At the time, most watches were resistant to about 50 to 100 gauss – about the strength of a refrigerator magnet. As scientists, engineers, and technicians worked around magnetic fields, they often found that the movement of their watches were bent or snapped; or damaged altogether. Rolex sought to solve this problem and created the Milgauss. Tested by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), the world’s pre-eminent particle physics laboratory, the Milgauss was found to be resistant to magnetic fields up to 1,000 gauss. Its name was derived from French mille meaning thousand and gauss, the unit of a magnetic field. |