Long the oddball of Rolex’s professional watches, the modest “scientist’s watch” has found itself making headlines this year, all without really doing much.
“As far back as I can remember, the Milgauss has always been an outlier,” says Andrew Shear, a dealer who’s been specializing in vintage Rolex for 20-plus years, “an oddity that I wanted to learn more about. It’s always been very difficult to obtain, especially in great condition.” He pointed to the original 6541 as particularly difficult to obtain in good, original condition, complete with the lightning bolt hand, original rotating bezel, and honeycomb dial, all in a thick case with factory-original bevels. It measures 38mm best replica watches, placing it in a sweet spot right between the Explorer or Daytona and the Submariner or GMT.
The 6541 examples that have appeared on the modern market all have case numbers starting with 412, leading collectors to believe that production was extremely limited, probably to just a batch of a couple hundred watches. Most ads for the 6541 were placed in scientific journals or periodicals, with Rolex touting its anti-magnetism and bezel for timing as perfect for professionals.
In 2017, a 6543 sold at Christie’s for CHF 271,500. As this example shows, the 6543 started to establish the Milgauss as a distinct reference – especially with that gorgeous black honeycomb dial webbed with metal for additional magnetic resistance – but it also has a rotating bezel that’s most associated with early Submariners. Christie’s also sold another 6543 in 2012, but this one has a bezel from the later 6541 and replacement hands from the even later 1019. If a 6543 in all-original condition ever appeared again on the market – and it’s possible it won’t, that’s how few there really are – there’s no telling what it could sell for.
After the 6543, Rolex introduced the 6541 luxury replica watches, which is where the Milgauss really came into its own: it kept the honeycomb dial, but also got a bezel design of its own, divided into six sections. According to Rolex ads, this bezel, “calibrated into sixty divisions, serves as a simple stopwatch or for timing different operations.” Maybe it wasn’t the most functional thing ever, but it’s cool and weird and gave the Milgauss a look all its own. The other instantly recognizable trait is that lightning bolt seconds hand, totally unlike anything Rolex has done on any other model.
Soon, it’d become known for being worn by scientists at Rolex’s Geneva neighbor, CERN. It was among a wave of other anti-magnetic watches introduced in the ’50s, including the Omega Railmaster, Patek ref. 3417, Jaeger-LeCoultre Geophysic, and IWC Ingenuier. The first Milgauss, reference 6543, followed by the 6541, are some of the rarest and most mysterious watches in all of vintage Rolex.
“To me, the Milgauss 6541 and 6543 are the most elusive models in Rolex tool watch history,” Jasper Lijfering of Amsterdam Vintage replica watches for sale said. Jasper’s long called the early Milgauss his personal grail – his shop currently holds a 6541 in its “museum,” and he owns another example personally.
Rolex produced the first reference 6543 for just a couple of years in the mid-’50s. The 6543 is really more a proof of concept – most believe Rolex produced less than a couple hundred, and only a handful have appeared on the modern market. It has an odd lug width between 19mm and 20mm, which meant it didn’t fit a traditional Oyster bracelet. Inside, it used a Faraday cage made of soft iron to protect the automatic movement inside from magnetism, the same approach that Rolex would use in later vintage Milgauss models.