The Rolex Milgauss has always been the model for watch collectors who don’t really consider themselves “Rolex people”. Its design has always been more outlandish than its counterpart, and its party piece – the internal anti-magnetic shield – isn’t a feature you can interact with or observe any more than you can interact with a diving bezel or chronograph complication. Although largely overlooked for much of its history, the replica Rolex Milgauss is a truly unique watch among the various models that make up the brand’s current catalog. Among Rolex’s offerings, it is one of the few models that can be easily picked out of a crowd and is undoubtedly recognizable from a reasonable distance – especially when we’re talking about the Rolex Milgauss Z-Blue.
After a long absence from the Rolex catalog, the Milgauss was reintroduced to the line in 2007, followed by this particularly interesting Z-Blue dial variant in 2014. The latter is what we’ll be looking at today, as it’s one of the most interesting and quirky Rolex models out there, and one of the ones that really turned the Milgauss from an underrated classic into one of the many models that you simply can’t get at the retail level without spending time on a rather long waiting list. In this guide, we’ll learn the history of this unique anti-magnetic fake Rolex watch that was designed for scientists, not athletes, and then examine all of the key features that have made the Rolex Milgauss Z-Blue a standout in the brand’s current catalog. So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look!
First introduced in 1956, the Milgauss was a revolutionary timepiece developed specifically for the scientific community. With the rise of industry and the increase in electricity in the 1950s, watchmakers were faced with a new set of challenges in dealing with magnetism. Many scientists and individuals working in power plants or laboratories were exposed to intense electromagnetic fields on a daily basis that would significantly disrupt the timekeeping of their traditional mechanical watches.
To help these professionals solve this new problem, Rolex created the Milgauss – a self-winding chronometer that can resist magnetic fields in excess of 1,000 gauss. As an important reference point, most “anti-magnetic” watches of the time could only withstand magnetic fields of 200 gauss. The Milguass thus represents a major leap forward in anti-magnetic watchmaking technology. If you are wondering where the name Milgauss comes from, it is actually a portmanteau of “mille”, which means one thousand in French, and “gauss”, which is the standard unit used to measure magnetic fields.
However, the Milgauss was discontinued in 1988, and when it was relaunched at Baselworld 2007, it was a completely different and thoroughly modern watch. This meant upgrading the model from the inside out – such as replacing the acrylic crystal of the new model 116400 with a synthetic sapphire crystal. 116400. Rolex even offered a green sapphire crystal on one of the new Milgauss replica watches – ref. 116400GV. In addition, the lightning-like seconds hand returned to the collection, this time in bright orange to match the various dial decorations of the new Rolex Milgauss watches.
Then in 2014, Rolex added a new blue dial to the Milgauss line – also known as Z-Blue. Not only did this completely subvert the look of the watch, giving it an unusual color appeal with the electric blue contrasting with the bright orange accents and green sapphire crystal, but it also helped to further distinguish this anti-magnetic watch line from the rest of the Rolex replica collection. With the Z-Blue dial, there was no way to ignore the Milgauss, and that’s where it started to go on its current trajectory of being completely unavailable at the retail level, trading on the pre-owned market for significantly more than its new price.