Rolex has long been associated with “tool” wristwatches, which originally were designed with a functional purpose in mind. From their collaboration with Pan American Airways for the GMT-Master dual time zone wristwatch, to the Submariner watch for professional deep-sea divers, these timepieces have captured the imagination of collectors and are today highly sought after in the international market. The Milgauss reference 1019 is another example of a Rolex sports model that today enjoys considerable prestige beyond its original intent.

The Milgauss line dates back to the 1954 reference 6541, the result of a collaboration between Rolex and the Conseil Européen de Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) with the aim of creating a timepiece designed to meet the needs of scientists and engineers working in a strongly magnetic environment. The final outcome was a watch which can withstand up to 1000 Gauss of magnetism. Hence its name: “Mille Gauss” meaning a thousand Gauss in French. Along with its companion piece the reference 6543, the two remained in production until the beginning of the 1960s when Rolex released the reference 1019.

Intriguingly, the present piece features a transitional configuration, with the luminous accents and half second divisions found on Mk II examples, but still retaining the faceted hands found on Mk I watches.
This variation appears to occur on few pieces in the early 6M serial number range - for example a black dial specimen no. 6’136’663 (sold by Phillips in Geneva in November 2023) features this same configuration, which can be explained by the need of Rolex to deplete the stock of faceted hands.