Important Collectors’ Wristwatches, P...

Geneva, Hotel Du Rhone, Apr 02, 2006

LOT 345

Ref. 6541 ?Milgauss Brown Dial? Rolex, Oyster Perpetual ?Milgauss?, Superlative Chronometer, Officially Certified, Ref. 6541, case No. 412193. Made in 1958. Fine and extremely rare, water-resistant, lightning flash center-seconds, self-winding, stainless steel gentleman?s wristwatch with brown check-pattern dial and a stainless steel Oyster bracelet. Accompanied by a service letter from Rolex.

CHF 0 - 0

108 0 - 0

Sold: CHF 198,500

C. Three-body, polished and brushed, screwed-down case back and crown, anti-magnetic protecting cap. D. Brown with luminous round indexes and steel triangular indexes. Steel ?Dauphine? hands. M. Cal. 1066, rhodium plated, 25 jewels, straight line lever escapement, monometallic balance adjusted to temperatures and 5 positions, shock absorber, self-compensating Breguet balance-spring. Dial, case and movement signed. Diam. 38 mm. Thickness 12,5 mm. Approx. overall length 180 mm.


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Grading System
Grade: AAA

Excellent
Case: 3

Good
Movement: 3*

Good

Overhaul recommended, at buyer's expense
Dial: 3-01

Good

HANDS Original

Notes

This reference was launched on the Italian market in 1958. The present watch is one of the first to be made, and one of only three known examples with a brown dial. The reference 6541 was available with a graduated rotating black bezel or a polished bezel. For a note on the Milgauss references, see lot 276 of the Mondani Rolex sale.

Milgauss
The name 'Milgauss', combines 'Mil', meaning (a thousand), and 'Gauss', for the unit of measure of magnetism. A normal movement can withstand up to 70-80 Gauss; over that its working order is compromised. Most good watches resist magnetic fields of 60 to 70 Gauss, but the 'Milgauss' keeps its astounding precision in magnetic fields up to 1000 Gauss. Yet with its dial, ring and the cover of its movement in soft iron forming a Faraday cage, Rolex created a model which brilliantly solved the problem.

Carl Friedrich Gauss (1777 - 1855)
German astronomer, mathematician and physicist. Author of important works on celestial mechanics, geodesy, magnetism, electromagnetism and optics.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
English chemist and physicist, known for his pioneering experiments in electricity and magnetism. Many of his concepts, derived directly from experiments, such as lines of magnetic force, have become common ideas in modern physics.

Gauss
A magnetic induction unit, symbol g in the C.G.S. system.