The name: "Milgauss", combines "Mil", meaning "mille" (a thousand), and "Gauss", for the unit of measure of magnetism. A normal movement can withstand up to 70-80 Gauss, but above that its working order would be 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, far superior to many other watches. By embedding the movement in a soft iron protective cage-a true "Oyster"- Rolex created a model which brilliantly resolved the problem . Carl Friedrich Gauss, German Astronomer, Mathematician and Physicist (1777 - 1855). Author of important works on celestial mechanics, geodesy, magnetism, electromagnetism and optics. His modern conception of the abstract nature of mathematics allowed him to extend the field of the theory of numbers. He was the first to discover the non-Euclidean hyperbolic geometry. Gauss - magnetic induction unit and symbol g in the C.G.S. system, used by watchmakers to measure the characteristics of a balance-spring.