Watch Paparazzi

Entrepreneur Marco Tronchetti Provera spotted wearing Rolex

Marco Tronchetti Provera, chief executive and defining figure of the Pirelli Group for decades, was recently photographed wearing a Rolex Milgauss ref. 116400 in stainless steel with a white dial — a choice that reads as deliberately low-key against the more flamboyant options Rolex offers in the same line.

The Rolex Milgauss ref. 116400 returned to the catalogue in 2007 after an absence of roughly eighteen years, the last reference before the hiatus having been the 1019, discontinued around 1988. The 116400 houses the calibre 3131, a self-winding movement featuring a paramagnetic Parachrom hairspring and an Faraday cage integrated into the case architecture — engineering that allows the watch to withstand magnetic fields up to 1,000 gauss. The case measures 40mm in Oystersteel, fitted with a flat sapphire crystal in the standard reference, and carries a water resistance rating of 100 metres. The white dial, references internally as the base 116400, is paired with a smooth bezel and polished-brushed case finishing that reinforces the scientific instrument aesthetic the Milgauss has always traded on.

Among the 2007 relaunch trio — black dial, white dial, and the GV with its distinctive green sapphire crystal — the white dial occupies a peculiar collector position. It lacks the immediate visual drama of the orange lightning bolt seconds hand on black, or the proprietary green glass of the GV, whose manufacturing process is reportedly so complex that Rolex chose not to patent it. That restraint makes the white dial ref. 116400 something of a connoisseur's pick: recognisable to those who know it, invisible to those who don't.

Tronchetti Provera has led Pirelli through privatisations, strategic pivots, and international partnerships. The Milgauss — a tool watch conceived for physicists at CERN — carries an industrial and scientific pedigree that aligns naturally with the engineering culture of a global tyre manufacturer. It is not a dress watch, nor purely a sportsman's piece. It occupies a precise middle register, which appears to suit him well.

On the secondary market, the ref. 116400 in white dial trades at a modest premium over retail, remaining one of the more accessible current-generation Rolex references for collectors. Production of the entire Milgauss line was discontinued by Rolex in 2023, which has begun to firm up secondary prices across all variants. The white dial, previously overlooked, is quietly gaining ground.