Television presenter James May spotted wearing a Rolex

James May, co-presenter of The Grand Tour and former Top Gear stalwart, was recently spotted wearing a Rolex Milgauss reference 116400 with a white dial — a choice that speaks quietly but confidently to a collector sensibility that favours substance over spectacle.

The Rolex Milgauss 116400 was reintroduced in 2007 after the original line had been discontinued since 1988, and it landed with immediate impact. Built on the calibre 3131 — a self-winding movement with a paramagnetic Parachrom hairspring, offering exceptional resistance to magnetic interference — the watch carries genuine anti-magnetic architecture rather than merely borrowing the aesthetic. The case measures 40mm in Oystersteel, with a flat sapphire crystal and a unidirectional rotating bezel. The white dial variant presents the iconic orange lightning-bolt seconds hand against an exceptionally clean background, making it arguably the most restrained and wearable iteration in the Milgauss family.

The Milgauss has always occupied an interesting position in Rolex's lineup. Historically favoured by scientists and engineers at institutions like CERN — for whom the 1,000-gauss magnetic resistance was a practical requirement rather than a marketing claim — it never achieved the mainstream recognition of the Submariner or Daytona. That relative obscurity is precisely what endears it to a certain breed of collector: someone who knows what the watch does and why it exists, and doesn't need the brand to announce itself loudly.

May's affinity for engineering and his well-documented interest in technology make the Milgauss 116400 a coherent fit. This is not a man who wears watches for Instagram. His choices tend toward the considered and the purposeful, and a white-dial Milgauss — technically accomplished, visually understated, historically interesting — fits that profile precisely.

On the secondary market, the reference 116400 in white dial trades at a modest premium over its last retail price, reflecting stable demand and limited supply following Rolex's discontinuation of the entire Milgauss line in 2023. That discontinuation has sharpened collector interest considerably, making May's example a shrewder acquisition than it might once have appeared.