvious due to the green edged crystal. Other report state that the laser etched coronet would simply be distorted due to the green crystal. Did not know which one is correct.
The other two normal Milgauss models (both black & white dial without the GV) both sport the laser etched coronet: Yup, I saw the laser etched coronet (with a loop) on my Milgauss @ 6 o’ clock position.
Movement
The Milgauss has the movement, the Cal. 3131. This is an upgrade from the Cal. 3130, sporting the in-house developed anti-magnetic Parachrom Blu hairspring plus an escapement which is made of an anti-magnetic alloy. The Faraday case seems redundant due to the Parachrom Blu hairspring and special escapement, this is one of Rolex over-engineering.
With this kind of a protection, I should have no issue running my hand through the car boot – where usually the big magnetic cone of both speakers lies.
Accuracy
After a couple of day’s observation, my Milgauss is spot on, gaining 2 seconds a day
Bracelet
The Milgauss watch come with the Oyster bracelet (ref. 72400?) which is not shared with other Rolex watches. It could due to the curvature between the lugs and the thick case that the Milgauss, thus giving the comfy wear
The clasp sports a hidden Easy Link where you can do minor adjustment to suit the days climate. The bracelet has solid and polished centre links which match and in uniform to that of the watch.
Overall, I am satisfied with my Milgauss as compared to my former SD, after all I don’t do deep diving every other day. The anti-magnetic is a plus for daily use although I don’t get to organize my car’s boot on many occasions. And nowadays, the car speakers are being fitted onto the side panel of each door, no more to the rear top panel of the rear boot.
I am having this Milgauss for the past week for now and hopefully, this one is a keeper
Note; The pictures attached do not do justice to the larger than life Milgauss on my wrist
Hope you do enjoy reading my reviews.
dc