2007 Rolex Oyster Perpetual Milgauss 40mm Black Dial 116400
Ref: 116400
Specification
Lugs : 20mm
Condition : Pre-OwnedÂ
Box & Papers : Box & Card
Case Material : Stainless Steel
Warranty : 12-Months Warranty
Points of Mention
This watch is sold with its original Rolex box and card. It comes paired with its polished and brushed 20mm Rolex stainless steel bracelet, Oysterclasp, and 5mm EasyLink extension, with 11 links provided, one short from a full bracelet. The watch is from December 2007 and is sold in worn but is in very fair condition, as you can see, recently benefiting from a service and polish. The watch comes with our 12-Months Warranty.
For more photos see here - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14zTN3smI5QL8FiTGjUelG0312mSjJ6oL?usp=drive_link
4K YouTube video, skip to 5:29Â - https://youtu.be/lu3uVw5FYtk
The Watch
Here we have a 2007 Rolex Milgauss Black Dial 116400 that has a curvaceous 40mm polished and brushed 904L OysterSteel Oyster case, and inside the case is a shield made from ferromagnetic alloys specifically chosen by Rolex; this acts as a Faraday cage. The Rolex Milgauss was developed in 1954 specifically for scientists working in laboratories and research centres who required a timepiece that wouldn’t stop working when they were subjected to levels above 100 gausses. Rolex tested at CERN, European Organization for Nuclear Research, and the Milgauss was born. They are specifically designed to work in areas of up to 1,000 Gauss’. Its name was created from the French word Mille, meaning thousand and gauss, which is the unit of a magnetic field. Rolex, in 1988, decided to discontinue the Milgauss. It wasn’t until 2007 that they decided to reintroduce three models of the ref. 116400. A lug-to-lug length of 48.5mm and a thickness of 13mm gives the watch an impressive wrist presence, and the gentle curve of the case ensures a comfortable fit. On the right side is a TwinLock screw-down crown. The polished bezel holds a flat sapphire crystal above a black dial and has an outer minute track with orange plots at the hour, and applied baton indexes with the larger batons at 3, 6, and 9 filled with Super-LumiNova marking the hours. Broad baton hands are coated in lume in the same way as the indexes. The iconic orange lightning bolt sweeps around the dial. At 12 o’clock, the applied Rolex coronet with text precisely printed and the orange Milgauss that stands out against the black dial. At 6 o’clock, text signifying its chronometer certification. On the reverse, a coin-edged screw-down case back with Rolex Oyster Milgauss engraved around the edge, inside a Rolex automatic Cal. 3131, 31 jewels, 28,800 beats per hour, this movement has a magnetic alloy Parachrom-Blu hairspring, resistant to magnetic fields and up to 10 times more resistant to shocks. The watch comes paired with its polished and brushed 20mm Rolex stainless steel Oyster bracelet with an Oysterclasp and 5mm Easylink extension; 11 links are provided, one short of a full bracelet, and comes with its Rolex presentation box and card.
Personal Note
The Rolex Milgauss is a model that has gone through many iterations and is constantly speculated upon for new releases, this now discontinued reference 116400 feels to me to be one of the more bold designs from the brand with the crazy lightning bolt seconds hand. If you are in the market for a Rolex but want something that stands out from the crowd and offers a unique design, this Milgauss is the one for you, add it to your collection today!
The Brand
In 1905, German-born Hans Wilsdorf and his brother-in-law Alfred Davis set up a company in London that imported Swiss movements, which were installed in British cases and sold to jewellers who put their names on the dials. Recognising the potential for their brand, Wilsdorf created the brand name Rolex in 1908. In 1910, a Rolex became the first wristwatch to carry the Swiss Certificate of Chronometric Precision, awarded by the Official Watch Rating Centre in Bienne, Switzerland. Demand for Rolex watches rose swiftly, and British taxes on the Swiss movements Rolex used prompted Wilsdorf to move the business to Geneva, Switzerland, in 1919. With production costs lowered, Wilsdorf quickly set out to solve the age-old problem of moisture and dust entering a watch case and damaging the movement. The Rolex watchmakers came up with a fully sealed watch case, which Wilsdorf named the Oyster and released to an appreciative audience in 1926. In 1931, Rolex introduced the first automatic winding wristwatch, giving it the legendary name Oyster Perpetual. In 1945, they released the Datejust. The Datejust was the first watch to have the date jump instantaneously at midnight. The 1950s saw a whole lot of releases, such as the Air-King (1958), the Explorer (1953), the Submariner (1953), the GMT Master (1955), the Day-Date (1956), the electromagnetic field resistant Milgauss (1956), the Lady-Datejust (1957) and the first Deep Sea model (1960). Wilsdorf’s death in 1960 saw ownership of Rolex S.A. (a collection of sub-companies) passed to the Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, which was founded by Wilsdorf in 1945, the mission of which is simply to sustain Rolex S.A. indefinitely.